Gettin' Organized!

My mother-in-law got me the coolest gift for Christmas: a new P-touch!  I'm a big fan of being organized; I mean, how else do you find anything?  Our junk drawer has been overflowing and caked with gross leaky pens and melted cough drops with rubber bands stuck in them and for way too long.  And let's not forget to mention the cabinets stuffed with rags, shopping bags, tissue paper, and gift bags falling out every time we open them only to fail in finding the scissors or tape.  But no more!  I only wish I had taken "before" pictures!  Thanks, Victoria, for knowing what I needed more than I did! :)

Mzungu in Zanzibar!

 

On our first night in Zanzibar, we went to the local outdoor food court for dinner.  It was a lively setting right on the water and the food displays were beautiful.  We got a plateful of fish from our first friend, pictured on the next page, and within minutes of sitting down to eat we were approached by three 14 year-old boys who wanted to practice their English with us.   Not 2 minutes into the conversation, the boys invited us to their village.  We had to explain to them that in our culture, we don't go to stranger's homes.  I was pretty embarrassed to admit it, but we wanted them to understand why we couldn't immediately say yes.  But sure enough, after about an hour of great conversation, we agreed to meet up with them the next day to walk the 45 minutes to their village.  Mzungu is the local word for "white person".  It is not a pejorative term, most of the time, but it is ubiquitous.