Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Karibu Arusha!

Finally made it to Arusha, Tanzania!  Haven't done anything exciting yet, but am having a good time getting to know the city and getting to know the people I'm living with.



Here is my house.  It is located on a compound, complete with a guarded gate.  There are about 15 people living in the house, including students from colleges all over the United States and students from other East African countries, like Uganda and Kenya.  We have a working kitchen, a washing machine, and a nice big sitting area with comfortable couches and big tables that are good for eating dinner together and getting some work done.


This is my favorite part of the house.  It's an awesome gazebo outside and a great place to sit around, chat, play cards, and do work.  Mostly I sit out there to tan, but I'm sure I could do those other things if I wanted to.  There is a bird out there that haunts me (if you know about my fear of birds, you know what I am talking about...) and throws branches on the tin roof to scare me.
Here is my bedroom.  It's not very big, but it's pretty comfortable.  The mosquito nets that cover the bed keep the bugs out, and it gets nice and cool at night.  Every bedroom in the house has a bathroom in it, except for ours.  Our bathroom is across the hall (I would put up a picture but the lighting hasn't been good enough to get a good photo), and is one of those "efficiency" bathrooms, meaning the shower is over the toilet (hey, two birds with one stone?)...

One of our favorite activities, playing soccer outside!  It's a great way to spend an hour or two before dinner.  Typically we play boys against girls (girl power!) but maybe we'll have to start mixing it up...so far, my soccer skills are not holding up against the Ugandans, but I (personally) think there has been some improvement...