Jambo from Arusha!

Hello, everyone!

I am settled into my room in Arusha and I actually got to unpack! Being unpacked felt great for about 5 minutes until we had to change suites... But now, I am actually unpacked and settled. I share a suite with two other girls: the suite is nice, and so are they!

There's an unprotected, fast wireless connection my room right now too. It's called "wireless." While I will acknowledge that this is a little shady, I will take what I can get for the time being :)

The only rough patch so far was in my journey between Dar and Arusha. While pulling out my iPod at the gate, I realized I no longer had my cell phone on me. Not only did that make me nervous for the off chance that I encountered an emergency, but I was also a little concerned that my phone was hanging out in Iringa waiting for someone eager to make calls with my $5 a minute roaming...

So next, I fly into Kilimanjaro and look anxiously at all of the signs and do not see one for Arcadia or me. I was a little concerned because I had only recently bought my ticket and sent my itinerary and wondered if they really knew I saw coming. After an anxious 40 minutes of contemplating my phoneless options while trying to avoid being harangued by airport taxi drivers, a flight from Amsterdam arrived and an Arcadia sign finally appeared (along with 14 other students) much to my relief.

As for the program so far, all the people we were introduced to during our orientation today were SO nice. Tanzanian (or otherwise) Mamas and babas concerned for us, their babies. We start our for-real class time on Monday and have some other orientation type things tomorrow.

So far, so good, friends. Pray for patience, resilience, rest, and peace.

Asante sana.