A Tanzania Welcome

This has to be a quick one but I have arrived in Tanzania to volunteer for the next month. EVERYTHING has exceeded my expectations! The compound we're staying on includes a stately - albeit slightly dilapidated - house with and incredible terrace right outside my room that overlooks snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro! The staff are ridiculously friendly, the food ridiculously tasty, the weather lusciously warm. The other 20-somethings doing it with me are from all over the world and everyone is friendly and so nice. We've already started bantering so it's a great sign.

The first two days are entirely for settling in so after sitting around and getting to know each other yesterday we decided to check out town. I was blown away. Moshi is a big, bustling, friendly, completely unthreatening place. It's huge - would take most of the day to thoroughly walk the streets here. There's a food market that only photos could do justice to so I will take some snaps once I settle in a bit more.

They love the blonde hair and the Maasai necklace I picked up in Kenya. The huge hit though is my Akubra... they love to call out "sister, sister" in the street. I ate a local dish beside the road yesterday called Chips my eye. It's basically an egg omelete with hot chips cooked into it, topped with tomato, cucumber and sweet chilli tomato sauce. Surprisingly tasty but not so good for the hips!

Two unreal Norwegian girls arrived today after climbing Mt Kili... they've almost got me convinced to give it a shot myself! It's just such a majestic backdrop to the town. This muscle man from South Africa was trying to impress me at the airport telling me he was going to climb it in 4 days. The girls laughed at this as apparently the muscliest people fail at 3/4 of the way up cos their bodies need so much more oxygen and the altitude deprives them of it. Funny to hear that the commandos and action men who train the hardest are often the first ones to pull out up there for altitude sickness!

I signed up for teaching English to children in the morning and adults in the afternoon for the next month. I can't wait to start classes tomorrow. This place is amazing!

Give Harvey bear a chin scratch from his mumma!

xx