Tanzania- volunteer work day 1

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Hi,

i arrived in Kilimanjaro - Moshi area, and my volunteer home base in Karanga village last night after flying from Jo burg to Dar es Salaam, Zansibar and eventually Kilimanjaro Intl airport. Luck would have it that on the flight from Dar to Kili, i was actually sitting next to the cross cultural prgram director for tanzania , mama Thea, who was also on her way to greet all of us newly arrived volunteers. What a great lady, and what a nice way to get inroduced to what we are about to do. We were picked up at the airport by a minibus, where several other volunteers were already waiting (all in all there are about 24 of us, i think, still getting to know everyone) from all walks of life, the youngest being 13, who is here with her mom, and the oldest being 61. Natonalities are Czeck, English, Norwegian, Canadian, American, and myself. So quite a fun group, and although some are very jetlagged after long flights, everyone is in great spirits. We had a full day today with meetings, introductions of all the staff here at the home base, a short city tour in Moshi, and then this afternoon a lot of us walked around our very rural neighborhood, played frisbee and ball with all the little kids who live around here and who are always excited to see new faces.

Tomorrow will be another day of orientation, before we head to our assigments on Tuesday. I will be working in a day care center for the children of the employees of the local prison, and am already just so looking forward to it. My Swahii is already getting a good work out, and i cannot wait to learn more! Thanks to my good teacher Semali back in the States i can at least say hello, introduce myself and have a very basic conversation, and so far so good.

well, got to go, because we have only one computer here and everyone is eager to get info out to their families.

cheers everyone

Kwa Heri (bye bye)

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