Tanzania, ready or not...

I am in Africa! I arrived safe and sound late Thursday night, after 16 hours of airplane rides and airports. I was met at the airport by the LOHADA camp directors son Jacob and we drove the forty or so minutes from Kilimanjaro to Arusha. As we were nearing the area where my host family "The Lema's" live, he quickly pointed out that the electricity must be out as we were in pitch darkness!? Welcome! We drive down a winding dirt path past many compounds with large metal gates and arrive at their home and we are met and escorted inside with oil lanterns. The father is the head of the house and he asked me to call him Baba Gordi and his wife Mama Gordi and introduced me to their sons. The house is bigger than expected, made entirely of concrete and they show me my room upstairs and the "toilet" / shower room. I am excited to have a shower, but as far as descriptions go I will end on the note that they have a "traditional" Tanzanian toilet...
Wake up on Friday to the roosters and make my way down to breakfast which is bread, butter and tea. Jacob comes back to get me and introduce me to town, the LOHADA camps and most importantly to the local mini buses I will have to use "Dalla dallas." My most desperate need was to go to town to buy drinking water as I was sooo thirsty and send a quick email home to let my family know I was ok. It was an interesting first day as I was obviously tired and jet lagged and a little unsure of what to do with myself. I know I will get used to it but everyone stares as I obviously stand out quite a bit so I am making every attempt to smile and say "Jambo" (Hello in Swahili) to everyone! The children are so funny, many have never seen a white person "Mzungo" so they shout it at me and giggle, so I just laugh and say hi :-)
Saturday turned out to be a great day! Once again Jacob came for me and we went out to Camp Joshua to play with the kids for awhile. I was a little nervous at first with the kids... 70 of them to meet and get to know but we started out with a game of Duck, duck goose and all went well from there and the kids had so much fun running and giggling. Afterwards we went to town to meet up with Heath who is from Atlanta and has been living in Arusha since May. She is adopting a baby girl, Neema (pronounced Nayma) who is a true delight. We had lunch and spent time at her apartment and talked and it really affirmed that I can do this and that I am here for the right reasons. In the afternoon we met her friend Vincent and went to a village to meet some of her new found little friends who are so adorable and in need of love and affection. The kids were so excited to have visitors and I was excited to meet them, but it was a lot to take in. The living conditions of these people was beyond my imagination and to see these precious children living this way was heartbreaking. The hardest part so far has been the language barrier as very few speak good English, especially in villages like these where only Swahili is spoken. Heath does a great job with trying to communicate and she has learned a lot and has Vincent to help translate to, but it still makes it tough. The sad truth is that I know this is only the beginning of what I will see, but I know God will guide me through this journey each step. It was a full day so I returned to the Lema's and showered and was in bed at 8:30! I am still trying to get my body on the right clock, but I managed to get good rest.
Sunday I made plans to meet Heath at her English church, Vineyard where she had invited several of the village kids to join us. Needless to say with nine little ones (ranging from 16 months to 11) it was hard to focus or keep everyone in one place so we ended up taking them to a playground nearby, which non of the kids had ever seen! It was so fun to see them going down the slides and pushing the little ones on swings, so hopefully I can post pictures soon!
All in all, my time so far has been eventful and full of new adventures! I am trying to get used to things, but please keep me in your prayers and I hope to share more soon!!

Much love always and will touch base as soon as I can!!
xoxo
Mandy