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...