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!