Morogoro

I'm now in Morogoro, a municipality (and region) located between D'Salaam and Dodoma. I'm at the language school located at the Lutheran Junior Seminary. I arrived yesterday afternoon after a four-hour bus trip from Dodoma. The bus trip was uneventful. It was uncomfortable, however. I had too much in my backpack which I had to keep on my lap because I couldn't fit it overhead. The bus driver kindly dropped me off at the front gate here.

Folks at the center have been very welcoming (you'll find in the course of reading this blog that this a theme in Tanzania!). My room is comfortable-- I'll post pictures soon (though I'm having trouble posting in general [that fibre optic cable can't come soon enough to Tanzania!]). It has a bed with mosquito netting, a nightstand, a built-in desk and built-in wardrobe, plus a couple of chairs. The mosquito netting is a requirement, of course, because of malaria. I'm told that the Jesuit novitiate was once located nearby but because so many novices were coming down with malaria they relocated it to its present location in Arusha where the elevation decreases the risk of malaria.

It's hot and humid here, but it cooled down nicely last night; and there was a very nice hard rain in the evening (I'm remembering what Bro. Vincent told me yesterday: "In the tropics rain + heat = green; you need both.") It is greener here than Dodoma, that's for certain.

Today will be quiet. I'm finally finishing Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette given to me by my friends Christopher and Rosario Baldwin -- the queen's just been arrested.

That's the scoop from these parts.