"A whole new world"

“A whole new world” – princess Ariel from Disney’s Little Mermaid. That quote applies to my journey to Tanzania so far. The movie is about a mermaid who has lived underwater her whole life but gets the opportunity to get legs and live on land and gets to experience a whole new world. And that’s how I feel. I feel like a merman who has suddenly been given legs and put into a different way of life with new experiences every day. So far my experience has involved a couple long flights, very little sleep, awkward language barriers, no cell phones, power outages, and great people.

KIA Lodge room

To get to Tanzania I had to take two long flights. Both flights were about eight hours one from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, and the next Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro airport. Amsterdam airport was like a gathering place for everyone around the world. With jet lag in effect my flight from Amsterdam to Kilamonjaro I slept the whole way even though my flight was from 12 pm to 9 pm. So by the time I arrived I was wide-awake. Landing at Kilimanjaro I was very excited. Thanks to the advice given to me by my aunt Sue and uncle Scott I was able to overcome the chaos and confusion of getting a visa at the airport that everyone else had. I also was able to overt staff trying to get me to pay extra for my luggage sneaking past as many others were preyed upon to pay extra. From here I spent a sleepless night at a beautiful hotel with a foggy view of Mt. Kilamonjaro, Africas tallest mountian

The next morning Chris (new friend traveling to Peace House with Me) and I got picked up to go to Peace House. The drive was about an hour and a half to the campus. Along the way we drove through Arusha, one of Tanzania’s largest cities, here I really got to see why Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The best way I could describe it would be the Minnesota State Fair. People are everywhere waiting around, selling food, and doing just about anything to make a few cents. There is also lots of trash. But here there are no garbage trucks to pick up trash. It all goes onto the ground or into the open sewage. When someone decides to clean up they will throw it into a creek or more commonly burn it.  As you can imagine it smells very bad, especially mixed with the fumes from the hundreds of large trucks and motorbikes that are coughing out clouds of smoke.

Just past Arusha on an elevated area is Peace House. It is a very beautiful campus filled surrounded by large trees farmland and an amazing view of Mt. Meru. Here I will be spending my three months in a nice volunteer house with Chris Boll, and Julian (last name I need to find out). I am very excited for this trip and I know that these merman legs will soon feel normal.

PS I will try to post weekly and try add pictures here and on facebook but its hard to upload here with very bad internet and unreliable power.