HOLY S***!

I don't even know where to begin. This is where pictures would come in handy - except I can't take my camera out anywhere because people are a little pick-pockety here...

ARRIVAL
I got in here Tuesday night and they picked me up at the airport and took me to Mama Mary's house, where I'm living. Unfortunately I was the only one until the next day so I had no idea where I was, especially since it was dark when I got there. I basically laid there all night thinking, "What the hell have I done?!" and wondering if the plane was still at the airport. The next day I wanted to go out and get a sim card or use the internet, but since I had no idea where I was I just sat outside and read a book. Every now and then a goat would walk by and distract me, but all in all a nice lazy day.

TIME ZONES
I basically lay awake until 4am, then get woken up by the prayer call which consists of loud Tanzanian singing at 5am. I fall back asleep at 5:30 when its over, and get up for the day at 7. It's working out well.

LANGUAGE
I totally overestimated how much English people would speak here. It's taught in schools after elementary school, but most people don't go to school after that anyway because they can't afford it (it's about $20 a year). Here is my repertoire:
Mambo - How are you? (40x daily)
Toa - Cool/I'm good/You're good/It's okay/Relax/No problem (100+ times daily)
Shosha - Let me off this bus! (2x daily)
Shengani - How much (not yet)
Poli - I'm sorry (5x daily)
Asante - Thank you (100+ times daily)
Maji - water (5x daily)
And that's it. Needless to say, it's a bit tricky getting around...

MAMA MARY's
Definitely one of the best decisions I made. Everyone else has to take bucket showers, but I get running water (semi-running, that is...it's more like a drip). However, the bucket people have warm water and I don't. It's a necessary trade-off, I guess. Mama Mary has a little girl that works for her and cooks all our meals. The food here has a ton of Indian influence, so I am really happy and the food is amazing. There are four of us staying there in two rooms with bunkbeds. The other people are all girls and are Canadian and British. Also, our location is awesome. I can walk (with money strapped under my shirt) to this internet cafe and to an few restaurants and also the only semi-western grocery store.

VOLUNTEERING
Today was my first day volunteering and I don't even know where to begin. To get there, I walk 20 minutes to a market, take a 40 minute daladala ride (sort of like a bus/taxi - has 8 seats, but they pile up to 20 people in there), and then walk 15 minutes to the orphanage. In Tanzania there are real orphanages where kids live there, but since community is so strong here, most of the time when parents die, a relative or neighbor takes the kids - but can't afford to feed them. So, they come to an orphanage during the day where they are fed, and have lessons and return home at night. Our kids are there from 7 am to noon for breakfast and lunch. The only English they know is, "Hello teacher!" and "Bye bye." It's really funny though, because when you're walking around town when kids see a white person they yell "Hello Bye-Bye." They really don't see many white people and they're obsessed with touching my skin and my hair. It's quite cute although if I get sick here it won't be from Malaria, but from snotty-nosed kids touching me too much. The kids have lessons under a tarp in the middle of a dirt field. There's a hole in the ground for their bathroom (I am refusing to eat or drink while I'm there). The tarp is held up by tree trunks and some planks balanced on top. The teacher has to yell at the kids not to touch the middle truck so the whole thing doesn't fall in. Not that there's much to fall. So they sit on the dirt (actually, that's an exaggeration - there's a rug on top of the dirt and they sit on that) and watch us write on the blackboard and repeat what we say. There's no pencils or paper or anything. So, at the end of the day, the teacher says, "Tutaonana," (see you later), and they all just get up and go home and we leave too, since there is nothing to pack up. The kids all walk home alone across two busy dirt roads up to 2km. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. They're 3-5 years old. It's just sort of ridiculous. I looked today to see how much it would cost to get 42 pencils (yep, the teacher to student ratio is 1:46, well 2:46 now that I'm there), and it would be the equivalent of $10. I might invest.

ARUSHA
The town we are in is Arusha, and I had sort of picture a sleepy little rural town. It is definitely more like a city - about the size of downtown Pittsburgh, and really busy. Everything is dirt and dusty, and the traffic is the most likely thing to kill me here. In general it is pretty safe - people don't get raped or murdered or anything, but you have to be very very careful not to carry a purse of anything. On the daladalas you have to strap money under your shirt because you're packed so tightly people will steal stuff out of your pocket. Things are so cheap, except if you want to take a trip. For example 1500 Tsh = $1 US dollar. A beer = 1000 tsh/$0.70. Bottled water = 500 tsh/$0.35. An hour here at the internet cafe - 2000 tsh/$1.35. A daladala ride = 200 tsh/$0.15. My long daladala ride to work is 500 Tsh, which is still less than 50 cents and is over 40 minutes. The weather here is so much cooler than I thought - about 60 and night and 80 during the day. It is winter here, after all.

THE PLAN
So since today is Friday, we have the weekend off and tomorrow one other girl and I are going to a waterfall about 2 hours from here. I may just get my first pictures! Then Sunday we'll do something else. During the week I get home around 1:30 so we usually get lunch in town and check out the Masaai market where they sell lots of authentic African things. Next Friday I leave for a 3 day safari where we camp overnight in the Serengeti. So hopefully, I'll have some pictures at some point. Then next next Friday I fly out for India, where I get to start this chaotic process all over again.

If I had an address for you to send me stuff, this is what I'd put on my wish list:
Soap
Cliff bars
Bill
Sadly enough, that's about it.

Love to all!
Kristin