Ok...a day here at the University of Dar es Salaam begins very early. Although I have an alarm clock I have yet had to use it. I usually get out of bed between 7 and 8am to the song "Must Have Been love" by Roxette or possibly "California Love" by Tupac and Dr. Dre! So Yeah, I get out of bed and have breakfast of peanut butter and plum jam sandwich....which...is good 'cause I make it myself. Then I may get a shower if there is water available. Get dressed and walk to class.

Each day is a different class lineup (I never can spell schedual right...is that right?) So classes are anywhere from 9am until 6pm, and believe me they are spread out, not like my American school where say Psyc 101 is 10 to 11 Monday, Wednesday, Friday or something. Anyway, I go to class in the morning and around lunch time I try to go back to my room and cook viazi or wali and mboga (potatoes or rice and veggies). Then it is back usually to classes.

Usually in the afternoon I check e-mail and go to the library if I have to. Then I'll go back to the room and start cooking dinner, which is usually rice and veggies (what I had for lunch) or sometimes I make myself go to the cafeteria to eat kuku na chipsi (chicken and fries) but I don't like eating there because at least in my room I know the food I am eating is thoroughly cooked!

Anyhow, after I eat dinner it is usually time to look at some class notes and rewrite them into my journals and junk. Also I may go see friends; right now the friends I go to see are wazungus (whites) which are cool, but they are leaving in December so I am trying to hang out with them for a lil' bit. My roommate of course is Tanzanian and as well I hang out with a few Tanzanian guys, but more then less it is actually a hard thing to do to drop in on Tanzanians because it turns easily into a multi hour visit which is hard to break away from. Anyway....so I visit people, comeback to the room and maybe read a book and go to bed anywhere from 11pm until 1am. That is after I run to the bathroom to see if there is any water, 'cause if there is I'm taking a shower!

Saturdays are different. Like today I wake up the same time and come to the computer lab hoping nobody is waiting in line so I can get in. Now there are five computers that have e-mail, which is nice. And if you come real early you can stay on for more than 17 minutes (like I am today). So yeah, Saturdays are [devoted to the] computer, library, lunch, maybe go to market. ...There is a small library room that opens on Saturday from 4 to 6pm which has novels and books like I would expect to find at a garage sale in America. So far I have read: A Walk Across America, The Bean Tree, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, A Gathering of Old Men, Jurrasic Park, and now The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That (even if you don't think [so]) is impressive for me--a person who would have rather watched tv or listened to DMB [The Dave Matthews Band] or anything but read.

Anyway, that's it...sometimes we go to a place called UDASA which is on campus and get kuku na chipsi and beers. The beers here are powerful compared to USA [beer] and it doesn't take much. I've kinda given beer up for the time being just because it is expensive (in this economy) and makes me sick. I probably make others sick when I am drunk! So yeah one beer equals three cokes [in price], so you know......

Sundays...pretty much like Saturday, but sometimes I go downtown to the Lutheran Church (I'm not Lutheran) but it is nice place. Or sometimes actually Sundays are good beach days. That's pretty much a day! --John