Jambo!

                Last time I wrote I was sitting in JFK waiting to board my flight to Amsterdam. The flight to Amsterdam and the flight to Kilimanjaro were really good for bonding us students together. Some of my closest friends here already were the ones I sat with on the plane or in the airport. Once we landed in Kilimanjaro, we came to this tiny airport and had to figure out how to get through the visa system. We pretty much had no idea what to do but luckily someone was able to find our Student Affairs Manager, Mike, and he was able to mitigate the situation. Once we got our bags, we all hopped into our land rovers and headed off to a Tanzanian hotel. We named our car the “Magic School Bus” and our driver, Daniel, answered some of our questions and joked around with us on the way to the hotel. It was kind of surreal to be in a car with students that were complete strangers 24 hours prior, in a new country. We were all super loopy from the long stint in the airport so we talked about the most random stuff and every few minutes someone would remark that we were all actually in Africa. The hotel was fantastic, the staff was really nice and we were made to feel very welcome immediately. There were mosquito nets above the bed, princess style, to keep out all the bugs while we slept. It was actually pretty nice to fall asleep knowing that the bugs couldn’t get to me – I’m a total girl that way. We were advised not to even brush our teeth with the hotel water because it wasn’t sanitized enough for Americans to ingest. Once we woke up, we got a nice fruit breakfast and some water then we loaded back up into the Land Rovers. I volunteered to sit in the back because I didn’t really mind being squished back there – big mistake. About an hour into our 3 hour drive, I became so nauseated that I had to tell the driver to stop the car. Even then I had to hang my head out of the car window until I felt okay enough to get out of the car. Everyone was so nice, again I was completely taken aback by how nice these people were and by how willing the other students were to step up and help their fellow student. I sat in the front with Daniel and one of my fellow students gave me a pepto. After that everything was smooth sailing! We all took advantage of the day light to look around and take in the sights. One of the others brought a mini speaker set so we played some music for our journey; we even got Daniel to whistle along! Crossing the border was interesting, considering I’ve never had to do that before. Once we got to our Bush Camp we were able to get a tour of the campus and then unpack our things into our bandas (houses). Both of my roommates were flying in the next day so I had a sleepover with some girls a few bandas down! It was so nice to be able to have pseudo-roommates until mine came! The food here is AMAZING. I can be kind of picky at times so I was a little concerned with liking the food. Everything was so yummy, especially the veggies and the fruit. I’m looking forward to trying the coffee tomorrow morning. This morning a few of us woke up early to take a lap around the perimeter of camp; it was nice to wake up and move around before breakfast! Today was pretty much an orientation day, we got a lot of information thrown at us in regards to safety and expectations. The funniest thing was when our SAM announced that we each had a slingshot in case the campus baboons get a little too comfortable around us. Strictly to be used for our own protection of course. The baboons usually hang out around the back end of campus but they get a little adventurous sometimes and we’re told they LOVE to steal things! I’ll be keeping the banda door closed at all times! The little babies are so cute though.

In a little bit we’re going to play a game of soccer with some of the staff.

Asante sana for reading!

Dani