Happy Holidays!

Christmas and New Year's would be difficult without family and friends, but I am lucky enough to have a group of friends here in Tanzania who make me feel very welcome and at home. Thus, my first Christmas away from home was wonderful. I spent Christmas day in Arusha with my friend Angella learning how to make chipati, a traditionally Indian/East African dish that is like a dense tortilla, served with stew. The chipati-making process is long and arduous. Thus, while making chipati, we talked and laughed at how bad I was!

New Year's was nice. I thought about how strange it was that I was ringing in the New Year 8 hours earlier than everyone at home, but I spent it with my wonderful new group of friends! Here's a picture!

The research is going well. It is frustrating in a way to not be able to get your point across at times because of the language barrier. But, it is really exciting to actually see my project come to fruition. I like that part a lot! I am meeting a ton of new, interesting people trying to do something good for their country and I get to ask their opinion about things that mean a lot to me. I am interviewing a huge gender equity NGO tomorrow and I am super excited!