The last few days have been quite the wild ride. We left at 6:15 am on June 23rd from Portland and arrived at Kilimanjaro international airport at 8:30 pm on June 24th. Needless to say we were exhausted. When we got off the plane in Kili, we were somewhat on pins and needles waiting to find out if our luggage made it, if we had a ride from the airport, and if a room had been reserved for us at the hostel. Fortunately, everything went off like clockwork. We got our visas, all of our luggage arrived and Dr. Lee was waiting for us when we came through customs. He had already reserved a room for us at the hostel and the room was ready for us when we arrived 40 minutes later.
It’s not exactly the presidential suite (ahem, Mom, Melinda and Mary Lynn!) but it’s safe, we have beds, toilets and showers and the people are very friendly and helpful. We had to wander around a bit this morning to find some bottled water and enjoyed our first expedition around Arusha. We found a supermarket with basic amenities and bought some bottled water and hand soap. When we got back to the hostel we decided that we needed to find Mt Meru hospital and Dr Lee and get a little bit of help figuring out the city. We made a new friend, who we think is named Roger. We think he’s the Maasai guard for the hostel, but he took an hour or so and showed us around, showed us how to get to the hospital, taught us some swahili and bought us some chapati which we happily munched on. We’re not entirely sure what chapati is, but we think it’s some sort of flour and water, fried flatbread. Lindsay referred to it as “an elephant ear without the cinnamon and sugar”.
Dr. Lee wasn’t at the hospital when we stopped by the Roger, but he said he could meet there in about 40 minutes. We wandered around a bit and met him back there where he took us to run a couple errands where we could get sim cards for our phones, exchange some money and introduced us to a local quiet haven: The Blue Heron. The Blue Heron is a bit of a local tourist hang out with very friendly staff and they have free internet if you just buy a drink! Fantastic!
All in all, I’m quite proud of our navigation skills and am very thankful that everything has worked out. We’ve learned a few swahili phrases and managed to make the locals laugh. Lindsay has already been told she has a “crazy memory”.
This is so awesome! I am a high school classmate of your Dad's and he told me about your blog. We are heading to Tanzania ourselves on 9/10/10 for a 9 day safari. Thanks for the tip of the Blue Heron since we will also be in Arusha. I look forward to reading more of your blog.
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