Arrival!

Well, I’ve decided to go ahead and write this blog in a word doc. file, because I’m awake in the middle of the night (3:45am TZ time), but won’t be able to post it until tomorrow morning. I have arrived! Kinda surreal to be here… we got off the plane right onto the tarmac and it was about 8pm at night, with a full bright moon, and strange looking stars shining down above us. There’s a very nice, cool breeze and I wish I could walk around outside, but of course I know better than to do that at 4am!

So I flew to Amsterdam and went to my transfer gate where I waited until I met my fellow fellow, Alison! She’s the violin Fellow for Umoja School and I was so happy to meet her at last! We’ve skyped a lot, but had never met, as she’s from Canada! We began to talk about everything, and soon many other travelers began to appear at our gate, headed for Tanzania safari or Kilimanjaro climbing! Everyone was soon talking to every one else about all our adventures, and it seemed evident that a lot of really cool people come to visit Tanzania! The flight to TZ went smoothly and when we arrived, all of our luggage got here!! Yay! And there was someone here to pick us up!

[Alison, the Violin Fellow, grabbing our things in Tanzania]

We were a bit disappointed that it was night time and we couldn’t see much more than shadows of hills, houses, and people as we passed them in our jeep. After an hour-long trek, we pulled into an absolutely beautiful property which is the house of the main administrator for Umoja, Annette. She greeted us warmly and helped us carry our things into her guest house where Alison and I each have our own room for the next couple of weeks. We’ll be here until we move into a place of our own. We then joined Annette in her living room for drinks and conversation. I was a bit spacy, feeling jetlagged and all. Even though I slept quite a bit on our flight to TZ, I was still beat. This property is beautiful and we all stood in the yard for a moment to look at the stars that look so different from home.

[the very nice bed I get to sleep in here!]

I slept hard from about 11pm-3am, but then awoke feeling a pang of homesickness. I got up and grabbed my journal that so many of you wrote in. Thanks so much to mom’s coworkers at 410 for thinking of this; it was already a big help tonight, and everyone’s messages are so kind. I also began to journal in it, which was a great comfort.

I feel bad that I couldn’t contact my parents when I arrived in TZ, but I trust that my mom was tracking my flight and watched me land..hehe..

Well, to be sure I am missing many of you, but I am very excited to be here and can’t wait to start my day. With love, Dani

[Annette's dog Fupi! haha Fupi means 'Small']