Snow Day!

So today marks our first official snow day here in Tanzania.  While it didn't exactly snow here, we do have school off for two days in order to celebrate the end of Ramadan.  There was a bit of controversy about our days off due to the fact that the moon has to be sighted in order for Ramadan to officially end.  Apparently the moon was sighted in some places, but not in others.  We cleared up all the confusion this morning and told our teacher that we would be celebrating Ramadan today and tomorrow. 
I used today as a sort of "Sunday" to tie up loose ends, do some laundry, and work on some homework.  I finally washed my sheets!  Fortunately, the water came on for about an hour and I was able to do the laundry.  Unfortunately, however, I was unable to take a shower during that time. 
This afternoon was dedicated to cooking our Ramadan feast: eggplant with tomato and peanuts, fried chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, and hibiscus juice.  Right now I am taking a break from the kitchen after cooking for 3 hours.  Colleen and Nidal are in there right now cooking.  It's quite a struggle trying to find Sudanese food in Tanzania, and also cooking with only two burners!  I tasted the sweet potatoes and they are wonderful.  Fun fact of the day: sweet potatoes in Africa are white, not orange, and taste completely different from our sweet potatoes, but are still really sweet.  I also had some green pepper, tomato, avocado, and carrots that I purchased at the market and I was pleasantly surprised at how good they all tasted.  The carrot was sooo sweet! I don't know if it tasted so good because I haven't had one in such a long time, or if it was because carrots are better in Tanzania, but it was delicious.  The others are at dance class right now. They opted to take a 2 hour African dance class with one of the dance professors on campus and are working up an appetite for our feast.  Hopefully everything gets cooked on time and I'll let you know how it turns out!
Tomorrow we are going to the village museum in town in the morning, and then a church service in the afternoon.  I'll try to grab someone else's computer in the next few days so I can post some pics. Until then, kwa heri (Kwah Hairy-Goodbye!)
Erin