Jambo!

Jambo!
I am in Tanzania and loving it! There are so many animals. Last night I found an African Hedgehog by my banda, and there was a toad in someone’s shower. I’ve heard they have dung beetles here and I really want to see one, because they’re huge. There are so many birds here, and they’re a bit bolder too. I enjoy listening to them in the morning.
I’ve gone on two game drives so far, which were incredible. I saw elephants, hippos, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, baboons, etc. Some of the more interesting things I saw were Ground Hornbills, Dwarf Mongooses, Kingfishers, an African wood owl (which is huge), and dik-diks (tiny antelope).
Swahili is going well. Not fluent yet, but I feel that I’m pretty good for a mzungu (a white person, literally “wanderer”). I can go out and ask a few questions, but not too many. The kids are really great here. Whenever we’re walking they run out and want us to pick them up, hold our hands, play with a ball made out of plastic bags.
Classes are great. There is a little confusion about assignments and there’s a lot of readings, so I’ve been kept relatively busy. On top of everything else there is to do here I’m pretty much doing something sun up to sun down. I’ve got three papers due next week that I haven’t started on, so I need to get on top of that.
The weather in Tanzania is really unpredictable. Mornings will be freezing but I’ll be baking by noon. It’ll be threatening to rain, even drizzling a little and then fifteen minutes later the sun’s out and everything’s dry.
I’ve been being kept really active here, a lot of soccer and volleyball. The kids around like to run with us and I’ve also had a martial arts class from one of my banda mates.
I don’t think culture shock has come quite yet, at least if it has I haven’t noticed. I’m doing great and am loving Tanzania.