The Homestay continues.....

Man it seems like everytime I come on here something new happens! haha =) Well it's been a little easier to communicate with my homestay family, but still struggling with the language barrier. We do about 5 hours of swahili a day so one class is like 2 weeks of school, it's awesome! On Satruday me and two other people climbed up this mountain that is behind my house. Tanzania doesn't mess around with switchbacks, haha, it was about a 80% grade straight up! The view from the top was amazing! You could see all of Bangata from there. I swear if I dindn't know any better I would think I was in the Amazon Rain Forest. Everything is so green! The way down was a blast. None of us had any type of traction on our shoes so instead of hiking down it was more like a slide down the whole way. I felt like I was on a roller coaster! I got some good video with my camera though! It was crazy, there were Tanzanian kids yelling, A LOT of dust all over the place and us sliding. At the bottom of the mountain we all were caked with dirt even our teeth. I came home and my mama freaked. She brought out a bucket and told me to shower, haha =) I helped mama Koko milk the cow on Saturday, which was really cool. I've never milked a cow before, haha =) Yesterday another group of us hike to a waterfall. It was so sweet. We hiked about 20 mins through thick forest and it opened up into this beautiful waterfall! We jumped in and swam in it for about 15 mins, but out of no where little Tanzania kids started throwing rocks at us and yelling MZUNGU (that means white person in swahili, you get that A LOT here), haha. And when I say rocks that's an understatement. These rocks were legit boulders rocks. We ran out of the forest as fast as we could. Everyone made it out safe though! haha =) We are staying in Bangata until Saturday and then we make our way to Tarengerie National Park. Apparently because of the season that's where all of the wildlife is. Our acadmic director said at night you can feel the animals breath go by your tent, SO STOKED! I'm in Arusha town right now, and as always its crazy. Here in Tanzania pedestrians don't have the right of away so you really have to watch were you step. I don't want a fourth back surgurey, haha just kidding mom and dad =) Academically speaking, because this is study abroad, haha, I am trying to choose my proposal for my Independent Study Project (ISP) we do the month of November. Basically you pick a topic that interest you, it could be anything, and you go off and put together an ISP. It's actually pretty intense. It's a 25 day period and you are expected to write and give a presentation on your research. Some stuff actually gets published! I am choosing between two things: I will look at the Burhundi/Rwanda Refugees living in Western Tanzania, Kigoma, or I will look at this organization called Flying Doctors based in Arusha. They are basically an EMT/Ambulance, but as the name implies they do this through planes. Both would be incredible, but it just depends which one is more logistically possible. Ihaven't been able to upload any pictures yet because the internet is so dang slow, but I actually found a place that the internt is decent speed so I will attempt next time! The classes, people, scenery and animals are awesome I want to be able to share it with everyone! I really miss all of you back home and I wish you could be here too! Talk to you soon!