starting up

it took close to three days of travel but I'm finally in Tanzania! sorry about the lack of photos, the bandwidth is low so any uploading would cause the system to crash.

Before coming to the camp site in Tanzania we made an overnight stop at the National Park Site in Kenya. On the 2 hour drive from the Jomo Kenyatta Airport to NPS there were herds of zebra, giraffe, and Thompson's and Grant's gazelle. Half way to the site we popped the three sun roofs off of the land rovers and were able to snap photos of all the wildlife! My first sighting of Kenyan wildlife without even being on a true safari!

At NPS we got a brief tour of the facilities and had a delicious dinner of different vegetables and stews, clearly influenced by Indian cuisine. mmm.

We woke up the next morning at 5am to load up the truck and head out to the airport again to fly to Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania. At the airport I got to try a local beer called Tusker, named after the elephant Tusker that killed one of the brewery's founders. It was a really great beer and I recommend you all to try it (I heard they sell it at Wholefoods.. surprise).

During the flight to Tanzania we got a beautiful view of the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, which I may be climbing at the end of the session!!!!

After landing we made our way through customs and security and jumped into the land cruisers to take us to Haven Nature camp site. An hour into the drive we passed through an amazing town called Arusha. We didn't get to stop and explore but we did take a drive through tour. There were tons of people walking around and chatting in circles and children standing on the side of the road waving to us as we passed by.

Further into our drive we began to ascend a large mountain next to Lake Manyara, which we get to go to this Friday!! There are supposed to be hippo, elephant, giraffe, and other large mammals.

When we got to the Haven Nature site we got our tent assignments, had dinner, and went to bed. The site is amazing! IT sits on top of the mountain, overlooking an expansive landscape, and is covered in acacia trees that provide lots of shade. In the center of the site is the 'Chumba' which is a thatched roof outdoor dining area. To the right of it is the bathroom that has running water, flushing toilets, and semi-warm water! Living in luxury. In front of the Chumba are all of the tents, scattered around and in between the trees. In front of all of the tents is a fire pit at the edge of the mountain that provides a beautiful view of open fields and rolling hills. Really wish I could upload pictures to show what I can't even put into words.

This morning (finally present tense) we had orientation which triggered my realization that I'm in Africa. Instead of the typical orientation topics they told us about the dangers of living at the campsite; the possibility of running into large predators and what to do if this happens, the importance of wearing long pants and carrying a flashlight at night because of black and green mambas and egyptian cobras (getting a poisonous bite is pretty much untreatable in Tanzania and Kenya..), and the dangers of skittish buffalo.

So far the program is going great! It's really amazing being with students with similar academic and personal interests. There's even a girl that has a family mortuary hah hah.

Will try to update as much as possible.

And sorry if my writing is horrible it's been a long day.