Africa Time

I cannot believe it has been a week already since we've left Vancouver - and I've just found a computer with internet!! So sorry to all of you who have been waiting for updates - but now that I know where this place is I will try not to get caught up in "africa time" where everything runs pole pole (slooowly).

So when we arrived in Dar es Salaam on Thursday afternoon, Jamie and Dan and Mr. Shayo (the coordinator here in Tanzania) met us on our way out and we hopped in a dhala dhala (think mini-bus/van) on our way to the bus station to catch our bus to Tanga. Mind you this is after about 30 hours or so in transit already and we are pretty beat. After a six hour bumpy ride on a super crowded bus we arrived at Mr. Shayo's guesthouse in darkness. Here was our first introduction to the bathroom's in Tanzania, in which most of the toilets are muslim (think... squatting). Food was first but we all needed a good night's sleep. The next morning (day 2) we woke up to have chai (tea and/or breakfast) and to head off to Pangani where we had our orientation! Remember how I mentioned the first bus ride was bumpy? K well the second one was insane!! The roads are pretty terrible that way but of course this one was only two hours and we weren't as tired - so it was no problem.

Pangani was beautiful and we had time to get used to the weather (and get over some jet-lag) while meeting our counterparts and preparing for our work placements. My counterpart is fantastically nice and her name is Asnat - when I figure out how to post pictures on this thing I promise to try to get some up soon!! So after a few days at the beach and becoming familiar with some Swahili greetings we were more used to the children calling out mzungu! mzungu! (white person) whenever we walked by. On the way back to Tanga we took another dhala dhala in which we crammed 15 or 16 people - at least it made the bumpy ride a bit quicker!

Last night after we returned from Pangani (day 6) we finally met all of our host families and moved into their homes with our counterparts. My host father's name is Deo and he works with the youth in Tanga through the Catholic Diocese. Ollie and his counterpart will also be working at the youth center as part of their work placement. Tomorrow we will visit everyone's work placements to become a bit more familiar with our surroundings and so that we will know where everyone will be volunteering for the next few weeks. In my host family very little English is spoken, so some of the communication has been difficult! I mostly sit and look like I have no clue while everyone chuckles at my expense. Asnat definitely tries to help me, although she is still working on her English as well!

I promise to try to get some photos up as well as posting another update sometime this week. For now I must head home before Asnat falls asleep on me... I think I am still running on Vancouver time, I swear I don't really wake up until 11 or 12 at night! A huge THANK YOU once again to all of my donators and supporters - I couldn't be here without you! Asante sana (thank you very much).