Dec 31, 2005

Jambo!

I'm here! And I'm online! Huzzah!

My travels yesterday - well, actually the day before that, too - went just fine. Portland to Detroit to Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro. Then we took a van to Moshi where we are staying at a nice bed and breakfast. There is electricity and running water (though not very hot) and, most importantly, there was coffee at breakfast.

It was so unbelievably dark flying into Kilimanjaro. As we were descending in the plane, I could not see ANY lights. All of a sudden, we hit the ground. It was one of the more shocking experiences of my life. Apparently, there was a big ol' gust of wind as we were landing that blew us off course, so we landed right next to the runway. Yeah. Adventurous!

The town of Moshi is hot and bustling. Apparently everyone is home for the holiday season. There are so many things to look at. My eyes are full, but my camera is not yet! There are some very pushy gentlemen trying to sell us things on the street. Children, too. It is hard, because the stuff they have is actually quite beautiful, but I'm not buying anything until I have seen more. One girl in our group had this one guy selling batiks follow her for almost an hour. Crazy.

There will be 11 people total in our group, but only 6 of us are here so far. My classmate, Rebecca, and I are the oldest - everyone else is pre-med. Haha! It's like we are wise sages or something. Not really, but...

We are celebrating the new year with a dinner tonight. I hope everyone else is planning on having some fun, too. Drink a glass of champagne for me, everyone (except Ari).

I don't think I'll always have internet access, but keep checking! I'll post when I can. And when I get home... pictures!!

Swahili lesson:
Jambo = hello
Asante = thank you
Asante san = thank you very much
Hapano = No thank you

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

1 comment:

Kris said...

I can't wait to see your pictures and hear your stories! What a nice surprise that you were able to post. I'll keep checking to see if you can do it again.