Hey everyone

I'm two weeks into my pre-service training (PST) home stay and things are great. My speaks absolutely no english, but they're awesome. My mama is 35 and has three kids, boys Alfred and patrick who are 16 and 3 and esther who is 8. Patrick is my boy, we're tight. My father hasn't been around, apparently he's been farming somewhere, but i'm not sure because of the language barrier. He'll be back Sunday though. My family's house is about what i expected, no running water or electricity, but we have fun together. They've had four previous PC volunteers as well (all guys) so nothing is really a surprise to them. My days have been pretty long and exhausting, getting up at 6:30 and taking kiswahili lessons all day until 5, but it's been worth it because my kiswahili even after 0nly two weeks is coming along and my group is really great.

I've had a few tastes of the local homebrew (fermented maize) and it was really good but super strong, so i took slow my first time. The local brews are really good, notably Safari and Kilimanjaro. We've been kept pretty busy though so there hasn't been much time for kicking back with beers, but once training is over time apparently will be a bit more time on our side.

I'm really getting excited to begin real Peace Corps work. This experience and the work that gets done really is in our hands and the possibilities for projects are endless. Peace Corps has strongly advised us that in our first three months at site that we take the time just to get to know the community and establish relationships before we think about taking on a project. I think it makes a lot of sense and i like their mentality.

Anyways, it's about time i got out of this po' dunk internet cafe... the people continue to be super nice and accomadating here and my group is great. I'm really happy to be here.

Here's my mailing address, i'd really enjoy anything any of ya'll would send:
(it'll change once i move to site at the end of august)

Justin Sullivan
P.O. Box 9123
Dar Es Salaam
Tanzania

Much love