Africa

So I'm in Africa now. I'm pretty excited to be here. Israel was an incredible good time, and it's hard to express how much I will miss Kibbutz Revivim and the people from there. What made it so special was the cast of characters that made up life every day. That and the free time after work created a lifestyle that I fell in love with. Work for your food and then play, and I guess that's all you really need. It was an experience I won't forget for sure.

However, now there's a new place to live, Moshi, a small town in Tanzania at the foot of Mt. Kilomanjaro. Our flights here on Air Ethiopia were fine, and upon getting to the airport, we were picked up by Athumani, one of the many chill staff members. It was an hour drive to the house, and we drove through this huge valley, passing rural villages (as in huts), huge fields, and other small towns. Everything is really green, and it was beautiful. I haven't been able to see the mountain yet, the rainy season has just started so its been pretty cloudy.

Our house is nice. There are actually a few buildings within the CCS compound, each with rooms for volunteers. We are up this dirt road, maybe a 10 minute walk from downtown.

We walked downtown today, which was cool. I've kind of lost my perspective when it comes to describing things like this. I would call it a normal looking town, but compared to America, its like a dirtier, poorer, downtown swarthmore with one story buildings. On the street, everyone is really nice. It's in the culture to talk and shoot the shit with everyone, and even though there were tons of people trying to sell me stuff, people still just wanted to talk. One guy selling little paintings never even asked me about them, we talked about Barak Obama for 15 minutes.

There are some crazy animals/bugs here. Besides the obvious mosquito/malaria stuff, there are a bunch of other crawling stuff that you have to look out for, including a this small fly that pees on you and burns your skin off...or something like that.

That's pretty much it for now. I start work tuesday in a place called Shaurimoyo, and school for disabled kids, which I'm excited for. I guess I'll write more then.