The weather has finally fallen into a recognizable pattern. The mornings are cloudy, then the afternoon is clear and hot, and in the evening I can stand under brilliant starlight and watch the lightning slowly move in from the northeast. Around midnight or a bit after it rains torrentially for about half an hour and then occassionally for the rest of the night. Watching the storms come in is interesting because first we see them, the lightning illuminates the clouds, from very far away. An hour or so later we can start hearing them. Another hour after that the wind and rain arrive and we feel and even smell them.

Graduation was held two days ago. The school has a central parade grounds and tents and tarps were brought in and many chairs. The official entourage sits on a small covered stage in the front. People seem to be perfectly willing to sit through formality for about an hour, but then they become board. It did not help that the guest speaker had the tone of a priest reciting the eucharistic prayers. After the leaving certificates were distributed it was mostly a free for all as people starting arranging tables and chairs on the grounds for the small feasts they had brought.

For several weeks now we have been on what in Americans call 'rolling blackouts'. First the power cuts out in the morning and about an hour later the water pressure disappears (takes electricity to run a pump). About 7 in the evening I hear a cheer which means the electricity has returned and about an hour later the water pressure returns. This is about half the week, the other half life goes on as normal.

You may be hearing about severe drought in East Africa. This is more true in some places than in others, but certainly there are many people who are suffering. It is also true that many of these governments, not all, have substantial financial resources at their disposal. I have been told repeatedly by Tanzanians that Africans (they almost always refer to themselves as Africans rather than Tanzanians) need to be 'pushed' is the way a fellow teacher put it to me the other day. I took his meaning to be that they will shout quite loudly for assistance before using their own resources. In fact they are far more clever than that, they have people such as Bono doing their shouting for them. Hopefully these new rains will keep us out of the melee.

Yesterday a student asked me if I had the flu. I said no and asked her why she thought I was ill. "Your nose is red sir," was her reply. I explained that white skin, when exposed overmuch to the sun, becomes red. She thought this was very odd and suggested I wear a hat. I told her that I did wear a hat but my nose is long. They have a joke that when a white person drinks tea (the tea cups are always filled to the brim) their noses are so long that they can't drink the tea without getting their noses in it. This they find very funny. But it points out that in general, for reasons I don't understand, white people have longer noses, while Africans have flatter noses. She suggested that I go back to America where the Sun is not so fierce, but later said that I ought to stay as they will not have enough physics teachers when I leave. And, she added "you are very charming."