Week One

Jambo!

We have finally arrived in Tanzania along with 14 other volunteers like ourselves! We have come to the beautiful Arusha, Tanzania, which is in the northern part of the country. Arusha is extremely fertile and green with lots of hills and mountains covered with trees and farms. Our house is in an area called Suye, about a 45 minute walk from the city. There are two main paved roads that I am aware of, they are a type of highway. Majority of the roads are dirt and get very, very muddy when it rains. The traffic here is very busy and somewhat chaotic, with basically no laws whatsoever. There are no speed limits, just large speed bumps every so often. It is surprising that we have yet to experience any sort of wreck, and good thing because nobody wears seatbelts. Some people can afford their own cars, but most either walk the distance or catch a ride. The dala dala is a 15 passenger van usually stuffed with 22 people or more. However, it is very cheap and costs about a quarter to go into the city. Dala dalas are everywhere. There is a driver and another boy hanging out the window or the sliding door finding potential passengers. There are also tons of motorcyles (Landon is in heaven), which you can hop on the back for 1500 shillings or about one dollar. The city is an interesting place. People going every which way and everyone with something to sell. Most things are used, broken, dirty, and far too expensive to buy. As we walk by, everyone says "Mozungo, mozungo!" meaning white people. Even today we passed a woman walking with a child barely 1 year old and he said it. Some will just stare, other will say "Mambo" or "Jambo" which means hello. We have noticed that the locals are far more friendly than those in the city and don't just ask for our money.

We are barely beginning to catch onto the language. We know the basic greetings and a little more but still have much to learn. It takes lots of practice. Most people think it is great when we respond correctly. We have two guards that help teach us some words and phrases. Forestn is our day guard. He is such a sweet man. He has a 14 yr old daughter and recently lost his wife. He is so grateful to have a job. He cuts our grass with a machete, rakes our yard and watches our two dogs. Zicayo is our guard during the night. They both do a very great job.  Our house has two floors, 5 bedrooms and two bathrooms. We have running water and electricity but not much furniture. Most volunteers are on rusty metal frame bunkbeds, while Landon and I have a twin foam mattress wrapped in plastic on the concrete floor. We all have mosquito nets to keep away from the bugs. Our toilet flushes and sometimes we get a hot shower. We just barely found an electric burner to cook some food, but so far we have been living off bottled water, dry oatmeal, PB& J, and an assortment of fruit. I think with time we will be able to expand the menu.

Although it is the rainy season right now, it is still very hot and humid for us. It usually rains during the night and some in the morning and then clears up throughout the day with some blue skies. We basically walk everywhere we go, which can take a while in the muddy mess after the rain. It also seems that most homes put their bags of trash on the side of the road, which eventually ends up trailed down the streams and all across the road. We have found it is so hard to stay clean here. Even after a shower, we usually are covered in dirt again in less than 30 minutes, especially after walking 7 or 8 miles a day in the mud!

The kids here are absolutely adorable! We went yesterday to till and clear out a garden for a HIV support group then visited an orphanage in the area. On the way we picked up several little kids that followed us around. Some would run up and hold our hands and were just so excited to see us. We had a good time playing "London Bridge". They just laugh and giggle and hug you. They also love taking pictures and seeing the pictures of themselves. Landon and I were able to visit again today to talk with the owner about a new project we have been looking into called the "Rocket Stove". It is an improved way of cooking that would send the smoke out a chimney and keep the heat contained so that less fuel will be consumed. We are currently checking out prices for bricks and mortar needed to build the stove. We have just started to look into a variety of projects and opportunities for working with different organizations. Hopefully soon we will get some idea of the things we would like to do here and get going on them. The 12 weeks we have here seem to go by so quickly.