BRING A RAIN JACKET!!

Mambo (Hi),

By plane and bus, 25 hours later, I finally made it to Arusha, Tanzania.  I was greeted with a nice warm rainy welcome! Stepping off the plane onto Tanzania ground felt so surreal!  I don't know when this reality will not feel like I’m living in a dream.  It is so crazy to think that I am in AFRICA!!  Our bus ride from the airport to the Outpost Lodge was pretty extreme.  We were able to pack out 26 people into this teeny tiny bus (including most of our luggage).  The tanzanian drivers were literally throwing our luggage on the roof of the van.  And these suitcases weighted 50+ pounds!!!!!   Unfortunately the roof of the van could only hold so much, so we packed out our van with not only people but with luggage as well.  Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed to be taken on the airport grounds which is a bummer since we looked like we were ridding a little clown bus.  The ride into the Outpost was such a dark ride.  There are not many street lights so seeing Africa for the first time was mostly our imagination. 

Our accommodations here at the Outpost are wonderful!  Our room has a little outdoor sitting room that we share with the two girls that are living next door.  My room mate, Amanda, and I believe we have the best room!  Our room totally exceed my expectations.  I was thinking that we were going to have dirty floors, dark wood walls, cold showers, unflushable toilets....  we have nice clean beds, hot showers, maid service everyday, a kettle (for boiling water to make oatmeal :) ) and a toilet that flushes!! I would definitely come back to the Outpost Lodge for other travel adventures.  Also the food is great! 

Waking up today, Monday, I immediately opened up my curtain and was blown away by beautiful greenery!  The nature here is so beautiful!! We were even greeted by 3 little monkeys as we were playing euchre this afternoon.  Definitely felt like tourists as we were hustling and pulling out our cameras to take a picture! We went to a lovely restaurant, The Blue Heron, for lunch in the city where a friend and I split a pizza (oops gluten...)  and a chicken salad!  The pizza was sooooooo good and way better than the airplane food that we were starting to get used to!  The cheese is unreal!!  I don't even want to know what kind of milk the cheese is made of...if I could I would bring some back home! Haha The chicken slaw salad reminded me of Gram Nicholson’s salad.  It was literally anything they could find from their garden, I loved it and it was nice to find something from home :)  

We also did some city exploring. 

Lesson for the day:  Always be prepared for rain!!

I was definitely not prepared physically and for what we were going to experience in the city.  It was a beautiful day this morning, so I did not bring my awesome green raincoat that my fiance bought me or my awesome hiking shoes.  This was a poor decision because it ended up raining for pretty much the whole time we were walking in the city :(  Luckily I was able to borrow a raincoat from a friend! 

Holy smokes, the city is definitely not what I was expecting.  Actually this whole environment and atmosphere is not what I was expecting!  I was expecting there to be dirt roads, a pretty small quiet city...this was not the case!  Arusha reminded me of the streets in Honduras.  Where there were tons of people, people just standing around not doing a whole lot, trying to talk to you and SELL YOU things.  These salesmen are pretty extreme and it is extremely exhausting to continuously say ‘Hapana asante sana’ which means ‘no thank you’.  They don't take no very seriously and I guess being a westerner we don’t say no that harshly.  I was kind of suckered into a wood painting/picture.  I say kind of because I actually wanted one but just not today.  Haha but I bought this beautiful picture made by the Masai village people for 19000 shillings which is roughly $12.  It is handcrafted and absolutely lovely!  After we visited the Masai market we headed to a Conga shop.  A conga is a big piece of fabric that women use to wear or they use it to make dresses, pillows, blankets, bags, backpacks...ect.  This was a teeny tiny little whole in the wall with fabric from wall to ceiling.  Since it was pouring out we fit 27 people in this small place where we were to buy congas.  This was overwhelming with people bargaining for their congas, trying to move around each other, getting hot and sticky and then the power went out! Haha Kind of hard to pick out fabric when it is dark!  It was a tad bit too crazy for me to even make a decision so a friend and I decided to come back another day!  

The city was crazy and definitely missed a hand to hold on to walking through the city (aham Reid babe :) )   Walking through the city reminded me of the time where I was young and walking through Chicago with my family.  Kind of nerve racking!  I haven’t taken hardly any pictures but I promise I will take some more when my senses are not heightened by all of the new things! 

Tomorrow is our first day of being in the schools so I am getting pretty excited!!  More to come!

Much love!

xoxoxo