Its Better on the Other Side

2/4/2011

I’m in Africa. I just can’t believe it. I don’t know that I’ll ever properly adjust to the knowledge that I am IN Tanzania right now. I am currently in bed in a hotel in Arusha, Tanzania. Arusha is a city/town, even though it really doesn’t look like much in the dark of night, at the base of Mount Meru. Another large mountain really close to Kilimanjaro and probably why no one has ever heard of it before. Our hotel had a gorgeous view of Meru and I got some photos with the last remaining battery power of my camera. We got here around 8pm last night and had a wonderful dinner. I believe most of the food was local that we were served last night, but it was so good and so normal looking. There was rice, vegetables, fries: but they didn’t taste like french fries and I’m not sure they were even made from potatoes but they tasted delicious, chicken wings that were so yummy and fried fish. So far I have not drank the local water, but I have showered in it. The shower in the hotel was SO COLD!! I took a shower after my roommate Christina (we got bunked together in the hotel) and I could hear all the other students showering down the hallway before I got in so I think all the hot water had been used up. That was a major disappointment and my shower, even if it was my first in three and a half days, was a fast one. In the shower I tried to make an effort to not swallow any water, but I’m sure some got in. So far no harm yet, but I’m going to stick with the really good Kilimanjaro water we have been drinking that is large and bottled.

Now at the Moyo Hill site for SFS in Tanzania: We left Arusha at 8am and arrived here a little before 11am. The drive here was unbelievable. The buses or Dala Dala have the funniest names written on them. My favorite I'm now using as the title of this post. Everything in Africa is just so different from back home, watching the people, driving in the traffic, eating the food, and seeing the animals is just so cool. On the drive we saw a Giraffe (or Twiga in Swahili) eating from the trees 20ft from the road, SO COOL!! Then higher up when we had an amazing view of Lake Manyara national park and the actual lake itself, what is crossing the road? BABOONS (Nyani, but don’t pronounce the n)!!! They seem to be abundant like squirrels here and the locals certainly didn’t care that they were in the road but our car stopped and took pictures. At this point my camera had truly died so I’m going to have to remember (please remind me someone) to steal other people’s photos of today. We don’t have our checked bags at the moment because they were picked up at the Nairobi airport and are being driven to Tanzania, but they had to wait for the other 19 students to arrive to get their luggage so it will arrive later. I just logged onto facebook for the first time in 5 days. I feel so disconnected from the world, I’ve been writing my blogs on my computer in anticipation for having internet. The fact that I can’t text is surreal, as all my friends who know me, I am ALWAYS on my phone. I am really enjoying not being on my phone, but I keep going to check it and then its not in my pocket. Currently I am sitting in the gazebo/tree house esq/resting spot with other people all of us so happy to have internet access. This spot allows me the entire view of the field site, it gets all the wind and is just so nice. I’ll make sure to post pictures once I have my camera charger and can upload my photos. Later today, around 4pm, we are going to go play soccer with the primary school next door. And even though I am not that great at soccer I am excited to meet cute little children. We all have been trying to learn as much Swahili as possible so maybe I’ll get to practice saying hello when I play. There is so much to learn! Most of the staff doesn’t speak English and only speaks Swahili so we really have to step it up and learn the language, but they are all so nice that I can’t help but want to speak to them. They think we are so silly and are endlessly amused, to our benefit, by our horrible efforts. To say “My name is,” you say Jina laguni Julie. But I keep saying languini and then everyone just laughs including the staff. And then the word to say welcome is Karibu, and most people pronounce it Caribou which is wrong but hilarious. I know how to say sorry, fork, what is the word, cat, thank you, hello, welcome, my name is, giraffe, elephant, hyena, rhino, lion, buffalo, monkey/baboon, and bus. I’m trying really hard to learn quickly so that I can actually speak to the locals and understand them. Its difficult LOL. We’ve all decided that when the other 19 kids get here we are only going to introduce ourselves in Swahili. We’ll see how quickly that falls apart tomorrow. I’m going to stop writing now, even though I always have more to say, so I can post these two blogs and not overwhelm everyone.

I miss everyone and I do have internet here so feel free to email or facebook me! Send me a postcard! :D

-Julie