Our First Day

We finally arrived to the town of Arusha after 2 very long days of flying, layovers and airplane food. It was a relief to get out and stretch our legs. Our future safari guide, Lawrence picked us up at the tiny airport and drove us to our hotel about an hour away. It was quite an experience driving through the little town. There is hardly ever power so we drove in total darkness. We could see families eating by candlelight and talking to friends by generator powered lights. We turned a corner and hit stopped traffic. As we moved closer, we could see a giant bus like the ones people use for sightseeing tours here. It's windows were broken and there was blood smeared on one side. This was one out of the few unsettling things we saw in Tanzania. People there drive so erratically, you hold on to your chair for dear life. Stuck behind a slow car? No worries, just swerve into oncoming traffic and go around. There are no stoplights because the power isn't consistent enough to run them so you basically smack your head into the ceiling every 30 seconds going over speed bumps. We finally arrived at our hotel after traveling up a rocky hill. If you have ever been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, you can imagine how it felt. We got to our room, met my sister, then basically passed out on the beds. We woke up in the morning to the smell of raw sewage. You learn very quickly that many toilets in Africa don't work very well. My sister had to go to work at Faraja and we decided to tag along. Hailing a taxi at the hotel, we made our way back down the hill and drove for about 5 minutes until we reached the center. There was a small turnoff that most people would just look right over but, at my sisters request, we turned. There were a few small stores, then another turnoff leading to Faraja. As we entered the gates, my stomach was full of butterflies. I couldn't believe we had heard so much about this place and we were finally here! The taxi dropped us off in one of many courtyards and we headed towards the daycare. The words Baby Class were written in rainbow colors on the side and crude paintings of Timon and Pumba were next to the door. We walked in and saw all the kids in little chairs sitting in a circle around the room. I took a seat on  the couch, which I later found out was saturated in little kid pee. My sister introduced us and I took out my iPod to start filming. The kids were drawn to it and I instantly made 26 or so new friends. The kids played in Baby Class for about an hour before going outside to play in the brand new playground for the first time. It was basically a sand pit with a swing set and a "car" made of an old trash barrel. They loved it! It was interesting to watch these kids have so much fun with so little.

I think thats a long enough blog for now :P I will post more short blogs about the kids and some experiences we had. This should be the longest thing I post for a while :)