We're Here!

We're here! For a first-timer to any new country, the minutes just out of the airport are nothing short of miraculous. We arrived at night, quicky got our bags, and headed out to the waiting cab drivers. Right away I noticed how different the air is; the weight and scent of it. Our taxi headlights had just enough time to catch fractions of moments along the highway to Moshi - the swish of a woman's skirt, the quick lift of a flip-flop, light glancing off cheekbones and elbows of all the long black bodies walking along the road - that is all I would know of Tanzania until morning. And morning came with a blast, muslim prayers on the loudspeaker and a cacophony of traffic horns and rumbles. It seemed as though no vehicle had a muffler. Three of us students came early to climb Mt. Kili - which we found wondrous to say the least. More on that later...

And now the CPAR group has arrived in Karatu, and are in the process of getting over jet lag. Yesterday Jean took us on a walking tour, where we experienced the red, red dust - fine as baby powder - that creeps up pant legs and into socks. Needless to say my white canvas shoes turned pink. We walked down many red roads, with kids everywhere, some shy and some taunting and teasing us. White people! White people! Today we begin in earnest to learn about CPAR's projects here, and I must admit to feeling awkard inside, as I am insatiably curious about everything and everybody. Being a tourist is both fun and frustrating. To me, it is still a novelty to sit like some sort of mock royalty under my bed's canopy-draped mosquito net, but it is difficult not understanding anything. Afica is yet a mystery.