After months of anticipation and 49 hours of travel, I'm finally in the city that will be my home for the next three months.
Everyone has been wonderful since I arrived, the hotel staffed by very friendly people willing to answer all of my questions and patiently correct my Swahili greetings. So far I've only met the driver for UNFPA but he said he's worked for them for 22 years and said it's a good place to be. I'm excited for tomorrow to meet the people whose names I only know from their many, helpful, patient emails.
In the meantime, I've been struggling a bit with just adjusting to life in the city. Jet lag is keeping me down some, but there's also the readjusting to feeling comfortable with uncomfortable situations. Very much used to blending in, walking the streets of the city's large outdoor market left me feeling like a sore thumb. The word for "white person" is Mzungu, and I must have been called it at least 100 times yesterday. That alone isn't so new, as I was similarly "Nasara" in Burkina Faso and "Lekgowa" in Botswana. But coming in with Peace Corps training on my side meant that I quickly had a good-natured and somewhat sassy retort in the local language offering my name as a preferable greeting. It's just going to take me a minute to get up to that level on my own.
Without having Peace Corps' emergency number in my back pocket, I feel a bit exposed (especially since I haven't figured out how to buy a cell phone yet, so even possession of that number would do me little good at this point.) I'm navigating quite literally without a map and it's unnerving, and exhilarating to be on my own.
I also recognize the need for me to stop comparing this experience to my previous time in Africa. As much as I enjoy the small familiarities, the smell of freshly peeled oranges for sale in the market, the same, brightly colored fabric patterns, and Celene Dion playing on the radio, I want to give Tanzania a chance to stand alone as a separate, individual adventure and learning experience.
I look forward to my next post, and by then I will hopefully have a much more concrete idea of what the summer might hold, at least in terms of work expectations and where I'll be staying.
Thank you all for your support! Asante sana!
Everyone has been wonderful since I arrived, the hotel staffed by very friendly people willing to answer all of my questions and patiently correct my Swahili greetings. So far I've only met the driver for UNFPA but he said he's worked for them for 22 years and said it's a good place to be. I'm excited for tomorrow to meet the people whose names I only know from their many, helpful, patient emails.
In the meantime, I've been struggling a bit with just adjusting to life in the city. Jet lag is keeping me down some, but there's also the readjusting to feeling comfortable with uncomfortable situations. Very much used to blending in, walking the streets of the city's large outdoor market left me feeling like a sore thumb. The word for "white person" is Mzungu, and I must have been called it at least 100 times yesterday. That alone isn't so new, as I was similarly "Nasara" in Burkina Faso and "Lekgowa" in Botswana. But coming in with Peace Corps training on my side meant that I quickly had a good-natured and somewhat sassy retort in the local language offering my name as a preferable greeting. It's just going to take me a minute to get up to that level on my own.
Without having Peace Corps' emergency number in my back pocket, I feel a bit exposed (especially since I haven't figured out how to buy a cell phone yet, so even possession of that number would do me little good at this point.) I'm navigating quite literally without a map and it's unnerving, and exhilarating to be on my own.
I also recognize the need for me to stop comparing this experience to my previous time in Africa. As much as I enjoy the small familiarities, the smell of freshly peeled oranges for sale in the market, the same, brightly colored fabric patterns, and Celene Dion playing on the radio, I want to give Tanzania a chance to stand alone as a separate, individual adventure and learning experience.
I look forward to my next post, and by then I will hopefully have a much more concrete idea of what the summer might hold, at least in terms of work expectations and where I'll be staying.
Thank you all for your support! Asante sana!
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Thanks to all who are read this. If you have any questions for me or things that would be more interesting to read about, I'd appreciate feedback!