Safe in Arusha

Hello! I'm pulling away briefly from hanging out with Liza and my other new roommate, Erica, to get some quiet time to catch up with myself, and whoever might want to read something, or look at a picture. We arrived safely in Arusha around 3pm today and it has been a beautiful and overwhelming place so far. I had dinner tonight with several other American women doing various kinds of work in Tanzania, and it was quite amazing to be able to feel so at home, with young women who share much of my background and probably many of my values. A few of them are Liza's really good friends, and they're really good people, I can already tell. I'm a little too overwhelmed to be really social, but hopefully they understand. It's only day 2 on the African continent ...

We stayed in a fantastic hostel in Nairobi. It was clean, comfortable, had a computer with Internet, a 24-hour kitchen that could make hot sandwiches, and full of interesting people (mostly European and American), some of whom had been backpacking for months and months, all over the world. The hostel bedroom we stayed in was full of colorful bedspreads.

We got on the shuttle the next day from Nairobi to Arusha. It was a five-hour trip, and while it was logistically smooth, it was physically REALLY bumpy. Although this is the biggest main road between the two cities, it's full of potholes. For one long stretch in Kenya, our driver had to swerve all over the road to avoid huge potholes, or slow down to about 5 mph just to avoid breaking an axle. (Drivers here already make a habit of swerving into the opposing lane in order to pass, since there are no roads with more than two lanes. Many times, you end up unnervingly close to a directly oncoming car ... yikes!) The ride was full of sights: I saw a gazelle, a bunch of camels including a baby one, and two ostriches! I also saw many, many Maasai tribesmen (this is an enormous indigenous tribe in East Africa) walking their herds of cattle through the endless plains. They wear traditional robes in bright colors (sometimes plaids!), the men often have earlobes that have been stretched to great lengths by weights, and their shoes are made from recycled car tires. They also send tiny boys, who look as young as five years old, out to the fields with their own herds to supervise. This was quite incredible to see. Here is a picture of the plains they walked through. (I just wasn't comfortable sticking my camera out the window of a bus full of white folks ... it's a big effort to take out my camera and feel like a tourist.)



Arusha is fantastic, also with lots of bumpy roads, people and bikes walking along them in a fairly chaotic arrangement. Lots of beautiful plants. Our neighborhood is a true African neighborhood, a bumpy dirt road, EXTREMELY narrow, with vegetable stands and tiny ramshackle establishments set up all along the side. We are among very very few white people living in the neighborhood, and the children of our neighbors smile and hug Liza when she gets out of the car. They hugged me too, actually. These people seem extremely warm and kind, though sometimes they hold out their hands for money immediately after ... it is a daunting but very exciting experience to know I'm going to live in this neighborhood and hopefully, with improving language skills and a smile, get to know my neighbors.

This is the view from the grocery store.




I'm really overwhelmed, but trust I'll settle in eventually. Please stay in touch and say hello whenever you want to.