Today was officially my first day really experiencing Tanzania!! I wish I wasn't so exhausted for it, but I'll get over it. We started the day out by going to "town." See, I live in a village called Karanga, and the town, about 15 min away, is called Moshi. Karanga is extremely...Africa. Corn fields, shack houses, little kids running around the streets playing in the dirt, women carrying huge things of bananas on their heads, etc. It is amazing. I thought the poverty would give me a cultural shock, and it kind of did but then you start interacting with them and you realize how happy these people are. It's hard to understand their hard lifestyle when they are living it so happily. In town, Moshi, there are a lot of stores & markets. It's all on dirt roads and there are people walking everywhere. It was Sunday today and here people actually go to church. Many stores aren't open because of it. So little girls were in their nicest dresses and men wore button up shirts. We also stopped by an cluster of stores off the side of the road where artists sell their work. Very intricately carved wooden animals, handbags, clothing, etc. It was fun talking to the people. I ended up playing a game with the guy in the last store. He barely understood any of my English (like I kept asking him what the name of this game was and he would respond saying "ok") but we were able to play the game by him making gestures telling me what to do next. It was a lot like Mancala if you know that game. He won, naturally, but it was really fun!! I'm starting to understand how to interact with them even when you don't know each others' language. When we left, two of the store owners said "Bye Michele," so they remembered my name =) That was sweet. 


The end of the day was spent having a lesson back at the home base about the Tanzanian culture and how to interact with the people, learning some Swahili and more. We had a break after that in which I took a nap, not on purpose, for 2 hours and woke up to eat dinner. Then the primary touring company that CCS works through picked us up around 8 and took us back to their offices where they informed us of all the different things they do & prices of each. They were all about my age so knew very good english which was refreshing. It gets tiring trying to interpret through thick accents. 


Like I said earlier, I was so tired today. I think my body is just trying to transition so many things all at once. The new humid climate (it was very hot today), jetlag for sure, new food (they serve us local food which is good, but new), and a new culture to understand. It was amazing, though. The people are such hard workers. I saw barely any homeless people asking for money. Everyone is hard at work doing what they can with scraps of crap and making them into useable things to sell (like striping tires to make into shoe bottoms). They are happy and friendly people. They love to try to talk to you and find it funny that you don't know how to respond yet. So many people guided me through a conversation. You also have to get used to people staring at you. They look so serious and then you catch them looking at you, wave to them, and their faces suddenly brighten up and wave back because they've been noticed & love it. It's beautiful here too. Banana trees, lemon trees, and avocado trees - and that's just in the home base backyard. I don't even know what else is out there. Chickens roam everywhere, goats are not uncommon, and dogs run wild so you can't touch them. Sorry Mom. 


This trip is really developing into something. I can't wait to go out on my own and teach the kids. The kids are the happiest and I'm so looking forward to interacting with them. Tomorrow's an early day so I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight, I love you all!