Arusha Tanzania

Got here last night from Amsterdam at around 8:30 pm. I am 8 hours ahead here. The flight was on a KLM plane and was amazing. The Sahara Dessert looked so large from the plane. The food was pretty good. Chocolate ice cream, oyster chicken with rice and green beans, and coconut rice pudding, then soup and salad. I am going to try to post pics later but I have to use the local internet cafe to get online. It is about a 5 minute walk from where I am staying and 30 mins is $1. I arrived in Mt Kili which is 1 hour away from Arusha. The main roads here have speed humps where you drive through towns and the side roads require a special art of driving. There are so many holes you can not drive in a straight line. I met my family tomorrow so right now I am at the Volunteer house. There are 6 new people starting with me and around 12 that are already here. Money here is the Tanzanian shilling wich is 1200 for $1. Gass here is 1700 shillings and disel here is 1200 shillings, just teh opposite of the US. I have only eaten breakfast so far but we were allowed only one hard boiled egg and then toast with red plum jelly. It was actually my first time eating a hard boiled egg and the white was good, yolk not so much. The town has many small shops on the side. A lot of people walk versus driving but there is also the Dalla Dalla which is the local bus. To shower here you have to turn on the hot water heater 30 mins before you shower and even then it would be considered luke warm to most Americans. Water has to be purifed here and you even need to use the purifed water to brush your teeth. It is amazing to see the culture and here the language. We do not really wear shoes or anything in the house and we sleep in bunk beds under the mosquito net. The is no air conditioning so it is pretty hot even at night, but something that I will have to get adjusted to. Also as far as walking people will walk miles to everything...from towns to towns in the pitch black dark of night. At the volunteer house we do have a secuity guard. His name is Kaka or brother in swahili. Random information Asante-thank you, tafadahili is please, hapana is no, ndiyo is fine, hari gani is how are you. The house managers name is Ommy. I am getting excited to meet my family tomorrow when we have orientation. It is def a different culture here, one I am excited to learn about. One of the local sayings is TIA this is africa. There are volunteers from all over. The US, Ireland, Australia, and many other places. Hopefully I will find a way to add pictures because words do not do justice. The stars at night are absolutely amazing. Hope everyone is well...will blog soon.

Amsterdam

So I just arrived from Detroit to Amsterdam.  It is 8:10 here and 2:10 back in the USA.  It was a started slow with a delay in Greensboro, but eventually made it to Detroit.  From there it was a 7.5 hour flight on Northwest A330 plane that seats 300 people.  Got to watch a good movie though...The Women...there is not one man in the movie.  They served some pretty decent food.  Started with a Chinese chicken dish with salad and oreos (random) for dinner and then for breakfast we had a tropical fruit cup and egg and cheese biscuit.  At one point during my flight it was -75 degrees outside...pretty chilly.  It is about 15 degrees here right now.  I was really nervous at first but now I am so excited I could barely sleep on the plane.  Here are some pics...it was amazing from the plane but those didnt show up.  I saw some shooting stars over the Atlantic Ocean.  It really makes you think about how wonderful everything is.  Another random note, they automatically convert your internet pages to Dutch when you turn on your computer.  I can type in English but everything else on the page is Dutch.  Well My next flight leaves at 10:10 to Tanzania-I arrive at around 9 pm.   The top pics are from Amsterdam, Bottom pics from Detroit.

3 days before

Hey everyone.  Thank you for your constant support during my preparation for my volunteer trip.  I am really looking forward to leaving on Monday, Dec 29, but at the same time I am getting nervous.  I am in the final stages of getting ready to leave and ask you to keep me in your thoughts and prayers.  I am not sure how often I will be able to blog and have never blog before so we shall see how this goes.  I am staying with a family and am not sure of the details, however I know that there is an internet cafe in town so I am aiming to blog at least every day and I should be able to add pics.  So hopefully you will be able to enjoy!