Friday, January 6, 2012

Baseball, lost luggage and peacocks.


Jambo!! (swahili for hello) I arrived in Tanzania super early on Thursday morning after about 36 hours of travel, I was pretty exhausted!! The first and second flight I was so excited I couldn’t sleep! Everything was so new and exciting to me. I have never traveled overseas before, so I wanted to experience it all, even the airplane food! Which is not that bad!!  By the third flight, I was over the excitement and I popped an Ambien and passed out. But before that, I had about a 2-hour layover in Amsterdam. I had the chance to talk to some guys who were getting ready to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro! I am dying to hike it and had some questions about it, so I struck up a convo with them. They were extremely nice, helpful and made my two-hour layover much more fun! I was asking where they were from and how they all knew each other, just trying to be nice, and Dave, of the three informed me that they were baseball players! I had no idea who they were until I googled them when I got into Dar, but as a good southern belle who loves baseball, I did tell them GO BRAVES! They did not care for that so much, but they were still very sweet ha-ha. The guys were R.A Dickey who plays for the Mets, Kevin Slowly who plays for the Rockies and Dave (don’t remember his last name) who is one of the bullpen catchers for the Mets!  They are supposed to email how they did and some helpful hints for when I hike. Now that I know who they are, that would be really cool! Haha I’m such a dork. 


Upon landing my cousin Joe was there to pick me up and help me though customs and security. We stood in the baggage claim area, which is about the size of someone’s living room with a conveyer belt in it, for about 45 min waiting on my bags…they never showed. I was expecting this to happen due to the fact of how many transfers I had and how far I was traveling. I packed a carry on with shorts and a few t-shirts and my toiletries in it. I’m such an experienced traveler right?? My bags finally showed up a day and a half later. All is well.

There are a ton of things that are waaaaaaay different here in Africa than in America, but the first big thing I noticed was how everyone was driving! It’s on the "wrong" side of the road and on the "wrong" side of the car! I’m not sure I will ever get used to that. While driving home form the airport, I kept finding myself pushing the brake that would normally be on my side, but I was mostly doing that because of the crazy driving that was being done by my cousin Joe. There are no rules for driving in Tanzania, or lines, or stop sings, or common curtsey. It’s every man for himself, and I thought it was hard to learn how to drive around in Atlanta, GA!

Since today is just day three of being here, I am still pretty jet lagged. My body has no idea what time zone its in and I am all out of whack! Hopefully I will get some rest soon and figure out what time zone I am supposed to be in. On top of the jet lag and lack up sleep, there are Peacocks in front of our compound that really like to make themselves known in wee hours of the morning. I’m not sure if you have ever heard a peacock, but they sound a lot like a dying cats.  Not exactly the most pleasant alarm, but I feel like it’s better than screeching monkeys!

I will leave you with some pictures of my humble abode for the next 4 months!

                                                                   This is the living room

                                                              Coach, the family dog

                                                  "dada" means lady or miss in Swahili

                                                     This one should be easy self explanatory

                                                 Bedroom equipped with mosquito net :)

                                                              The front of the house


                                                                   back porch

                                                                   The playroom


                                            The kitchen, they have a maid and cook. Yup.

                                                                        Kitchen

                                        This is my little cousin Ellis!! She is my new best friend.

Ill be back soon with more pictures of  Dar Es Salaam. 

Usiku mwema!
(good night)

2 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you posted pictures of the house. I had noooo idea what to expect!!! It looks just like a house you would find in Seaside, FL!!

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  2. W O W !!!! Totally amazing to think that you are there. I can just see you talking with those baseball players now and saying "go Braves"....they now know what we found out years ago when we were in Alaska with you......just waht a GREAT person you really are. Stay safe and have a GREAT time. Dick & Judi

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