And The Adventure Begins.

Shikamo from Tanzania! I apologize in advance if my words are hard to follow, I am currently rather jet lagged and my mind feels like it is a million places. I’ll do my best to give you a glimpse of my current situation however. Right now I am sitting on my back porch as I write, drinking tea and watching the sun fall behind Mount Meru. The sound of Veggie tales plays behind me while Ksusha and Happy watch an episode on her laptop, birds sing all around me, chickens from our coop cluck, cows moo from our neighbors, just down the road I hear children playing, and near by African music is blaring at some sort of celebration. Out of all the noises the children playing is what excites me the most. 

Last night I arrived at the airport, rather exhausted and confused as to what day and time it was, to be picked up by Ksusha and one of the German volunteers named Sara (the two German girls will be leaving in the next couple of weeks). As soon as we got in our taxi I realized that Tanzanian driving is all together different to American driving in the sense that the lines in the road mean just about nothing ha. The power was out when we got home so Ksusha boiled water and put it in a bucket for me to shower with.  Surprisingly enough it’s rather cold right now, so the warm water felt amazing after all of my traveling.

When I woke up this morning I had to remember where I was, I could hear Happy cooing in the crib right below me (we have a full house right now with the 2 German girls and a few friends visiting them, so for now I am sleeping in Ksusha and Happy’s room) as she tossed and turned. After eating breakfast I finally was able to spend some time with Happy. She is seriously the most precious little 2 year old girl on the face of the planet, my heart melted instantly.  She is the tiniest little thing with the biggest smile in the world. Her name is rather fitting. :) After breakfast I started to feel sick so laid down for a while. I am rather certain that the culprit is the malaria medication.  My stomach has been all sorts of crazy ever since I started taking it.  The girls here think I should just stop taking it, but then just last night I got like 5 mosquito bites so I’m not entirely sure what to do…Also I think my stomach is just adjusting to the food here. I’m going to try to stick it out a week and see if my body starts to acclimate to everything before making any big changes like stopping the medication.

Ksusha, Happy, and I just got back from a walk down the road. I was really excited to finally get a glimpse of the culture.  I quickly realized how much I need to learn Swayhili, and fast.  Everyone tried to talk to us but I had no clue what they were saying. As we rounded our first corner a whole herd of little goats ran past us with a little boy, approximately 9 years old, chasing after them with a stick.  Ksusha explained that many of the children herd the animals instead of going to school because their families can not afford it. The second corner we rounded brought an African woman balancing a huge bag of rice on her head as she walked, and the third brought a small cluster of children very excited about seeing two white girls.  They were very shy but had huge smiles spread across their faces.  I tried to communicate with them, but failed rather miserably so put out my hand for a high five. They just looked at me like I was a crazy white girl and started giggling. I had to show them what I meant, and then eventually a little boy stepped forward bravely, hit my hand with his, and retreated as quickly as possible. Children are the easiest to communicate with across language barriers. I’m hoping to walk down the road and try to play soccer with some of them later this week, they don’t use a normal soccer ball though, instead they make these little balls, about 1/3 the size of a soccer ball, out of trash bags.

        I have started to ask myself what I have gotten myself into, and the answer that I keep hearing is an adventure. So here’s to adventure and some much needed sleep.