First update from Tanzania

Hello all! I’m in Tanzania, safe and sound. The plane trip was uneventful, which is how I like it. My layover was in Zurich, which from the air looks an awful lot like East Tennessee: green with lots of agriculture and rolling hills. There are two words I would use to describe the Swiss airport: efficient and pleasant. Its outside walls are floor to ceiling windows which provide an excellent view of the surrounding forested hills. After looking around and stretching my legs I went to sit at a viewing deck. This is when I noticed the Alps. They were very far away and yet still gave the impression of immense size. I didn’t notice them at first, because they are a grayish-blue color very similar to the sky. Seeing them made me wish I had a couple of days to explore the Swiss countryside. Next time, maybe?

The ride to Tanzania was nice. I watched a weird documentary on the European hedgehog before passing out for over four hours. I had originally intended to stay awake on this leg of my journey since it was daytime in my destination. However, my body felt that it was the wee hours of the morning and I wasn’t able to resist. When I woke up, I regretted not getting a window seat at this point since the plane was flying over the continent and I wasn’t able to see anything.

Upon arriving I was really glad that I applied for a visa before I left. There were probably over 100 people who had to wait for two clerks to process their applications. That definitely looked like it would be a horrendous experience after 22 hours of travel. I passed through passport inspection and luggage collection without a hitch. A man from CARE was waiting for me outside the airport and took me to where I’m staying. The house is just outside the city center and is cool and pleasant. Dorcas, my host, lives in the house with her daughter, her housekeeper Hawa and Hawa’s daughter. Dorcas is really nice and Ayeisha is really talkative. Hawa doesn’t speak much English and my Swahili is rather limited, but so far we’ve been able to communicate.

I went for a very short walk today around the neighborhood and down to the major road. Dorcas thinks I should buy a new sim card for my phone so I can use it in Tanzania. Luckily for me, Hawa has a phone charger that fits into mine and has the appropriate sized plug. I’ll see how this winds up working out. Dorcas wanted me to check out the northern Peninsula, a place called the Slipway, but it would have been difficult getting home without a working cell phone. She has a few trusted taxi drivers that she gave me the phone numbers for, which is similar to what my program in Namibia gave us.

Anyhoo, I’m really tired right now. Jetlag is really a pain. Today is a holiday, lucky for me, so tomorrow will be my first day in the office. Hopefully I will not wake up before the sun rises like I did this morning, though it was kind of cool to hear the Muslim call to worship echoing across the city.