hi everyone!! i'm so glad i get to give an update; the internet is being unbelievably slow today! so i've been in tanzania for over a week now and living in arusha for a little bit... it's so nice to feel like i'm figuring this town out. today emily and i got "un-lost" in only like 10 minutes -- we were so proud of ourselves!!! for all of you concerned about arusha being dangerous, it really isnt... getting lost is the biggest problem because there are very few street names and even fewer street signs. we always make sure we don't walk around at night, and arusha during the day is fine. it is such a busy city, there are always tons of people walking around, taking the dalla dalla, or screaming MAMBO MZINGU! (whats up white person!) all the time. most people i've met seem very nice... everyone is very eager to help us learn swahili.
this morning emily and i went to check out our placement!! there were some complications with our original one, so we actually ended up being placed at patandi school in the special needs area. it wasn't exactly what we wanted but after visiting today we're really excited. the school is about an hour away on crowded dalla dallas (i nearly passed out from the heat/being squished in every direction) but we made it there! the school is in a really beautiful part of town and the kids are all so sweet... we'll be working with kids dealing with cognitive disabilities, autism, blindness, and deafness. i'll be able to give more details later once we actually start teaching, but we're very excited to start. i tried googling it to see if there's anything online, but the internet was so slow that i gave up... let me know if you find anything!!
more volunteers arrived in the past couple days... we now have a very full house!! we got kate from england and evan from canada... everyone is great. AND rita (our housekeeper) just gave us a mat to sit on the dirt with... we are BEYOND EXCITED because now we can sit outside in the afternoons instead of sitting in the dark dark house! the weather here is beautiful in the afternoon... really sunny and like 80 degrees. although it gets very very cold when the sun is not out... i definitely didnt bring enough warm clothes!! emily and i are starting a list of interesting things about arusha... maybe we'll post it soon. i wish everyone could be here to see (and smell!) arusha with me! you'd have to enjoy rice and beans though... it is a treat if we have something else!
i can't think of much else to update you on! get excited for my next post... i'm going to a maasai village this weekend (and not a touristy one!)... one of the volunteer houses has a maasai guard and he has agreed to take us to his home, we're so excited to see it. we have to buy a goat from them and then eat it with them... i think emily and i have agreed not to drink its blood though. not worth getting some disease!
emily and i are living the good life and planning a trip with a few other girls to zanzibar... we've been getting really excited planning it. everyone says you CANNOT come to tanzania and not go to zanz so we have to go, so we're going to do a weekend trip in a few weeks.
for those who are commenting on my blog and e-mailing me, sorry i haven't responded to you! i can't even read the blog comments but i do read the e-mails... i just haven't had time to get back to them. i love reading the e-mails though (e-mail is preferable to blog comments!) and i will get back to you someday!
