It's Rough, It's Dirty, But It's an Adventure!

After ~24 hours of travel, I have finally made it to Tanzania!

The airport(s) weren't as bad as I thought they would be. I got stopped by TSA on my first flight because I didn't know I had to take out my laptop when it went through the scanner. But besides that, the rest was easy peasy.

I've decided that someone must really hate themselves if they decide to travel from the states to Tanzania. The plane rides nearly killed me! The flight to Amsterdam was 6 hours, while the flight to Kilimanjaro was 8! Surprisingly though, Royal Dutch Airlines has pretty good food (plus free movies)!

When we landed in Kilimanjaro around 7:30 local time yesterday (7/13), the sun had already set and a mob of people flooded the tiny airport trying to get their visas. It probably took me 30-40 minutes to get mine. When we had all found our bags, students who were part of the first summer session greeted us outside. We took an hour drive to a hotel in Arusha. This was the view from my balcony:

After arriving at the hotel, we had a quick dinner and most of us went to bed. The honking cars from the street below woke me up in the morning. In Tanzania, there are pretty much no rules when it comes to driving and car accidents are the 5th leading cause of death in the country! After eating breakfast, we found this little guy (aka a vervet monkey) on the roof: 

After breakfast, we drove 2.5 hours to camp. We mainly drove through the Arusha region, and there was always something interesting to look at! We passed coffee farms and plots of corn; herders with their cow (n'gombe), goats (mbuzi), and donkey (punda); mountains on mountains on mountains, and the Lake Manyara National Park (we go there on Friday so hopefully I'll get to post some pictures of it then)! 

Moyo Hill Camp is amazing! It's kind of like we have our own little world in here: we have a dining hall, a water cleaning facility, classrooms, bedrooms, and a library. It's extremely beautiful and peaceful here. The sun filters through the trees and birds are constantly chirping. This is what my room (banda) looks like: 

All of our bandas are named after animals. Chui means leopard. There is also tembo (elephant), simba (lion), kifaru (rhino), and nyati (buffalo). My banda mate is really nice. Her name is Emily, but most people call her "Birdie" because, I guess, during the first week during the last session, someone told her that she reminded them of a bird. She's fairly shy, like me, so I think we will get along just fine!

Our first day of camp consisted of a tour of the camp, icebreakers, and some orientation. Tomorrow is our first day of class. I kind of forgot that I came here for school, so it was weird hearing about syllabi and office hours! All of students from the first summer session say that the classwork is fairly manageable, so I'm looking forward to learning in a non-stressful environment!

All the students here are super cool. Everyone pretty much loves elephants so I already think very highly of them! We all come from different parts of the United States and we all have different interests so I think it will be an exciting four weeks getting to know these guys! Two of the students are actually from Tanzania. One of them, named Emanuel, told me that his daughter is named Abigail! I asked him why he chose that name, and he said that the Bible was his inspiration because he thought Abigail was a very wise woman. He showed me a picture of her and she's really cute! I'm very glad to know that there are Tanzanian girls named Abby too!

I'll try to post pictures and write about my experiences as much as a I can, but the wifi here is very limited and the power goes out every now and then. We aren't allowed to upload a billion pictures at once, but you can follow me on Instagram (popeadot) and I'll try to post one individual picture a day!

Kwaheri and usiku mwema (good night) from Tanzania!