We're Here!

Note - If I write a post on my laptop and post it later, I'll note when I wrote it.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 – 1:00 AM

We’re here! Most of our group arrived in Arusha, Tanzania around 9 PM on Sunday night, with one more student arriving from Bangladesh this morning. Arusha is seven hours ahead of EST, so we’re all still a little jetlagged. The LTP group is made up of seven students and two faculty members for now - another student and the founder of LTP, Wendy Ewald, arrive later.

Our apartments are somewhat rustic, but comfortable. We’re all pretty excited to have both electricity and running water, although the electrical outlets are extremely finicky – some work inconsistently and the others don’t work at all. Today was a pretty relaxed day – we slept in until around 10 and then went out into the town to get some organizational stuff done. We e-mailed our parents at an internet café, withdrew cash from an ATM, bought phones, etc. The internet is reaaaally slow, but I’m really happy that it’s even available.

Our apartments are located on the outskirts of the main town, which seems to be a much poorer area than the town center. Michelle, Alia, and I went for a walk before dinner in the area around our apartments and managed to make a few friends using our very rudimentary Swahili (and only because most of the people we’ve met speak at least a little English). Tomorrow, we will start our Swahili lessons and visit the Arusha Declaration Museum. The following two pictures are two of my favorites that I took today.

The view from our apartment window.

Just a random picture I took a little ways down the street from our apartments.