Yes, I have been back in Tanzania for several weeks. No I have not posted a blog during that time. A lot goes on when you first get back and I find the older I get the harder it is to catch up with it all. So I will be doing another large blog with lots of items to include inside of it in an effort to keep my audience up to date (all 4 of you).

Rainy season was a little late (normally late March through end of mid May) but it has arrived and it has been a heavy rain type of season. It is always best when the season is longer and the rains come regularly and are a nice soaking rain. If you ever lived around farmers you know that they are never happy with the weather and especially with the rain. I have found myself getting into that mode as well. A short rain season does not cool things off very much. A long rain season means your clothes will never be dry again. Heavy rains damage the roads which is hard on the car. Of course nice saturating rains are best for the crops if I take a minute to think about somebody else being happy.

So we are having heavy rains on a consistent basis which means it is difficult to dry your clothes on the clothes line. It also means lots of clouds and difficulty charging a solar power system so I typically only have about 3 hours of power for my laptop a day. On the positive side we have some grass growing and the temperatures are a lot lower. We have been in the mid to upper 80s every afternoon and nights are typically low 70s. I actually unpacked my afghan last night to cover my feet and legs while I slept. The hardest part of this are the floods over the road between Msitu wa Tembo and TPC sugar plantation. They upgraded the roads last year and built them up but river crested them again and now we have areas that are difficult to pass. In fact my last trip to town I barely made it through the largest area of standing water.

This is the biggest but there are about 4 areas that are difficult to drive through in my car. This is the one that I could feel my tires lose traction about halfway through. Fortunately I have the old driving rule about don’t change anything, keep your tires straight and don’t break or accelerate just let your inertia help you drive through and it worked. But I probably will not be headed to town for the next week or two.

The kids at school love it this time of year though they are all cold in the morning while I am still in short sleeves. Speaking of the kids, they are all happy and being kids like normal. Nothing really changed while I was gone. I have my morning line up for hugs from the preschoolers before they head back to class after porridge time. The government is distributing mosquito nets again this rainy season. All of our students got a net to go over their bed.

I am not sure if I mentioned that Buttercup the dog was pregnant while I was here during the first quarter. She gave birth to a large litter just before I left. Upon returning I was looking forward to playing with all the puppies, but I found out all but one had died. Seth said it was a dog sick with rabies that killed them but he is prone to exaggeration. Regardless I was heartbroken especially after seeing Buttercup who was emaciated and could barely stand on her own power. This despite giving them a new large bag of dog food that should have lasted the couple of weeks that I was gone.

This picture is after about a week of feeding her handfuls of dog food everyday. She is starting to show some appetite for food again and is walking and showing some happiness but she has a long way to go. I am certain after meeting the surviving puppy that Max the families other dog is the father because the color markings are almost identical.

So everyday I have all three of them underfoot seeking attention, water and food. Max is actually very healthy. Buttercup has sores caused from losing all her muscle and fat. The puppy who I think will be named cutie pie obviously has worms. Anyone with a potential home remedy to get rid of them please let me know since there is no vet around. Fair warning the rest of the photos will be cuteness overload.