I started writing this on Wednesday night, and never got around to finishing it until now!

Today was Wednesday, which means I was strictly forbidden from answering my phone or doing anything other than LSE work, because I have to go back and take exams in 3 months and I have a TON to do before then, and also because I think the mosquitoes here have been sucking out my brains along with my blood. Or maybe it's just being a mom? I adore my kids beyond all reason but they are SO. MUCH. WORK. I'm aware that this isn't news to anyone. I'm just so busy trying to stay far enough ahead that I don't fall flat on my face when Tanzania strikes - like, you know, this morning, SURPRISE! No water! - that nothing seems to stick in my head for more than a few minutes. So for instance tonight we have to find a way to wash Zawadi and Saimoni's school socks, which we have to rinse out every night because they only get one pair, with no running water. This could be interesting. I won't even mention the toilet situation except to say that not having running water makes squat toilets make a LOT more sense.

Now I understand why Pray is so obsessed with maji

Right. So. Schoolwork. I'm writing a policy paper about reforming adoption procedures in Tanzania, so you know, nothing I care about or anything. It's been fascinating to read all the papers around it, especially the ones with regressions trying to draw some type of systematic conclusions about factors that affect adoption and orphan care. I guess I am an LSE-er after all - just don't ask me what the hell a z-score is for another week, until I've had a chance to stuff it into my brain and hope it doesn't fall out again until after exams are over. Trying to do schoolwork from Tanzania makes me feel the same way I do when I've been speaking Swahili for 5 hours straight and it's getting late and I didn't sleep well the night before, and my brain just decides that it's full, will not process any more information, thank you and goodnight. I still love the content but I am so, so, so, SO done with formal schooling after this. I swear I will never voluntarily sit another exam again as long as I live, so help me Flying Spaghetti Monster. It's books for me from here on out.

Anyway, on my parents' extremely strict orders, I basically just worked on my policy paper today. I'm on a medicine for a recurrent parasite that has been bothering my stomach and head a lot, though, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. It really just seems unreasonable for me to sit the LSE exams, they patently were not designed to be studied for while dealing with parasites and water outages! But I need the damn degree, so I have to at least try. The LSE (and British) system is really ridiculous - you have "good fails" and "bad fails", anything above a 70 is considered a merit, above 80 is a distinction. So it's tough enough on your self esteem already when you've grown up in the US system with straight As (ok, straight Bs when I was bored, straight As when I put in effort). I still remember the trauma of my first C in middle school, and now I'm even supposed to consider getting a failing grade good, and a 90 essentially unattainable? Hmph. But whatever, as long as I get at least a "good fail" I will still graduate with my degree, and I legitimately could not care less about anything beyond that. At least that's what I keep telling myself, although that stupid inner perfectionist is trying really hard to disagree.

... That was as far as I got on Wednesday, before the little monsters came home and kept me busy for the rest of the afternoon. They're now napping, water and power are back on after 4 days of no water and 2 of extremely iffy electricity. THANK GOD, I was kind of losing my mind. But of course now, in typical life-in-Tanzania fashion, I have a recurrence of a parasite infection that, let's just say, is no fun at all. Last time I tried a much stronger medicine to try to get rid of it, but the side effects were too severe, so I had to stop before the course was complete. Luckily, a pharmacy in town had some alternative meds that might get rid of it, finally, without incapacitating me completely in the process. Ah, Tanzania. It's a really, really good thing you're so ridiculously good looking, because you are also a massive pain in the ass.

Photo my amazing cousin took on safari, 2013

Zanzibar 2013

Me and hubs pre-wedding, summer 2013 (Obviously the water had been out for a while then too, judging by my hair...)