Okay, now my cold is closer to almost gone! Friday I did attend one of the English classes and assist the teacher in conducting discussions on five topics. Just like last year's beginning English class, only a few of the students spoke. Many were too shy to exhibit their English in front of the class and the visiting American. I've now seen a half dozen of the students I got to know last year, some at the school and a couple of them around town. It's really fun to see them and say hello. One is working as a waiter at one of the fancy hotels, and his English is great now. Another, I ran into as she was going for a job interview at a hotel. I hope she got the job!

The local lawyer I hired turned out to be totally worthless. So now I'm back to being wracked with anxiety over the visa process. I just don't know how things will turn out.

As to the threatened nightly blackouts, they haven't happened at all. As a matter of fact, electrical service has been much more reliable since they issued the threat!

Another fun outdoor evening eating experience in the Arusha city park. You could call it the Tanzanian version of a food court. We parked at one end of a small park, with dozens of other cars. At the other end of the park, there are a selection of various barbecue stands, each with chicken, beef, or goat. You pick one and order meat, then add a starchy side of rice, ugali (stiff cornmeal mush), or grilled bananas. Yes, bananas can be a starch! In Tanzania, they have a bunch (get it??) of different kinds of banana. Some are soft and sweet and quite small. The ones they grill or fry are large, not sweet, and very dry and starchy. We walked to a beef stand, but on the way passed a grill full of whole chickens, which looked good. When I saw all the assorted parts of rib cages at the beef grill, I changed my mind and went back for chicken. We sat at a plastic table again. For hand washing, a waitress came around with a tin kettle full of warm water and some powdered dish soap and poured the water over our hands into a plastic basin. The chicken was really good. It was cut in more miscellaneous pieces than we do at home, and also was a smaller, tougher bird. They always bring around toothpicks after you eat, and usually you need them. K2 pointed out a nearby police station as we drove into the park, but said that this place had been hit by robbers once a few months ago, anyway.