A Soft Landing

Well, Here is my first week as a Peace corps Volunteer! Before I walk you all through the past week, I wanted to apologize about the fact I have very few pictures this week. I am working on taking more photos of my adventures. I love living in the moment, and tso it sometimes slips my mind to take pictures (Sorry grandma and grandpa- luckily I havent lost the camera yet!) Ok. Now here are my thoughts about the last week! Note, I wrote this a few days ago, this week is coming soon!

Sunday June 7th marked the first day of my adventure, traveling and making new friends. I spent the better part of the first 2 days making my way to Tanzania, where I will be spending the next 2 years of my life- I still cant really believe it. We got up early in the morning on Monday and went to the airport for the longest flight I’ve ever been on. After 13 hours peppered with fleeting moments of sleep, plenty of good conversation, and surprisingly decent food, we were met only with delays for our connecting flight in Ethiopia and left spending hours in a crowded airport with food on the other side of security. Luckily, the airline was kind enough to feed us during that time and we were on our way. If I had known we were going to spend that much time there I would have tried to leave and walk around! Next thing we knew, we left and were on the final leg of our journey to our new home.

Once we made our way through security and customs and found our bags (both my checked items made it by the way), it was off to the hotel… or off to traffic. Traffic in the DMV I am used to, traffic here is a little different. It is almost fun! There are shops along the streets, and there are people walking in the middle of the lanes with food to sell, and the colors, even at night, seem vibrent. Therer were just lots of people- there were pedestrains, biciclists, packed public transit, and also a lot of cars. You can’t go more than a few blocks without seeing a fresh fruit stand. Honestly in terms of sustainibility at first glance it looks really progressive. Shops and stands are even seemingly made with reused items-old boards, sheets, etc. 

Nature and development seem almost at odds in a way. After spending a little less than a week in Dar es Salaam, it was clear that nature had been completely taken over. The waterways had lots of trash, the beaches covered in platic bags. Though there is good news on this front, Tanzania recently put into effect a ban on plastic bag which will hopefully begin to aleviate these problems. Dont get me wrong, everything is still beautiful, and can only improve as we get more and more envronmental protections.

We spent the first few days getting scared out of our skins by the staff with horror stories of Malaria and everything that could possibly go wrong. All while getting shots, adjusting to new medication, and trying to make friends as we learned about our new lives. We also were able to start learning the language. Honestly at this point it is mostly jjust greetings and a few words here and there, but it is way more than I thought that I would learn in a week! We even went downtown one day and that is a whole other story I will write down later and hopefully link right here!

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I think right now I am mostly excited and hopeful of what the next few years of my life are going to be like. I am talking to our resource peace corps volunter, and it is absolutely amazing how much mastery over the language she has after just one year of service. I am going to work so hard to reach that point and do my best to integrate into my community. Today is our final day in Dar es Salaam, and then it is off to the Tonga region where we will be spending the first 3 months of our service. We are moving in with our host families Friday and I am ready to mess up and not know how to communicate for a few days. I can’t wait to meet my new family!