First Blog – First Impressions
Habari gani (what’s the news / hello how’s it going)? That’s one of the first Swahili phrases that we learned today, with the help of Ginny, Eduard, Thomas and Sangorie, teachers and students who visited us from the IEFT Orkeeswa School in Monduli, where we will be working for the rest of the trip. After some difficult time changes and two full days of traveling, we awoke today to a delicious cultural brunch and began the day as Team Tanzania! We met outside and observed our first day together in Africa, observing the eclectic smells so different from the States – we all remarked on how clean the air felt, and how the night before we could see so many more stars that back home.
Although we are appreciative that our hotel is so nice and comfortable, we were struck by the view from the balcony: immediately adjoining the wall surrounding our hotel are the rural and ramshackle houses of the surrounding population. We’re very excited to go to Monduli tomorrow, though, and are prepared for the experiences to come!
Evan: the country is both beautiful and nerve-wracking. We haven’t yet seen much of Tanzania but the people we have met have been really welcoming and have greeted us with big smiles. It’s pretty awesome here.
Haley: Flying right by Mount Kilimanjaro was one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. The first thing I noticed how tiny the ice cap was in comparison to the pictures that I had seen taken years ago. Scary. I love it here though, Kaly’s excitement is rubbing off on me.
Tilly: HI. I MISS EVERYONE. LOVE YOU Tanzania is so, so beautiful. From our balcony we can see a few houses and groups of Tanzanian children always wave to us and call out, “Welcome!” It’s sort of frustrating because our conversational skills are pretty limited, but it was really wonderful to be greeted with that kind of excitement.
Kaly: Hi from Tanzania!!! My excitement grew more and more as the plane rides got shorter and shorter and finally on the flight from Kenya to Kilimanjaro I could not wait to get my journey started! I can’t seem to put my camera down and am glad I brought two memory cards. The people here are so friendly and I am so excited to meet the Masai people in Monduli. Have a good 4th of July!
Susanna: One of the only apprehensions that I had before the trip was being able to watch and religiously follow the World Cup… turns out that my nervousness was unnecessary. As I watched the Uruguay vs. Ghana game last night, I could hear chers and cries outside my window, a testament to the worldwide reach of sport, especially football.
Chloe: I don’t think I realized that it was finally time for TEAM TANZANIA (pow pow!) to come together until we got off the plane into the Kilimanjaro airport and saw our first look at the planes of Tanzania. Since then, the excitement has continued to grow towards our first work day tomorrow. The welcome here was already wonderful…and became amazing as I received the most energetic and musical selection of birthday celebration songs of all time from the staff and our group at the charity hotel (thank you to all-I’ve never smiled more in one moment on my birthday). Love to home!
Julia: Although I’d technically arrived in Africa for the first time when we left the plane in Arusha, this afternoon, in calling to native children from our hotel balcony, I felt my first connection to these children forming. They called out Welcome! Welcome!, and told us their names in English – we yelled ours back in Swahili, and I felt full of happiness and expectation for the trip to come. I can’t wait until tomorrow, when we’re off to the work site! Love and miss you all!
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