Off to Africa!: I'm in Africa

I know this place is starting to feel more like home when I stop to think “Wow, am I really in Africa?!” This whole experience almost seems surreal. Looking back a couple of years ago, I never would have thought I would be in this amazing country, and now, I am walking the streets of Arusha like a local. Not that a white person could ever be considered a local…Of course I still get the stares in public as people point and say “Mazungu! Mazungu!” (Which literally translates to one who walks in circles, but really just refers to a white person) But, those things are all becoming normal. My Swahili is starting to get a little better, enough to get by and give the locals a laugh. And I took a Dolla Dolla for the first time on Friday! Dolla Dolla’s are vans that have obsurd pictures and sayings, they only cost 400 tsh to ride (less than 30 cents), they cram as many people as possible, and they’ll take you about anywhere. It was something I needed to do before I left but I can’t say it was one of my favorite experiences. Here’s a picture of a Rick Ross Dolla Dolla haha!

Friday night, a few of us did the night shift in Casualty. We saw a child with severe hypoglycemia from strong anti-malaria medication, a pretty bad motor cycle accident, and some other more common cases (malaria, HIV ect.) There wasn’t anything too crazy, and we decided to go home early to rest up for our big hike.

Ben, Grace, Sophie, Adam, Cody, and I hiked 15 miles of Mount Meru yesterday. Words and pictures cannot even explain the beauty of Mount Meru. We hiked through acres and acres of mountain-side farm land, through patches of banana trees, avocado trees, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, coffee beans, kasava, beans, and more. We walked right through villages and got a close-up view of agricultural life. The hike was so private that there wasn’t a single hiker on the trail except for us! The hike up to the waterfall for lunch was anything but graceful though. I got a nice taste of Tanzanian soil as a face planted and slid down the mountain on my face. Ha!ha! After hours of hiking, we rewarded ourselves with a waterfall lunch and village-made banana beer. We sat in a circle with a few locals, as we passed around this bucket of banana beer made from fermented millet and bananas. It is traditional to share the beer in a circle as a friendship builder and bond with those in the circle. We also taught some village children how to play Frisbee with a bucket lid. They absolutely loved it, especially when we FINALLY got to 10 complete tosses! After hiking back down, we gave ourselves a little TLC with a rigged theater set up in our apartment and a laptop comedy :)