I'm there

After a very long journey, I finally arrived at the Youth With A Mission base here in Morogoro. Actually, it's 10 km away from Morogoro... So it's a bit more in the middle of nowhere than I thought at first still.

Anyway, the very friendly couple Sitini and Sered were waiting for me on the airport, and drove me to the YWAM base. The journey took about four hours, including a small stay at the only highway restaurant that's along that road. This "highway" is one of Africa's main roads: it goes all the way to South Africa, and if you take a turn at THE main roundabout of Tanzania, you can go to Kongo and beyond as well. I guess a peculiar fact is that the road has just one lane for each direction...

I could also have gone by the direct train but that takes about twice as long - while we were averaging 75 km/h on the highway.

When leaving Dar-Es-Salaam, the country's capital and the destination of my final flight, I got a first glimpse of the lives of the people here. Most houses have roofs made out of wave metal sheets, and there were so many people apparently making a living from selling things next to and on the road. There were people living in ruins, even. After seeing all of this, the stories about those Africans charging western people five times as much as other Africans don't sound like a crime so much anymore, at all. It simply makes sense...

I guess the base is a relatively good place to stay. The houses are solid, the gardens are well maintained, there's perfect electricity etc. By Western standards I guess it can be called primitive - there's no internet (except for "the office"), the shower's more like a tap that just happens to be mounted very high and there's no hot water, at all. But at least you can drink it without getting sick... It tastes horrible, but you can drink it.

The people here are very friendly, I got a very warm welcome ("Welcome to Tanzania. Hululululululululu!"). Joshua especially is great - he's sort of looking after me, and sort of showed me around. The English students are very curious and love to practice their English with me.

Last friday, the day after my arrival, I spent most of my time in the English School itself. I may have to teach there as well. There are twelve students (including one muslim, surprisingly - they made him pray for our lunch) and four teachers, excluding me. There is much more interaction with the class than what I'm used to - they have to actually "drill" words there, and the students are constantly asked whether they understood what was being explained and told to make example sentences etc. Even though most students are far in their twenties, the English being tought is pretty basic.

Tomorrow Joshua and I are going to Morogoro. I hope to upload this text there then, as I actually wrote it on my laptop on friday. Weekends are always free, which is fortunate since still have quite some sleep to catch up with - I had to stay in Dubai airport from half past midnight to half past ten, which wasn't fun.

What'll happen in the days therafter I don't know... I might be in front of the class by then. For now I can only take things as they come.