TIA - Welcome to Tanzania!

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Okay, my first entry from le country of Tanzania!
I had a pretty good trip from Heathrow (via Rome) to Addis and also from Addis to Kilimanjaro (via Nairobi).
I had a little panic moment on the flight to Kili as it said on the flight "going to Nairobi" which I didn't know! I asked the stewardess who said I was on the wrong flight. Shit. Luckily she went up front and asked and came back saying everything was alright, it was going via Nairobi. Phew!
Practivally everyone got off in Nairobi and we were probably 15 people in a huge plane going to Kili.
Flying to Kili was amazing as we flew right past Mount Kili and Mount Meru. I took some pics of them which will come later as I forgot my USB at home (here in Tanz, not in DK).

Anyhow, I was really lucky cos I met a girl called Sophia in Heathrow who was going to Kili as well. Great!
We were sitting right next to each other on the flight from Heathrow which was great. She's living in Arusha too, brillo.

So after filling in a tonne of forms at the airport I got my rucksack and went out to meet Herman Sanka who drove me straight to my host family, Mama Helen.
Right outside the airport I got to get a "glimpse" of the Tanzanian president who drove past followed by about 15 identical cars - Herman pointed out which one had the president in.

It took about 30-45 mins to get to Arusha and I was really amazed at the landscape but especially all the empty, half finished buildings there are here. It's as tho they start, run out of money, and when they get money again they don't finish the job but start building another building. And then run out of money again. Hmm..

We drove through a lot of really run down houses in the Mianzini Area where I live so I thought, OK this is where I'll be living. However, we ended up in front of this really nice house! It's got a flushing tiolet, bucket shower and a TV!! AND Mama Helen has a DVD player and ALL the Prison Break series! YOu have no idea how shocked i was! But it's great and Mama Helen is soo nice! She started calling my Maik, but has moved on to Baby 😊 Haha she's so sweet and she's an amazing cook.
I have a roommate called Brielle from Canada whose really nice - she's been showing me the ropes and has been really helpful. Sadly, she's leaving in a week tomorrow. But I'm getting a new roomie not long after that whose also going to be working at the Centre.

So far I've enjoyed every bit of it - tho it's weird being one of the what 10 or so white people here :D I don't mind tho. People are really nice and everyone says hi and how are you.. even the kids, but i don't think they actually know what it means. They're so cute tho.
Have been cramped into the Daladalas - it's amazing how many people can fit in them, but you do kind get the wind squashed outta you..

Hmm..what else is there? There's so much to write that I forget half of it.
Basically I love it so far. The first day was really weird but now it's great. Mama Helen doesn't really speak English (and her two kids who do are away at boarding school, damn!) so I've been trying off my Swahili. She just laughs at me but does seem to understand me so that's nice.

Today is going to be my first day at work, with Brielle. Hopefully we can take some of them mini-golfing but we'll see. There's about 60 children there I think. I start at noon and work until 5 cos a lot of them are at school in the morning. Brielle says everyone else works in the morning so it's really annoying but I bet it'll be fine. I like not having to get up really early, I get up at 8.30 so that's early enough 😊

Anyhow, i'm running outta time I think and i need to check facebook and send some emails if I can.
Pictures will come asap - but i have no idea when.
Hmm.. i hope you understand my rambling!

xxxxx

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