JAMBO! (What's up?!)

Tanzania reminds me so much of Haiti: the climate, the culture, the people, the terrain, everything really. So I will start with my travel to Tanzania first and go from there.

I prayed that I would have many opportunities to share the gospel on this trip and Heavenly Father has already been blessing me with those. On my very first flight I sat next to Carl who is not a member of the Church. He is Lutheran and is very fond of Mormons. He had many Mormon friends growing up and his father just converted about four years ago. He has read the Book of Mormon already and owns his own copy. He feels like people shouldn't judge us or say negative things about us just because they don't know us. I immediately knew he'd be receptive. We talked for a good portion of the plane ride and I asked if he was willing to go to church where he lives in North Carolina and to meet with the missionaries and he accepted! So I got his contact information to send in as a referral on mormon.org. He has mine as well.

The other sweet opportunity I had was on the flight to Ethiopa from London. I sat next to a woman from Zambia. She is Christian but had never really heard about Mormons before. I love it when that happens because they aren't tainted with the negativity and bad press from most of the world. She was very interested in our beliefs and asked where she could get a copy of the Book of Mormon. Luckily I brought copies to give away! She said she would read it on her next flight. I gave her a mormon.org card, but I didn't know if there were missionaries in Zambia so I didn't get her contact information. I later found out that there are...

Right when I got off the plane and stepped foot on African ground, I loved it! It's paradise here for sure. Perfect weather all the time and everyone is very friendly. One of my country directors, Melinda, came to pick me up with Dennis (a local) and his friend that drove us. It was probably a 45 minute drive to the house. It still takes getting used to everything being opposite with driving and driving on the "wrong" side of the road and everything. I love it though.

After that we immediately went to the Masai Cafe all got pizza... I was kind of disappointed because I just wanted to eat African food while I'm here (in due time, I have eaten plenty since). I met the rest of my team as well.

FOOD: Ugali is a main dish here which is like mashed potatoes but made with corn, or maze as they call it here. It is normally eaten with "chips" or fries, and any kind of meat really, mainly chicken, beef, and fish. They also have what is called chipatti (sp?) which is like their version of a tortilla and a crepe mixed together. We have a cook that cooks for us every evening from Sunday night through Thursday night. We are on our own for lunches every day and for the weekends. Breakfast is paid for by HELP, but it's the food we buy at the supermarket (Shoprite) here. We mainly have PB&J sandwiches. The jam's are soooooooo good here. They have all kinds of crazy assortments. My personal favorite so far being mango passion fruit. We got cereal for the first time yesterday as well as milk, yogurt, and muffins to switch things up. No one really shops at the supermarket except for white people. Most just use the local markets to buy everything. The fruit here is amazing, don't worry.

MONEY: their currency is in shillings (Tsh). It is about 1,600 Tsh per one US dollar. Dala dala (van) rides are 400 Tsh per ride (25 cents). Water, drinks, and bread can be about 800 Tsh (50 cents). Meals range from 4,000-12,000  Tsh ($3-7) depending on the place you go. Everything is relatively cheap here.

HOUSE: Three guys in our room, one married couple in a room, 4 girls in another, and 8 girls in another. Two very meager bathrooms. Two floors. Tile flooring in the living room. A good sized kitchen with a broken stove, a refrigerator, and a sink. It's weird not just drinking water from wherever I want. I miss that. We just have to use drinking water for everything. Our bathrooms has the smallest sink ever haha I will get pictures of everything I promise. We actually have toilets which are nice because most places just have "squatty potties" as we call them. Classic hole in the ground with no toilet paper. Our bath tub has no shower but a hand held shower head with a cord. The first night I was here there was no pressure in the showers. It had been like that for everyone else the whole time they were here. It was a light drizzle which made things take a long time. Two days later we got pressure in the hose and it was the biggest miracle ever! My room doesn't have a light working in it, but I am glad I have that headlamp! The house was found and rented out literally a day before everyone got here so they have all had to help with things like building the beds and stuff like that. We have mosquito nets (very annoying while sleeping). We all have a daily chore as well that we will rotate through every week.

PEOPLE: The people call us mzungus. Most just stare at us, but they are friendly in general. They will say hi to us. They always respond when we say "mambo" to them. The response is "poa" which just means cool essentially. The children are the most adorable people I have ever seen. Ever single one is so cute. They usually know one American phrase, "How are you?!" which they repeat over and over and over again. They jump up and down, smile, scream at us like we're celebrities. Coolest thing ever. We have visited a couple of Masai villages already and the kids are so fun to play with. They swarm us and after they become comfortable with us they hold our hands. They love getting their picture taken and then looking at the picture on the backs of our cameras. We try to teach them games, like the hand slapping game I played in Haiti with the children; rock, paper, scissors; "down by the banks of the hankie pankie" game/song. Super fun!

TRANSPORTATION: the best way to travel is on dala dala's or vans that have 16 seats, very crammed, but can hold up to 26 people, including the driver. It's nuts. The driver has an accomplice that will get out at each stop, or even just before a stop, to recruit customers. They will whistle and honk relentlessly and immediately pull over if they think you might need a ride at all. They also have Piki piki, which are motorcycles. They cost about 1,000 Tsh (60 cents), but no one has ridden one yet... they are pretty sketch and unsafe. I will eventually though! The driving here is crazy. People are always honking but it's not with a negative connotation like in the US, it's just to let others know where you are. People cross the street wherever they want. The lines in the middle of the road essentially mean nothing because people will pass any who are slower even with oncoming traffic. Motorcycles will pass by so close on the sides of us. You would think they are bad drivers (and they probably are), but that have skill because they drive crazy close to everything and know what they're doing.

CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Perfect weather, maybe in the 70s constantly and mildly overcast. The land is so beautiful. It is very green and some parts we go to looks like a jungle almost. The farming in some areas is gorgeous, rolling hills sometimes. It's very hard to describe and pictures don't do it justice. It's breathtaking though for sure. There aren't as many mosquitos as I thought there would be. I have a few bites but not too bad.

PROJECTS: We are starting the research for the projects today. We have met some of the local partners already but haven't worked on anything yet. It is very based on the team members and where our interest lies and our motivation to help the people here. We research ideas or look at former ideas. We contact the local partners and see if they are interested or see what kind of help they might need. We figure out an estimated pricing and come up with a proposal/write up for it. Then we go to work! One that I am interested in already is helping build a well for water for villages.

TIME: The pace in Tanzania is very slow and with how long transportation takes, everything just takes that much longer to do. We always want to do so many things but we have to be back at 6 p.m. every night and the time goes by quick. It is a definite adjustment to the insanely fast paced life of America. I like it though. Everyone is just chill.

POPULATION: There are 45 million people that live here. It is divided into about 25 regions, kind of like states. Swahili is the main language spoken. Villagers often speak Masai. It is like the native indigenous people here. We visited a Masai village and made beaded jewelry with them. They sang/danced to us and we sang/danced with them too. Super fun.

MY TEAM: We have our country directors Melinda (26), single, and Ellen (32), single. Ellen is from Sweden and worked with HELP for a summer in Uganda in 2010. There is a married couple, Jeff (26) and Brittany (23). There are only two other guys; Andrew (21) and Greg (24). Andrew goes to University of Utah, served a mission in Barcelona, Spain. He left when he was 18 because his dad was a mission president at the time. Greg served in Cambodia, Vietnamese speaking. He teaches Arabic at BYU. Both are single. Mia (20ish) is Vietnamese and attending BYU. It is crazy because Greg home taught her for a while but they didn't know they be on this trip together until just shortly before leaving. Mary (19), nonmember from PA. Lex (21), nonmember from Chicago. She has been to Tanzania previously for four months and knows Swahili. Kaitlyn (20) goes to Utah State and plays volleyball there. Angeleah (everyone is around 20-21 years old) is from Las Vegas and is a hair dresser. Emily is from St. George and going to Dixie. Cami goes to Utah State and is from UT. Sam is from UT and going to BYU. She leaves tonight though for her knee surgery complications. Caroline is Andrew's cousin and is from UT. Melinda, Lex, and Mary have all gotten extensions put into their hair done in a weave pattern so it looks like dreads.

It is a surreal experience for me to literally be in Africa! We will get to go on a safari in the next couple weeks or so for 3-4 days to visit the Serengeti plains and the ngoro goro crater. Both are of the 7 natural wonders of Africa.

It is a humbling experience and makes me grateful for all the things I have been spoiled with my whole life. Clean drinking water, paved roads, a trash system where people come to pick up our trash or where there are even places to put it (they burn their trash here usually), an abundance of food whenever I want it and unlimited variety, good house with everything working, an education, sports, opportunities, etc. America is the promised land and a blessed people live there. Never forget!