Orientation

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Hamjambo everybody! I'm using the computer in our homebase, and there is a line behind me so I'm going to type as much as I can remember very quickly!

Today and yesterday were orientation days. Today we woke up and had to fill out about 1000 forms about why we are in Tanzania, and then the staff here put us into pairs and sent us into Karanga village with a "task". I was paired with a girl named Melanie, who actually is Australian but lives in Arusha with her husband. Our task was to walk into the village and find Shiramatunda primary school and ask the headmaster some questions about the students there. We found the school, then we found Shiramatunda school for the mentally disabled and walked by. THey invited us in and had the children stand and sing us a song, it definitely made my day.
Interesting observations/facts about society:

-Goats are EVERY where, I saw a goat on a leash today
- THe highways have very few cars, mostly there are people walking on the side
- I constantly, constantly hear roosters, all day long. There are also crazy dog fights at 2am in the morning.
- Women carry huge sacks of wood, water and clothing on their heads- kept perfectly balanced.
- 1000 Tanzanian shillings is equivalent to 1 dollar US, so everything here is extremely cheap
- it is very common to see Dala-dalas (buses) with about 30-40 people inside when they were made for 15-20.
- The cars here use diesel, so the highway smells like diesel
-Banana trees are everywhere, at every meal, in every market. There ARE 120 different kinds of course. I've had fried and mini so far.
- Women carry their children on the back under a kanga (dress-like outfit) so that only the legs stick out but you can't see their heads
- Poa kichizi kaa ndizi means cool like a crazy banana, the kids all laugh crazily at that phase.

I have SO much more to write but their is a line. I'm going to my placement at Karanga Catholic nursery tomorrow with Mama Antonia, she speaks English very well. I'll add more interesting observations later.

The kids everywhere shout mzungu, and most of them are SO interested in the English. ON our task today, we met a man in the road who was fascinated by our sheet of paper with swahili-english translations, So i just gave him my sheet- hopefully he can practice in the future. I wish i could upload pictures here!

Kwaherini all!

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