Settling in

(Written yesterday, but unable to get the internet until today. I'm going to have to do this post in stages, so apologies!)

I am finally here - staying at the Outpost Lodge, Arusha, Tanzania.

Tuesday was an odd day; I had been uncharacteristically organised in my packing, so the morning was spent twiddling my thumbs after a quick repack of my rucksack. A leisurely journey to Heathrow where I leisurely met the volunteers, then a leisurely hop over to my terminal and a leisurely cup of tea. Lovely. But the gate started closing during saying an emotional goodbye to mum, so I had to literally run almost the entire length of the terminal (from gate 1-32), and got there with a minute and a half to spare! I enjoyed the flight - I sat next to a really friendly Italian woman who was doing a three week course in Kenya at the end of her degree. I only got about 30mins sleep in total though.

We were met at Nairobi by Madeline, who I can only describe as vivacious and slightly batty... After she hugged all 15 of us, our bags were lobbed onto the roof of our rattly minibus and we set off for an almost six hour drive in stifling heat. The main road is under construction, so about two thirds of the journey was on bumpy dust tracks, competing with pot holes, cattle and goats. We saw a real mixture of industrial (although far removed from Western standards) and rural, modern and traditional. We drove through one village where I saw a Maasai warrior listening to an iPod! The border into Tanzania was like a cattle market, and involved a lot of jostling and shouting at queue-jumpers on Mads' part.

The Outpost Lodge took me back at how green it is after travelling through bush watching dust spirals. We arrived to exotic bird song and went to sleep listening to the deafening crickets. We had just over an hour to ourselves before an almost two hour Swahili lesson with Allan (a teacher from Enaboishu where some of the volunteers will be), who I have got to know much more today (actually yesterday now!) - a very lovely man indeed (who likes Red Bull, it turns out...)

My first impressions of the group (as of our first night here): seem to get on well with everyone. Today I think we all feel like we know each other that little bit better, and a long and deep discussion from under the mozzie nets with my housemates has helped me to imagine living with them. I went to sleep v tired, a little overwhelmed by the busy day and new experiences, missing Jon loads in particaul after hearing his voice, but overall content.

Which brought us to today (yesterday), which has been BRILLIANT! We've packed a lot in, but I am much less tired. In the morning, we went to three out of the five schools, and luckily we went to ours first.

... to be continued, as I have a Swahili lesson shortly! Photos to come asap, but the internet is UNBELIEVABLY SLOW!

Lxxx