A WHAT bit your hear?

So I am getting more and more confident with Swahili every day. And, of course, you all know that I'm an exceptionally classy human being. Both that confidence and that classiness took a serious blow the other day...

The other day, my 13 old neighbor came over the other day to braid my hair and to talk and to visit. After she finished braiding my hair, I was scratching my hear and she asked me (keep in mind, this is all in swahili), "are you trying to undo the braids". I wasn't trying to undo the braids, but my head was itchy. It was itchy because I hadn't washed my hair in 2 days. But I didn't think I needed to tell her this so I lied and said "my head is itchy because an mboo bit it". I was trying to say a mosquitobiyt it. Mbu means mosquito, but my neighbor just stared at me, obviously in shock. Apparently, it is very important to annunciate and say mbu because mbu and mboo mean two very different things. So, long story short: I just told a 13 year old girl that my head was itchy because a penis bit it. Classy Katie, classy. Now I know the difference between mboo and mbu. And I won't make that mistake again. I'm an idiot. Hopefully the girl understands my mistake, and doesn't think I'm this crazy weird American.

So for all of you who are anxiously waiting for pictures, good news is that I have many to post: from the Form 1 welcome dance and from my site. Bad news: internet cafe is down today and I'm using my friends modem internet, but since he needs to pay for internet by the byte, it's super expensive to post pictures, so I'm not going to post them today. Hopefully Tuesday, but this is Africa, no guarantees. Sorry.

Other than that, things are going well. Teaching is going. Slowly and surely. My students are a lot of fun, I've gotten someone to teach me how to cook, which is great. I'll come home and make everyone ugali...the traditional Tanzanian food: cornstarch and water. Yummy. Besides the occasional social faux-pais, my Swahili is improving. So things are good! Miss you all. Hopefully there will be some pictures up on Facebook by Tuesday, but we'll see!