Volunteer House and TVE Orientation

Okay so about this volunteer house.

Yes I arrived and it was very overwhelming, haha I arrived as people were leaving so a lot of people were outside, and I was the last to arrive for this group so I had no idea who was new and who was old. It has all worked out though. I got a tour of the place. It has one main house, and 3 smaller rooms in their own buildings outside.
It is gated, and we have a security guard, and a house manager Eliza, our driver Michael, and 3 cooking ladies, and everyone is absolutely amazing. This sounds a lot more fancy than it is though I warn you.

There are around 30 volunteers living here and staff members on top of that. We have two toilets and two showers....which have very minimal hot water. The power goes out here quite regularly and then sometimes the back up generator will fail as well. We make it work though. :)

In my room which is one of the back rooms that you have to go outside to get to, there is a shower and a toilet, as well as 11 other girls living with me in very small quarters. Many more females do this volunteering than males, I believe there are only 5 or 6 guys in the house. So yes we have 6 bunk beds and a couple feet of space and cabinets on both ends of the room, but that is it. Haha it's actually worked out better than you would originally think, the only crappy part is that my bed is right beside the bathroom area so as soon as people wake up for placement at 6:30 it means we basically all wake up not by choice. I am not a morning person at all, but am slowly adjusting!

On my first full day in the house, we had orientation.
Here they basically just gave us alot of information most of which seemed to be common sense, but unfortunately not for all people lol. We also went into town to get shown  around, and alot of people had to get phones and such.
Every morning I take my breakfast which varies depending on the day, out to the front, where we have some couches on the steps and I eat my breakfast and watch the sunrise, if the sky is clear, we also have a decent view of Mt. Meru from our steps! I really do love it here, and can already tell that it will be hard to leave, and there will be a large adjustment from living in the volunteer house to a mud and cow dung hut with no electricity or running water ever with the Maasai haha. Still looking forward to it though.

 :)
I will fill you in about my placement next time! Then I should be up to date, haha my posts might slow down a little now because I will have a little bit more of a regular schedule, so there won't be as much to report! I will still stay in touch though!

Another Long Journey and a New Home

Okay I will try and compile these last couple of days all into one. It may be long though, so take this as your warning.

So for my bus ride!
the bus ride is normally about 10 hours, and we stop once for food and to pee. So I thought I would be smart and drink lots the day before to keep myself hydrated so I wouldn't have to drink alot on the bus and therefore not have to make the bus stop for me to pee...a certain someone I know did this hahaha! Either way in drinking so much I woke up at 3am to pee, and then simply couldn't fall back asleep so at 5 I got out of bed and showered, I was at the bus stop by 6. (Also for anyone who doesn't know, the time difference is 8 hours, and I am in the future compared to back home) So the bus left at 6:20 and got to Ubongo the main bus station, and left at 7. The ride was absolutely gorgeous, and I could hardly take my eyes off the windows, I think I forgot to blink quite alot lol. The landscape and the scenery has been the main thing, that has truly made me feel like I am here in Africa. A city is just a city to a point, but the terrain and landscape is one of a kind. Truly amazing to see all of the villages made with literally next to nothing, and mind-boggling to understand how these people actually sustain themselves in any way, these really are the people who survive on less than a dollar a day. We stopped to pee and eat, and I experienced my very first hole in the ground toilet!
 I then came to the conclusion that after doing that for a full month is Maasai, I'm probably going to have the best thighs I ever will in my life. Lol sorry if that was too much info for some people, its just a simple fact.

After the bus ride which took almost exactly 10 hours, which is apparently quite amazing for those buses...guess I have good bus luck, lets hope it stays that way.

We arrived in Arusha in the early evening and was met by Eliza the volunteer house manager and Michael the driver...who is the funniest and most ridiculous person I have met here thus far. We drove up to the house compound. Haha and the first couple minutes in the house can best be described as overwhelming.

And....I'm sorry to leave you on that note, but I have to go because it's almost dark here, and it's not really safe to be out in the dark, but I'll finish up as soon as I can. The Volunteer house is great though, so a good overwhelming, not a bad one! :)

Cheers!

Last Day in Dar for Awhile

So today was supposed to be my laid back, chill, do nothing but re-pack day. I went exploring instead. At breakfast ( which consists of a piece of not so fresh toast and a little blue band (fat spread) and jam, and a slice of watermelon and chai tea) a girl from the same hostel asked to join me. Her name was Mary and she's from Finland. She had just come off doing 10 weeks in Moshi working maternity at a hospital there. She was also by herself for the day. We decided to explore Dar together a little. We walked from city centre to the coast and all along the edges of the city. We walked for nearly 4 hours before taking a pajaji back to Slipway, where I'd been a couple days before. We just walked around and had a soda on a gorgeous patio overlooking the ocean. We ate at a little indian place and then did some other errands including stoppijng in at Dollarama bbahahaha. Later in the evening we went to an internet cafe and back to Chef's Pride for a snack. Now I just must finish packing and getting organized for my long bus journey to Arusha tomorrow.
Ciao for now!

Beach Bound

Friday May 13th was amazing as well. Around 10 am Sarah met me again and we walked 20 minutes of so to the ferry called Kigamboni. I bought a ticket for 200 shillings (13 cents) and crowded on with hundreds of other locals....I only saw 2other mzungus (white people) The ferry is only 5-10 minutes long and takes you to the south coast beaches. I then took a pajaji to the other side of the island to a very gorgeous laid back rustic resort type thing known as Kipepeo Beach. Here i met up with 2 other girls that the volunteer coordinator who helped me out before knew. There was an American from New York named Maggie and a Kiwi named Mary. They had both lived in Tanzania for quite awhile and were really helpful with giving me lots of advice about everything.

The beach itself was amazing with white sand and turquoise water. We sat and read under our cabana and watched the waves crash against the shore bringing in the crabs with them. I went swimming and for many of you who know me well you should realize that, that's a huge accomplishment for me, as deep water and sharks freak me out. Unreasonable and stupid I know haha but I'm working on it. Either way I went swimming , even in the deep water where I couldn't touch and I didn't have a floaty.....bahaha I sound so stupid!

Swimming was great though , the water was extremely salty and there were little "jellies: (jelly-fish) that were always around you. They were obvioulsy the non-poisononous non-stinging kind. They were actaully kind of fun once you got used to them! After the beach we just took a pajaji back to the ferry and then another one home.

That pretty much concluded my Day 2 of Dar  and it was great and I'm sure that I will miss the coast very much while I'm inland. I'll just have to take weekend trips I suppose! From a now slightly more tanned me that is all for now. Continuing to miss everyone but am extremely excited for the weeks of great experiences yet to come.