Internet in Arusha

We made it! After 24 hours of traveling, we (Bryan and I) arrived in Arusha. It was a very long but fortunately a very uneventful journey. We made it with all of our luggage in tact.

The past two days have been spent trying to adjust to the time change and finding a place to stay. I decided that I wanted to live in a village rather than in Arusha town, so we had to find a house that we could stay in. Fortunately, Mary's family has a house in the Meru region. It's a beautiful area surrounded by banana trees with a great view of Mt. Meru out the front door. The house is quite modern with occasionally running water and electricity. Fortunately the drought has ended so there is plenty of water in the area now we just have to figure out how to get it into our water tank so that it will run into the pipes. The end of the drought also means that electricity should become more available. During the drought there was a huge energy shortage as much of the areas power is harvested through hydroelectric dams. So, hopefully we won't have many problems with that.



With our living arrangements taken care of, we ventured into arusha today. The trip consisted of a thirty minute dala dala ride. A dala dala is a old rusted out VW bus that has been stripped of everything except a few bench seats. If I had to guess there were at least 30 people crammed into a vehicle that only has seats for 16. It's a crazy experience and super uncomfortable, but an adventure nonetheless. It's the cheapest form of transportation as it costs less than thirty cents to go 20km.

And now, I sit in the Patisserre on my computer using wireless internet. It seems that internet service in Arusha has improved greatly and I cannot put into words how excited I am about that. It will greatly increase my ability to communciate home and will reduce the stress that used to be caused by only getting to send two emails in an hour.

Tomorrow we will journey to Olesevia to visit the school site for the first time. I will be sure to take pictures and post them here as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing the progress made since Kari and I left in January.

So until next time, I hope this finds you all well.

I am safe, healthy, and incredibly happy.

Colleen