We're off and running...

I've now officially been in Africa for over a week, and I feel like I've finally got my feet on the ground. We've been living at a hostel just out of Arusha called Camartec. Up every day at 7am, in class by 8 with Swahili for 2 hours, and then training and class until 5 each day. Most of what we're doing right now is review with a little elaboration on the curriculum that we've already gone through with SIC. Matt Craven, one of the founders of SIC has been doing the majority of the teaching, which has been awesome because he's also going into his third year of medical school now, so I now know more that I've ever known about HIV. It's fascinating really.

Adjusting to life here has had its ups and downs. I can now shower using a bucket and scoop pretty damn well, and I get so much sleep here that I'm back to waking up with a natural alarm clock. The food is...well, let's just say it's a variety of mushy types of food...rice, sweet spaghetti (which makes me think I'm will ferrill in Elf...haha...i like smiling, smiling's my favorite), beans, ugali (which is awesome...you have to play with your food to eat it), and bread, hard boiled eggs, breakfast chai (sweetened tea) and my favorite: Chipati. Chipati is this awesome flour based food that's like a tortilla soaked in oil and then grilled. mmmm....sooo good.

I've now gotten relatively used to "going to the choo" i.e. my hole-in-the-ground toilet. Camartec's been kinda nice because we've still got porcelain choo's and haven't hit the mud yet...but I've been told to expect all that come tomorrow.

The bugs here are also pretty sweet...there's this huge spider that kept finding it's way into my clothes and I'd have to repeatedly escort it out of my room until I gave up and decided to name him Frank. I guess he didn't really like the name Frank because he hasn't been back since. I'm just glad I wasn't the one to find the 8 inch long, 1 inch wide centipede in my bathroom last night.

Now that training and orientation are over, I head out to my homestay tomorrow. I'll be living in a village called Ilkiding'a (yeah, cool, i know), and with a fellow UCLA-er named Chloe, and a Tanzanian named Farida (who turns out was Miss Arusha...awesome!)

I'm really excited to move to my village and start teaching. I think that this program does some very unique, and very special things, and I hope that people will really be able to hear what we have to say. There's so much more I want to write, but I don't want to take up any more computer time...people are waiting, so I'll write next time I come in to town.

Oh!! I love your comments and emails...they made me really happy, so keep them coming!! Take care...until next time...

Karibu!!

I did it. I made it to Africa. I've now officially slept one night in the southern hemisphere in a lovely country called Tanzania. Pretty awesome if you ask me. It's been a little crazy initially, just trying to get our feet on the ground, but I think I'll adjust pretty soon.

I had a really interesting run-in with a woman on my plane to Nairobi. We just started talking for a bit about this, that, and the other thing, and turns out she was heading back down to Zambia to take some clothes to her mother that is running an orphanage for children who've lost their parents to AIDS. We continued to talk for awhile, and she shared with me a long story (i won't post all of the details right now) about how she had just found out that she had contracted HIV from her promiscuous husband, and how he and three of his buddies had raped a 10 year old girl in belief that sleeping with this virgin would cure them of HIV. And this was all shared before the plane was off of the runway. I think it was the first moment that this trip felt real to me. I've talked about coming here for so long, I've red so much and done a lot of research, but to actually sit down next to a woman and hear her story of her life and how HIV has affected her personally was so real that the memory of this conversation will be with me forever. I hope that while I'm here, I'll be able to at least effect some sort of change so that these types of stories won't ever have to be shared again. Progress will be slow, but hopefully what we're doing here will make an impact on these people's lives.

On a lighter note: I went on an amazing hike today to this waterfall that was hidden in the foothills of a local mountain...I've never seen more fertile, plush green land in my life, and I found out that this area is where my first village is going to be located, so I get to live there for 5 weeks!! I think we hiked somewhere around 10 miles today, and I am exhausted. So I'm looking forward to African rendition of Chinese food dinner and then finally passing out under my mosquito net canopy tonight. I won't have internet again for a few weeks, but I'll post again next time I do.

Tuko pamoja, and love from Tanzania.

Cheers to a new day...

It's been a smooth transition from Bruin Woods over the summer to spending some time at home with the family, to staying in London for the past four days and nights, but I'm realizing that I am really looking forward to my trip to Africa. I'm currently killing time at London's Heathrow Airport Hilton, realizing that it's going to be awhile until I am surrounded by this much wealth, and this style of life again. Fortunately, I'm excited by that idea and can't wait to be put completely out of my element to explore and experience a different life from my own. I plan on keeping this blog to explore my thoughts, share experiences, and mostly to give people a glimpse of what life is like in Eastern Africa. Cheers and Tuko pamoja!!


Here I go!!