First weekend

Habari Gani? It has certainly been a busy, busy weekend! I can’t believe it went by so fast, it feels like it should still be Saturday! Right now I’m in my house watching the “Best of R&B” in the living room (aka old R. Kelly and Boyz II Men videos) while Ash is getting her hair braided since we’ve had power for the last 24 hours-woohoooo! I think I might get my hair braided just for fun, although I guess it’s hard to do white hair since it is slippery but a weave might just be a fun thing to try. Anyways, Friday was half more introductory things and then we had our first lab which was building an extension cord that we’ll be using in the future at our hospitals. I can now hold a basic introductory conversation with how are you, my name is, I’m from America, etc. Saturday was a long day of group bonding in Tengeru and Lake Deluti. We went to a coffee plantation where we were shown coffee bean plants as well as banana, avocado, passion fruit and orange trees. Then, we got a tutorial of how to make your very own cup of coffee by drying, peeling, roasting, and grinding the beans and finally boiling it all in water. Unfortunately, I still don’t like coffee!  We then headed to Lake Deluti where we hiked around the entire lake and got my first sighting of Mt. Meru J. Lake Deluti was very interesting because it used to be a place of sacrifice with the local tribes and is still a sort of religious sanctuary where people go to pray in silence. I am very excited to start working in the Mt. Meru Hospital- I still can’t pronounce my partner’s name quite right (Soren), but I am working on it, the Dane’s definitely have a much different way of pronouncing things.  Today I made my first visit to Arusha with the help of my host sister and learned how big of a city it really is! So many streets filled with shops and cars. Luckily, with Ash and Anna blending in with the crowd we didn’t get hassled. I am excited for this week to learn more Swahili and get into bigger labs/medical equipment. Favorite phrase of these last couple days is “Hodi Hodi!” which you say whenever you are entering a house even if it’s your own, I like the ring to itJ I will probably update this every 3 days or so because I’m going to be very busy studying and don’t have internet unless I’m at the center. I should be getting a phone Monday or Tuesday to finally call home