Guess and Check

I wrote a blog post yesterday, but the minute I went to hit "post" the internet crashed here, and I lost most of it. So is the internet in Tanzania. I hear the shady internet is because of the Leon H. Sullivan Summit going on here in Arusha this week. Apparently they get all the bandwith or something.

Anyway, so I arrived in Arusha Sturday night after a 9.5 hour bus ride through the country. It was pretty neat to see the progression from urban to rural back to urban. Rural people can literally live a 2 hour ride from any town of significance. I was also on the lookout for any wildlife. No luck. The ride was interesting to say the least, the last hour and a half the man sitting next to me got off, and a new man sat down, but then a small child squeezed into the 2 seats, so the man moved over on top of me and continued to do his homework on my lap. It wouldn't have been terrible if it hadn't already been 90 degrees outside with the sun pouring in my window. Ohh well.

So nearing the end of the bus ride, when we got to Arusha, I was waiting for the stop at the bus terminal where I was hoping a GSC member was waiting, but we were making stops in Arusha every 2 blocks, and none of them were terminal-like. Dusk rolled by, and now it was dark (we were told not to travel at night) and I now started getting a little antsy to get to the terminal. A woman with a baby (who was staring at the only white girl on the bus the entire journey) saw me getting a little antsy and asked me if she could help. When we finally arrive at the terminal and no one was there.. literally a vacant lot... she helped me find a taxi (10 minutes) and decide where my hostel might be. I was all but there. it took another 45 minutes past the bus arriving to find my hostel, and when I got there the woman didn't alighten me to the fact that half of the other members were congregated in the main building. I only found them after wandering aroung the premesis to find where breakfast would be. Needless to say all the girls from the program were shocked at the joureny I had taken. (They all flew in from Amsterdam and were picked up at the airport).

Today, Monday was our first day of the program. All the members are American girls just about my age, some undergrad some grad some inbetween. They are all really nice, they'll be good travelling partners. They come from all different walks of life. It makes for good conversation.
So we got the low down of the program today. I'll be doing this week of orientation: learning swahili, cultural lessons of Tanzania and the Massai people (the local tribal people who live on the outskirts of Arusha...georgeous people), and traning to teach. Then I'll do 2 weeks of "day camp" where we are located at one of 3 schools and we spend 2 weeks with them teaching them life skills (peer pressure, planning, assertivness), sexual health and teen pregnancy. We answer their questions about sex. The thing is, sex is so taboo to talk about here, they often just don't teach about it in school so kids as old as 24 think they could get pregnant from oral sex.

The rest of my time will be spent in the hospital shadowing and teaching about the set up of a database that will connect hospitals to the US and Europe. I'm super excited. We've already ventured into town, if you walk out with 5 girls within minutes you will have at least 10 boys with you wanting to practice their English, sell you something, or "be your friend". It'll take some getting used to, but I can't wait. I move in to my host family on Wednesday.

Time's up!