Hamjambo, Marekani!
We are currently in Iringa, celebrating the one week anniversary of our arrival in Tanzania. We flew from Kigali to Dar es Salaam last Thursday, stayed the night in Dar es Salaam, and then took the world’s hottest and longest bus ride to Iringa, a city in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Although apparently no one on the 9 hour bus ride to Iringa wanted to open their windows and the temperature inside the bus rose to 35 C (conveniently, the bus had a thermometer), we arrived safely and then promptly settled into River Valley Campsite, a small compound outside of Iringa proper.
We had Swahili lessons everyday, except Sunday, from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm (or, in Kiswahili time, 2:30 – 7:30; before you ask, we don’t totally get it either) with Asia (“ah-SEE-ah,” not “ay-SHUH”), our instructor. The campsite mostly hosts missionaries learning Swahili, so our sparse but growing comprehension of Swahili was not out of place. After lessons each day we had free time to read, study, do laundry, and hike to some of the amazing landscapes around the campsite. On our hike to a nearby waterfall, we had Polly, the resident black lab/possible mastiff/sausage, to guide us and scare off snakes. Suffice it to say that she quickly became an honorary part of the group.
Today we have been exploring Iringa and practicing as much Swahili as possible. Tomorrow we will head out on our safari. More to come thereafter.
Asante,
Mia
