Planes, Danes, and Automobiles

After 20 hours of flying, 8 hours of layovers, 3 hours of driving... I AM FINALLY IN MOROGORO! And it feels great!

My First flight was from Milwaukee to Minneapolis - 45 mins. no biggie. There I met up with PH (Pastor Hafermann) and Kim. Unfortunatley, we all had different seats on each flight. The flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam took 6.5 hours, gate to gate. On this flight I was wedged between a large Latvian woman with a severe chest cold and a tall danish man named Frank. Frank the Dane was very nice and we discussed Barack Obama, our hatred of airplane bathrooms, and the weather. But Sneezy McCoughsalot to my right was very snippy and kept yelling at me for having my reading light on. Or at least that is what I think she was yelling about. She didn't speak English and as shee babbled she leered menacingly at my book. Oh well, I was off that flight soon enough.

There was a four hour layover in Amsterdam. While there we (PH, Kim, and myself) got to know a guy from Phoenix who was on his way to Tanzania as well. He was going to attend the International school in Dar (Dar es Salaam-Capital city of Tanzania). I also took advantage of a great art museum in the airport... I couldn't tell you the artists, or any of the famous paintings-probably because I don't know anything about art, but there was a really funny picture of a chicken! The flight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro was like 12 hours bit it went by really fast. I was really lucky and got a whole row, 3 seats, to myself. I took my shoes off, sprawled out, watched two movies, took a few sedatives, and woke up 9 hours later when a stewardess woke me up so I could put my seatbelt on before landing. We waited an hour on the tarmac as we dropped off a few passengers then took a quick 42 minute flight to Dar.

It was about 11:00 p.m. by the time we got through customs and I was too tired to take in the beauty of Africa... but I did notice the heat! the thermometer by a money exchange place said it was 28 Degrees Celsius which is... roughly... 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Okay, so I don't actually know how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. But I can tell you it was super hot, especially after being acclimated to the freezing plane!

We made our way to the Hostel and I unpacked in my room. It was roughly the size of my closet @ home but, hey, all I needed was a bed. The bed was great, the sheets were cool, and the pillow was super soft. The mosquito net, on the other hand, was super scratchy and kept sticking to my sweaty feet, pleasant image huh? I hope you enjoyed that. I fell asleep by 1:00 a.m. and slept like a rock.

I woke up around 6:00 a.m., took a much needed shower, and went downstairs. I had been so tired that night I really didn't take time to internalize where I was, and what I was doing. As I sat down on a couch in the loung I realized... HEY! I'M IN FREAKIN' TANZANIA!

It was overwhelming. Would I be able to learn the language? Would people be nice? Will I make friends? And exactly how fast am I going to make a cultural buffoon of myself? AHHH!

But all my fears went away when a tiny little nun came up to me, greeted me with a warm smile, and handed me an English newspaper. I said, "Asante" (thank you in Swahili, the only Swahili I knew) and she scampered away. She did more for me then she will ever know. I was on the verge of breaking down and with one simple act of kindness she mad me feel welcome and secure. That feeling still hasn't left me, I hope it doesn't leave me for the rest of the trip.

After I read a few sections of The Gaurdian (Dar's newspaper) Kim came to the lounge and we chatted for a while. Once PH and Luka arrived we went to breakfast. A simple breakfast- instant coffee, toast, fried egg. I'm glad it was simple, I'm hoping I can ease my stomach through this tough transition. Then we were off, on our way to Morogoro. Even thought he driver's seat was on the right hand side, I forgot they drove on the other side of the road as well. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Luka pulled into traffic. To get out of the city we drove through the industrial area of Dar. It was so different from anything I had ever seen before. It was a rustic metropolis. We were on a busy highway crammed with semi-trucks carrying all sorts of cargo. The Dala-dalas (passenger vans) went by packed with people. The Dala-dalas looke like they were built to transport 8, maybe 10, passengers. But people were hanging out of windows, on the roof, gripping to the side, wherever they could fit. I tried to count the number of people in one particularly well packed Dala-dala, I got 17 before it zoomed off.

Some people were wearing shorts and muscle shirts, some men were in business suits. Some were in the beautiful garb native to the area, some were in Budweiser shirts. It was so interesting. As we drove I could see all sorts of shops and stands on the side of the road - Pineapples, papayas, coconuts, dried fish, clothing, medicine, everything. Whenever the traffic stopped vendors would run up to your window trying to get you to buy stuff. One boy who was peddling cell phone cards ran next to my window, in rush our traffic, for about a block before he finally gave up! Some signs were in English, some in what looked like Arabic, but most were in Swahili. Overall, it was a very exciting ride. We stopped about three-quarters of the way for a snack of samosas and an orange soda at a quaint little diner.

Finally, after all the flying and driving, we arrived at the Lutheran Junior Seminary! WOO HOO! From what I understand it's a grade school, secondary school, and a foreign language/cultural orientation school. There are also nuns everywhere. I'll tell you more in my future blogs as I learn more, I haven't really had a chance to ask questions yet.

We all split up and went to our individual rooms. Mine is C2. Its a great room. There is a big window looking out on the entrance to LJS (Lutheran Junior Seminary) in from of my extra large desk. The closets are perfect, the bed is big, and the mosquito net is super soft! YAY! I won't talk any more about what my room looks like, I'll be posting pictures to the internet soon.
The weather is warm, but bearable. I'm sure I'll be acclimated in no time. After unpacking, Kim and I ran into one of the matrons here. She escorted us to the dining hall where we had a great lunch of rice, pork, cabbage, and papaya. (For my parents: the food is great, stop worrying, I'm not starving). After lunch we decided to take a break. PH is napping, Luka is probably on his cell phone talking to a construction worker (he is currently in charge of building a few churches if I'm not mistaken), Kim is probably reading or journaling, and I'm just sitting here reflecting and recording (aren't you lucky)! :) I'm so content and relaxed. Tanzania is nothing like I expected, it is WAY better. I will conclude this blog posting, as I hope to conclude all future blog postings, with a high and low.

Low: i don't know Swahili. I fell a little out of it sometimes, especially when Luka and PH are talking to each other. Kim is already worried that I won't learn Swahili as fast as her and that I will slow down the student study group. I don't know why she thinks this, or why she assumes she'll be better then me, she'll just have to wait and see. She is kind of a worry wart but that's ok, she's allowed to be worried, we are both totally out of our element.

High: I haven't seen one mosquito yet, but a tiny little gecko just scampered across my stack of books. His name is Toby. Toby ran off before I could snap a picture of him, but I'll get him next time!

I hope your past few days have been as good as mine!

***This was posted late because the internet and power went out all last night****