Greetings from Tanzania!

Well, a long flight from home to Paris, a day in Paris with an old friend, another long flight from Paris to Nairobi, and a short flight from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam later....and I have arrived in Tanzania!

The day in Paris was fabulous. The weather forecast had called for rain all day, but we lucked out and got all sun instead! It was wonderful to see my friend Laura, and we managed to accomplish several things in our short time together. We had a photo op with the Eiffel Tower, visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame, went to a short service at Laura's church, had a French meal at the same church, and spent about an hour and a half at the Louvre. That wasn't nearly enough time, as we only got to see about 3 main things (including the Mona Lisa!), but I think we did pretty well overall for the amount of time we had, and we had plenty of time to visit as well!

Myself and Laura in front of the Eiffel Tower

Cathedral of Notre Dame

Why yes, that is me and the Mona Lisa! It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, though.

I arrived in Dar es Salaam this morning. (Tanzania is 8 hours ahead of home time.) Mohammed from Global Volunteers was there to meet me as planned. I met Edward from GV on the way to hotel as well. We will have a small volunteer team with just 5 of us, but I hope we will have a great time. Sonia, Amy and her son Jack, and one more person I haven't met yet will join me on this adventure. Both Sonia and Amy have done this same GV trip before, so they will bring some unique background experience to the team.

Before I go, I thought I would leave you with some initial thoughts about Dar es Salaam. It's HOT! And HUMID! Thank goodness it's winter here, or it would be about 10 degrees worse, too.... (And it gets much better as we go inland and rise in elevation.) There were people EVERYWHERE on the city streets -- lots of people walking and lots of people driving. Many, many people jammed into some of the buses and vans. I was sweating just riding in the front seat (which is on the left side of the vehicle, by the way, where most of you would find your driver's seat -- Tanzania used to be a British colony) with a cross breeze blowing across the open windows as long as the vehicle was moving; I can't imagine being jammed in like sardines.

Most women were wearing brightly colored dresses, and some of them were carrying crazy loads balanced on their heads without any use of their hands. A few people along the way were cutting grass in the median by hand -- as in, using a machete of some sort, not your average lawn mower! A few woman along the way were sweeping sand off of the streets with brooms.

This picture was taken later on, in Pommern, but is
an example of what the women carry on their heads

A man cutting grass with a machete

A woman sweeping alongside the road

Many, many boys and men were walking between the lanes of traffic, which backed up for long periods of time, selling every possible item you could imagine. Speaking of traffic, I'm not sure I understand what the purpose of stoplights is in this city considering we went forward on red and stopped on green more often than the reverse. Perhaps I'll figure that one out next time I'm on the road....

Two different places in the middle of the city, there were complexes of large grain bins. Felt like home!! :) There is a striking combination of old rundown buildings and nice new ones, though many more of the former.

Our hotel is right on the coast of the Indian Ocean, and it's a fantastically pretty view. I'm fighting jetlag and tiredness like none other right now. It was right about this time yesterday when it really hit me too. Right now I've had a total of about 5 hours of sleep (two half-hour dozes and one four-hour sleep during which I woke up multiple times -- and all of those snoozes happened on airplanes) in the past 46 hours. I really need to fight through the jetlag though and find something to do this afternoon to keep me awake. Then hopefully I can sleep well tonight and finally make the 8-hour time shift adjustment. That said, I think I'll go explore the many shops around our hotel. Tutaonana!

Map from the Slipway Hotel's website showing where the hotel is located. It's actually on
Msasani Bay, hence the reason that in the pictures below you can see land in the distance!

Looking toward the left from our hotel. There is an artisan market
right behind those white cars where I did some shopping later on.

Looking right from the hotel. That flat roof low on the left is where we ate several meals.