First few days

I’ve been in Tanzania for a few days now, and so far it has been great. The food is surprisingly delicious. It’s kind of repetitive, with lots of rice and chicken/meat and some sauce, but it is all really good. The breakfast foods are my favorites though: there’s “andazi,” a bun (with cardamom in it sometimes); “samosa” dough filled with minced-meat; and “chai a maziwa,” tea with milk. And fruit!

It’s funny how despite being so very different from Swedish standards, everything about the dorms seems perfectly adequate. The mattress is a bit lumpy and the bed short even for me, the shower only has cold water, laundry is done in buckets in a sink, etc. and it doesn’t even feel that odd. The fact that there is water, and that we have flush toilets in the dorms instead of the hole-in-the-ground present in most buildings, is something I’m actually appreciative of. Last semester at college I grumbled when I had to wait ten minutes take a shower because the one on my floor was closed for cleaning – imagine the inconvenience! I wonder if I’ll quickly return to that mentality once I get back. Hopefully not.

So far, we haven’t really done a whole lot. This is an orientation week of sorts, and we’ve had a few presentations on topics like safety and health. It’s rather nice to not have to constantly be running from one organized activity to another, and there’s always plenty to do. Swinging from the vines hanging from trees is one of the most fun things, and we’ve gone to the market at Mwenge, and today we’re going to the beach. At the same time, I kind of wish we’d started Swahili right away. Not only would it be practical to know more, but it would also have helped me feel less like yet another clueless tourist. I hate not being able to reply when someone says something to me, especially since everyone here is so very friendly.