arrival in Tanzania…

It was with mixed emotions that I arrived in Tanzania… nervous, excited, apprehensive, happy and a little scared! The first few days were familiar, though. I stayed with friends at The Secret Garden guesthouse in Moshi and met up with old friends and students! They were all happy to see me and super supportive of my ‘mission’ here, so made me feel less nervous.

The manager of the guesthouse is my friend, Daudi, he is Masaai and a few of the staff are as well, and one evening they invited to join me in their daily (I think) ritual of drinking their local medicine. It is made up of ‘soup’ boiled on cow bones thoroughly mixed with a local tree root liquid. The roots are soaked and boiled for a week before they can take the liquid for this concoction. They drank A LOT of it… I had a sip! It was not very tasty – a bit of salt would have done wonders – but that is not allowed, so it just mainly tasted of animal to be honest.

So in short, I had some nice days in Moshi, but it was also the end of holidaying! When I left there on Saturday I knew that the next few weeks will determine what is happening in my life for the next many months and my nervousness returned.

I arrived in Arusha (a two hour drive from Moshi) to the accommodation that will be my home for the next three weeks at least. And when I said goodbye to Ngereza (my regular taxi driver and friend), a feeling of ‘being alone’ hit me hard! I had a long cry and was rather annoyed that I had not brought a bottle of wine – haha. But then I pulled myself together and started unpacking – I was ready to start my new life…!