Day 1 - Visit to Arusha

Today was the first full day in Arusha. I say Arusha, but we are actually about 15km outside of the town fairly close to Mt. Meru. The bathroom in my room has amazing water pressure and a great hot water tank, so I was pleasantly surprised this morning. We had breakfast early in the day (considering it was about 2am with jetlag). It seems every time I turn around they are feeding us - I definitely need to find an exercise regimen prior to hiking Kili. We then had an orientation of the compound. There are a lot of buildings in the proximity, including housing (for both visitors and the staff), a computer lab, library, diner, and many classrooms. There's also a basketball court and other workout facilities.

After orientation, we had a brief conversation in swahili and had oral proficiency examinations. It was rough! I definitely have some ground to cover in the next seven weeks. After lunch we traveled to Arusha and visited a bank, grocery store and phone store. It was funny getting hassled in the bus. Some people would wave, but if we were parked some would walk up to the window to try to sell different items. When we were in line at the phone store, a passerby just looked at us and said "Obama! Obama!" It was pretty funny.

After Arusha we had some down time, which I spent sleeping, eating, and studying. I also saw a group of monkeys running around the compound! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but they were quite the sight.

That's about all for now!