Last night was our first night of home stays after spending three nights in TCDC. We were very nervous about meeting our host families at the college for tea and coffee before moving to the houses. My Baba (father) is James Tikai and he is the head of security at the college. He speaks English very well and is so nice and happy to have us here. My Mama is Evelyn but we can call her Mama Victor or Mama Eve. She does not speak much English but we seem to understand each other well. They have three children, one daughter that is 15 and is in boarding school, a son that is 12, and a 9 month old boy. There is also a 9 year old boy that they take care of named Brian who is also our kaka (brother). We also live with Mama Eve's sister and another woman who helps around the house. 

The house is very nice. We each have our own room and I have a queen sized bed (yesssss). The house is very secure (we have a guard dog).There is a bathroom with a toilet and we will be using bucket showers for the remainder of our trip. It was quite the experience last night to use a bucket shower for the first time, but I feel as clean as I do when I use a regular shower. I just have to make sure I do not use too much shampoo or else it will take three buckets to wash it all out! 

I slept very well for my first night there and we are starting our first class in medicine this morning. Baba James was very nice to give us a ride to school (it is a two kilometer walk). When we arrived at school today, we met our instructor Dr. Msuya. Unfortunately, he believed that we were fourth year medical students, so a lot of our program will have to be changed. Tomorrow we take our first field trip to Arusha to a hospital there (I believe it is St. James but I will have to check the name again).

I will try to update my blogs with pictures of my host family if I can!

Habari!

So I've finally been able to write in my blog (Google cancelled my account because apparently trying to access my account in Tanzania is suspicious). Today is my second full day at MS-TCDC that is the college where we will be taking classes. The flights to Tanzania were pretty brutal, but they went by faster than I thought. We arrived in Tanzania at 8:30 p.m. their time and were driven to the college by our coordinator Steven Ndosi.

On Monday we had our first day of orientation where we heard from the president of the college. She outlined the missions of TCDC and what it offers for the training of not only foreigners, but also the citizens of Tanzania. Steven then taught us about family structure, gender roles, and how traditions in Tanzania are changing.

It has been a whirlwind couple of days, but luckily I have a great group of girls that I am on the trip with. Six of us are studying public health and medicine for six weeks and two girls are studying kiswahili for eight weeks. We have been relying on them to help us learn a few kiswahili phrases. I already am discouraged by the language barrier and we are trying our best to learn simple hello's and responses when trainers at the college say "habari, jambo, mambo, etc." I feel bad because for us that do not know how to respond to the hello's, we have a smiling blank look on our faces and we walk away because we don't know what to say. We have been getting better though and are able to respond appropriately more often.

Today we took our first trip to Arusha town that is a half our drive from the college. It was definitely our first culture shock since arriving in Tanzania. When we came back from the airport, it was already dark and we could not see the buildings along the road or the landscape. On our trip today, we were able to see all of the houses, small businesses, goats, cows, stray dogs, etc. that line the streets. Driving here is insane!! I am so glad we don't have to drive because there are constantly people passing each other with oncoming traffic, motorbikes weaving between buses, people crossing the street in front of cars. I've resorted to just looking out the window while we drive.

While we were in Arusha, I bought a khanga which is a long piece of fabric that is cut into two pieces. Once piece is used for a skirt and the other for a shawl to wrap around the shoulders. It cost 10,000 Tanzanian shillings or approximately $7. We will be able to wear these to weddings or funerals that our host families will attend. It was a surreal feeling being in Arusha because we definitely stood out. Everyone, I mean everyone looked at us as we walked around with Steven and Grace (one of the kiswahili instructors). Many of the vendors would walk up to us and try to sell things to us and it became overwhelming at one point. We will return later in the program, but today I was glad we did not stay long because it was a big culture shock.

Tomorrow we go on safari in Arusha National Park and then when we return we leave to stay with our host families. I am very excited to meet my host parents and my new host brothers or sisters.

Our landing at Kilimanjaro airport

The bus we used to go from the airport to MS-TCDC

Me under my mosquito net in our room

The dorms we live in at MS-TCDC until our host families

Museum in Arusha where Tanzania decided to have a socialist government after their Independence from Britain. 

Monument celebrating Tanzania's Independence 

A close-up of the base of the monument

A graveyard in Arusha

The Arusha clock tower that is supposedly in heart of Africa or the exact middle. 

And the countdown begins

I can't believe it's less than 24 hours and I will be on a plane to Amsterdam. After a four hour layover in Amsterdam I will be on my way to Tanzania. People keep asking me if I am nervous about going, but to be honest I don't even know what to expect. I've never even left the country, so I can't imagine what it will be like to live in Tanzania. Thankfully I've gotten a lot of help from my coworkers that have either lived in or traveled to Tanzania (Thank you Mrs. Marsh :) ) and that has helped me to feel a little more at ease about the whole adventure. 


I will be studying for six weeks at MS-TCDC college that is located about 40 minutes outside the large city of Arusha in Tanzania. During my trip I will be taking two classes, Public Health and Medicine in Tanzania (I know very original titles). I am a pre-med student, and I feel that before I can be a physician, I should travel globally and see what medicine and public health is like in a developing nation. This trip will provide me with opportunities to study the medical structure in Tanzania and to compare it to the medicine we have in the United States.


 Before classes begin, we will live at the college for three days to attend orientation and to go on safari in the Arusha National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater. While I am taking classes, I will be living with a host family. I just found out today that I will be living with a family consisting of a dad, mom, three kids (ages 10, 8, and 1), and a family member of theirs that is 22 years old. They have a pet dog and the dad is a security officer (maybe that'll help my dad feel a little bit better about this trip). I think this will be the most challenging part of my study abroad experience because I will feel like an outsider in their home, but I will have another study abroad student living with me which will make it a little bit better.  


Right now I am spending the last night with my family before I am gone until July. I can tell my parents are torn about me leaving. They know it will be a great experience for me, but I know that my dad would rather my arm mysteriously break so I can stay home with them. Dad's definitely been a little distant this past week which I attribute to him being worried about me leaving. It will definitely be hard to leave my family, we are close and the longest I have been without having the possibility to go home and see them was when I went on a two week trip to Washington D.C. in the seventh grade. I've been trying to pack all day, but most of it has ended up as a heap on the floor of my bedroom. Thankfully Matt's been here to patiently help me through my crazy stressed out moments to pack. Hopefully I will get it all finished by tonight so I can possibly relax for the rest of the evening (relax....that's funny). 


I'm going to try and add all of my pictures from my trip to share with my friends and family in this blog, so if you would like to see photos from my adventures please check in often!