Mambo Jambo!: Entry 1: Landing and our apartment

Karibu! Welcome to our new life in Tanzania! We've been here now for only 1 week and 3 days, but...thanks to our lives in South East Asia for 4 years...the hot climate and bugs didn't take any time to get used to. Despite the long (almost 30 hours) trek to get here from Toronto, things felt familiar when we got off the plane in Dar Es Salaam: the humidity, the throng of foreigners vying to get their visas but unsure of what they have to do, the help we received from the school so that we didn't have to worry about what to do.

The only difference we felt right away was in the people (of course). I turned to Dan and said, "Finally we're in a place where we BOTH stand out as foreigners!" I thought this would be a welcome change, not having everyone assume I was Japanese, or Mongolian, or Indonesian, or Vietnamese, but...admittedly...feeling all eyes on me wherever we go makes me wish I had the power to blend in again. Oh well, we still have lots to get used to.

We live on campus on the ground floor of a 3 story apartment building. Our apartment has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, a big living/dining room, a nice sized kitchen, and a smaller room that has become Dan's "bike room". Currently, our apartment is bare (and really messy...please excuse us) but we'll keep you posted on it's homey transformation.