Getting acclimated...

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Day one went off without too many hitches. It is currently 7:30pm local time and I’m getting all of this out of my head and on to the computer before it begins to slip away. Today was such a busy day that I need to sit down and just do a “brain dump”.

Still no internet - so I’ll post these updates whenever I can, I guess.

My plane arrived on time last night in Kilimanjaro. Going through customs was rather easy, but it helped that I had my travel visa before I arrived. The first thing I noticed as I stepped on to the tarmac was the humidity. It hit me in the face like a hot, mossy wool blanket and I was immediately reminded of my time in Houston - very humid and sticky and covered with sweat as soon as you step outside. No air movement - no breeze. It is kind of like that now although I’m finding I’m becoming used to it again rather quickly and I’ve discovered that covering myself in sunblock doesn’t help much. If anything it tends to make me sweat more. I must use the sunblock however and did so today and had no burning on my arms or neck. My nose and my hands are a bit pink tonight, but nothing bad. I must be sure to watch my amount of sun exposure while I am here.

Anyway - I passed through customs easily and retrieved my luggage within just a few minutes. As I left the baggage area, I immediately saw my contact/mentor, Mme. Aiwe Mmari. With her was one of the university students, Allen (I did not catch his last name), who is also the primary student driver for the campus. We loaded up into Allen’s father’s Toyota SUV and were off.

Keep in mind it was pitch dark when I arrived and when we drove away. Also keep in mind that in Tanzania, driving is done on the left side of the road. I had been warned to expect bumpy roads in TZ, but at first things were rather smooth. The road we were on wasn’t any worse than most roads in Pennsylvania. About the only thing I found disconcerting at first was the fact that instead of speed limits on the main paved road, there are speed *bumps*. And big ones too. And when you hit one of those speed bumps at 50 mph... Lets just say I’m glad my fillings are still where they are.

Before I go on – this guy Allen is a fantastic driver. I always took pride in my driving skills and I often tease my wife that I am the best driver in the world - but I have finally met someone better. I’ll talk more about Allen in a later post but for right now all anyone needs to know is that I bow down to his skills. I am definitely not worthy.

The road remained relatively smooth (except for the speed bumps of course) until we made... the turn. Aiwe mentioned that she had made plans for us to eat supper before I was to be dropped off on campus. I wasn’t hungry but who am I to refuse anyone’s hospitality? :) So we made the turn and from my perspective, basically fell off the edge of the earth.

If you have ever ridden a horse - and the horse gets scared somehow and then breaks into a full-out sprint - and runs full-speed over rocks, divots, streams, you name it - and you’re holding on for dear life because if you don’t you will be catapulted into orbit... that begins to describe the experience. Again, Allen is an *excellent* driver - I have much more confidence in his driving skills than I do in the road itself - the young man is a wizard at driving. But I have to admit two things (again, no fault of Allen’s) - first, riding in a Tijuana taxi cab has *nothing* on the experience. Tijuana is for wimps after this experience. Second - I will never, ever, ever complain about the condition of roads in Pennsylvania again.

So we arrive at the restaurant - by now I’m tired and my spine needs realignment but even as haggard as I felt then (keep in mind I had also been on a plane for 15 hours), all of that was washed away with the meal. I don’t think I realized how hungry I really was - and hungry for real food, which is what I received. All day long I had been fed airline food, which was good (really, it was) but I guess I just wasn’t completely satisfied. At this meal I had fried chicken, french fries(!), steamed cabbage, and a coke. It was easily the best meal of the trip to that point (more on the excellent food later too). After eating I felt refreshed, but also very tired. A full belly led to the immediate desire to go to sleep. We left for the Masoka campus soon after eating.

I wish I could tell you the name of the restaurant, but I was so tired that I don’t remember. Plus, it was pitch dark and I could barely see a thing (the power just dimmed down - almost completely out - good thing I’m running on the laptop’s battery!). Long story short, after another bumpy (but confident) ride, we arrived at the Masoka campus and I was led to my apartment.

By US standards, the accommodations here are minimal. I have a two-room apartment (bedroom and seating area) and a bathroom. That’s it - no radio, no TV, etc. There is also a small kitchenette that consists of a sink with two glasses. No refrigerator, no air conditioner, no ice machine, no ceiling fans. The biggest (and best) luxuries I have are hot water and a mosquito net over the bed. It honestly makes me think of all the amenities I take for granted back home. At this point, I’d almost kill for ice cubes in a drink.

It was after midnight local time by this point - Aiwe took her leave and I was on my own until 8 this morning. The first thing I wanted to do was call home to let everyone know I made it and that I was fine. But guess what? No internet and (gulp) no cell phone service! I could not get a signal on my phone! Long story short, after many stressful attempts to fiddle with my phone, I finallly got the bright idea to plug it into the electrical outlet and lo and behold, I picked up thismuch of a signal and dialed home - I left two quick messages on the answering machine (everyone was either at work or school) and immediately felt much better. I won't go into detail about how much I was freaking out however.

So around 1am local time I finally went to bed. I set my alarm for 6am in order to give me enough time to get ready and to clean up - but found that I didn’t *need* to set an alarm because two roosters outside my bedroom window decided to help me out instead. And that was around 5:30. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not complaining one bit. What is funny about the whole thing is that as soon as the roosters were finished it seemed every bird within a mile radius started singing and chirping. To be honest, that is my kind of alarm clock.

It was so nice and cool this morning at sunrise. There was a nice soft breeze and the air seemed cooler - I acutally had a bit of a chill while sleeping and had to use the blanket for a couple of hours. It was so quiet last night - more quiet than I’ve ever experienced. No planes, no cars, no humming from heaters or air conditioners or refrigerators, no electronic noise of any kind. Only crickets. Only crickets. Trying to describe it does it no justice - words just can’t adequatly grab the sensation.

One final note on trying to call home - before I "got smart" and plugged the phone into the wall, I tried to pick up a signal by going outside into the courtyard. Again, only crickets - and as I looked up for a spot clear of any overhanging trees, I saw the stars. It was a completely clear night and I have never seen so many stars. I recognized a couple of constellations, so I knew what I was looking at (they were just in different areas of the sky) but between the depth and clarity of the stars... some areas of the sky looked like spilled powdered sugar on black velvet, they were so clear. Couple that with the almost absolute silence...

Up until that moment I was rather frazzled. I was extremely tired and all I wanted to do was contact home. Here I was, the literal stranger in a strange land, thousands of miles from home in pitch darkness (there were plenty of stars but there was no moon), not knowing anyone and not able to contact anyone I knew to let them know I was alright. So yeah, I'll admit I started freaking a bit - even to the point of wondering why I was here, who was I kidding, I can’t handle something this big, I can’t even make my stupid phone work correctly, etc. But when I went outside and experienced that moment of clarity, things seemed to fall into place (and as I already mentioned I was able to call home). Just as important however, I came to a closer realization that maybe I *can* do this - maybe I can travel so far from home, be placed in an area so different from my own with people so different from those I know, and be successful and have a productive experience that helps them and me. Yeah, maybe I can do this. I'm not sure if I'm completely there yet, but maybe if I give it some time...

Ok I’m rambling and I haven’t even started to discuss what I did today (my first full day) - I’ll stop here to work on a couple of things and come back soon to write about that.