Off to Africa

Hello all! It's been a couple years since I've written here. But, this is my Adventure's Abroad blog, and since I hadn't been abroad in a while, there was really no reason to write here. But I'm heading off to my 4th continent on Thursday, so have taken the liberty to inform you all about what the heck I'm up to this time.

Where in Africa? Why?

Ok. So I'm skipping the country on Thursday heading to a new world (for me) to spend 3.5 weeks in Mtwara, Tanzania, where I'll visit my best friend from high school, Kristi, who is in the Peace Corps there. She's staying in a village in the Southeastern corner of the country, and is teaching English to kids, educating about HIV/AIDs, and is working on some permaculture projects. Other than the kids who speak a little bit of English, I don't think I'll be able to communicate much with the villagers other than making gestures and faces- ha haa. But Kristi's been there for about 10 months now, and speaks Kiswahili well enough, I think. I'm just looking forward to seeing Kristi, taking a much needed break from books and word documents, and getting over the culture shock of such a different place. There, my shower water bucket-carrying techniques won't be for saving water and sculpting my guns as is here in the desert of Arizona, but will be used out of necessity in the village with no water conveyance infrastructure. This experience will be quite the eye-opener, I think.

After those few weeks, I'll head to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 2 months to do my summer fieldwork for my masters research. I'll be studying the farmers who use highly polluted water to irrigate their crops because there is very little water treatment, and the ways in which they work to safeguard their interests (i.e. mitigate health risks and maintain their livelihoods).

Here's a little something related to the topic:
http://www.gadaa.com/AkakiRiver.html

Since I'm leaving in a couple days, I better get back to finishing up the billions of pages of final papers to write. But more on my research and travel plans to come.

Loves to all.