Arusha!
There's so much to say and not much time. We moved into the annex today where we're staying. it's more like a compound, but not much land around it. the dining room is outdoors with a roof, each floor has 3 4-person bedrooms with attached bathrooms and a big table with four chairs on a big balcony.
I've been exploring the small town Tengeru where we live. the only paved road around is the big highway that comes from downtown arusha. there is a lot of trash in the street. but the people take pride in having cleanly appearances and their clothes are as clean as possible and almost never have holes.
when we go into downtown arusha we get flocked by vendors. i mean like 15 vendors surrounding us. but everyone is very nice and polite.
i'm trying very hard to learn swahili. we've already had one lesson and there are about 10 volunteers who have already been here for 3 weeks so they are helping us with our swahili and with getting around the city and town.
one of the most unusual experiences is driving in a dala dala, which is about the size of a large minivan but its roof is about two feet higher so you can stand up. it is built to seat 14 people in the back and 3 in the front. we caught a daladala with all of its seats full (including 3 children on the laps of people). the guy who collects the fare shoved all 6 of us in so we were standing and leaning over people and on each other. then we stopped again and picked up 3 more people and a baby. one woman got on and just plopped her baby down in the first lap she saw. i can't believe we all fit. but hey, it was only 30 cents for a 30 minute ride.
i volunteered at the hospital for the first time today. they didn't have much for us (my friend April and i) to do after giving us a tour so we went to the orphanage attached and fed babies and held them. there were about 20 children between the ages of newborn and 4 years old and 6 adults. they all wanted to be held.
we then organized files at the hospital for about an hour and it was time to go.
speaking of time to go my time's up.
i miss all of you. thanks for reading!
I've been exploring the small town Tengeru where we live. the only paved road around is the big highway that comes from downtown arusha. there is a lot of trash in the street. but the people take pride in having cleanly appearances and their clothes are as clean as possible and almost never have holes.
when we go into downtown arusha we get flocked by vendors. i mean like 15 vendors surrounding us. but everyone is very nice and polite.
i'm trying very hard to learn swahili. we've already had one lesson and there are about 10 volunteers who have already been here for 3 weeks so they are helping us with our swahili and with getting around the city and town.
one of the most unusual experiences is driving in a dala dala, which is about the size of a large minivan but its roof is about two feet higher so you can stand up. it is built to seat 14 people in the back and 3 in the front. we caught a daladala with all of its seats full (including 3 children on the laps of people). the guy who collects the fare shoved all 6 of us in so we were standing and leaning over people and on each other. then we stopped again and picked up 3 more people and a baby. one woman got on and just plopped her baby down in the first lap she saw. i can't believe we all fit. but hey, it was only 30 cents for a 30 minute ride.
i volunteered at the hospital for the first time today. they didn't have much for us (my friend April and i) to do after giving us a tour so we went to the orphanage attached and fed babies and held them. there were about 20 children between the ages of newborn and 4 years old and 6 adults. they all wanted to be held.
we then organized files at the hospital for about an hour and it was time to go.
speaking of time to go my time's up.
i miss all of you. thanks for reading!