Tanzania at last
I meant to update my blog much sooner but there’s no internet connection where I am!
Christmas at home was amazing. All seven of my family members were reunited succesfully despite the six+ inches of snow (very unusual for us) and good times were had. It was great to be home and rejuvinate and just be reminded how convenient life back home is.
After two flights (one which was delayed three times for fueling, unloading luggage they put on by mistake, and de-icing) I landed in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I found a taxi driver who I know overpriced me but I didn’t argue with for sanity’s sake, I wound up at the bus station and got on the 12 hour bus ride to Arusha, and then finally took a 45 minute bumpy van ride to Maasae Girl’s School, located just outside the teeny village of Monduli.
I’m going to be here for two months, volunteering at the library (does that make me a volunteer librarian?) and tutoring students in the evenings. The past four days have been spent conquering jet lag, meeting people, and exploring the school. The school itself is tiny, and is surrounded on one side by the Monduli mountains (supposedly inhabited by rude elephants), and vast plains on the other.
I’m staying in the guest house with two bedrooms- the other library volunteer, Diane, is arriving tomorrow. Once she gets here we’ll start tackling the books. The guest house has an abundance of creepy crawlies and I spent all of yesterday with a bug spray can labelled “DOOM” and a broom to get rid of all the spiders. I cook some of my own meals, which has turned out disappointing given that I have no recipes, no variety in ingredients, and an oven labeled in celcius.
To get to the store, it’s a 20 minute walk up the dirt road into Monduli. Along the way, its common to pass loads of people and you’re very much expected to greet all of them in correct terms. To people my own age, the word is “mambo”. Along the way there’s a computer lab that supposedly has an internet connection but hasn’t been working every time I tried (good thing my dad’s coming here later this month to try and get an internet connection for the school.)
The nearest “city”, Arusha, is a 45 minute drive away. It has a decent grocery store and some internet cafes. Jean and Marv, the school owners, drove me in today so we could all run errands.
I’m running out of time, so I’ll post more as soon as I can! There’s so much to talk about.
Tags: Tanzania, Travel
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