Mt. Rungwe, Baking, and Practicals

I live in the foothills of Mt. Rungwe, one of the bigger mountains in
southern Tanzania. A week and a half ago, I climbed it! I went with a
big group of students – between 50 and 100 – last Thursday night. It
gets pretty hot here during the day these days, so someone decided it
was best to start at midnight and hike all night. I wasn't really sure
what to expect, but mountain climbing is my cup of tea so I showed up
at midnight.
I ended up talking with a couple of my students that speak English
really well – Ezekiel and Josephat - about the existence of ghosts,
if the Free Masons are all in on a secret plot to take over the world
(they, like all Tanzanians, are convinced this is very much true),
favorite movies, and my unrequited love for Katy Perry. Our random
conversations actually sort of reminded me of hiking in Boy Scouts
when I was in high school.
So at around 4am, I was informed, for some reason, we were stopping on
the side of the mountain and sleeping for two hours until the sun came
up and then continuing to the top. I still have no idea what, if any,
the rationalization was for that decision. I hadn't gotten the memo
about this sleeping arrangement, so I lay down in a pile of leaves,
propped my feet against a tree so I wouldn't slide down the side of
the slope, and tried to stop shivering and sleep. It was a silly
situation. After finally falling asleep, I was woken by a very, very
strange event. In my half stupor, I thought I heard someone sliding
down the mountain and a bunch of people running. We were very much on
the edge of a steep slope, so what I first thought was someone had
fallen asleep and started sliding, and everyone else started running
after him to make sure he was okay. I didn't actually hear anyone say
anything, just one guy screaming and instantly a bunch of people
running away from me. Very quickly. Like it was maybe 5-10 seconds
between being asleep in a crowd of people to being the only person
within 50 feet of me. Apparently, no one actually started sliding down
the mountain. The guy screaming had a nightmare about zombies, woke
up, started screaming, and ran down the mountain. Everyone else,
without asking why he was running and screaming, just started running
after him. It was so, so strange.
Despite the zombie scare, we successfully made it to the summit a
little after sunrise! It was pretty cool – Mt. Rungwe is volcanic and
you can get right up to the edge of the crater and look down. We
finally made it back to school a little after noon, a little over 12
hours after we left. I slept quite well that night.
What else? I've become a master baker. Well no, that's not true, but
I've attempted baking quite a bit. Today I made chocolate pancakes for
breakfast and some sandwich bread. Just finished a very tasty peanut
butter and banana sandwich! I've also made rolls, soft pretzels,
bagels, and banana bread. I bake on a "Tanzanian oven," a Dutch oven
like setup using charcoal. I have a fireplace, so I can cook inside.
I'm slowly getting the hang of it meaning less burnt bread and less
burnt fingers, which is nice.
In school, I've been trying to do labs (or as they call 'em here,
practicals). I did one yesterday finding the specific heat capacity of
Tanzanian shilling coins (about 400J/kg K, if you were wondering). It
was the first practical I've done that involved anything potentially
dangerous – Bunsen burners. Bunsen burners, for those that don't know,
are those things you hook up to a gas pipe with a flexible hose and
create a little heat source – somewhere between a candle and a
blowtorch. Anyway, I was dumb and didn't do much of a safety talk
besides telling students not to mess with the Bunsen burners. Ah,
mistake. Somehow, a student managed to open one of the gas valves not
attached to a Bunsen burner and light it, creating a three foot flame
thrower. I think I better start doing more serious safety talks.

Okay, bedtime. TTYL.