We're Here!

We landed in Dar es Salaam early this morning after 2 long flights. We also laid over in London for about 10 hours. The driver from our hotel picked us up and sped us through the busy streets of Dar. We passed all sorts of people, some in what we know as traditional dress, others in very modern western dress. There were city buses everywhere crammed with people. Our van was pretty full itself. The ride to the hotel took about 40 minutes...but I think many of us were half asleep. Our hotel is located outside of town quite a ways. So we passed the plain structured houses...rusty tin roofs and lopsided cinderblock walls, of roofs made of leaves woven together then we passed huge compounds with massive walls all facing the ocean. We're sitting right on the Indian Ocean. The sands are white and the water is crystal blue in some spots. Though we can't walk along it because there is a fence or something like that that keeps our hotel off it. Our hotel is really luxurious. We've got three rooms, three to a room. Each room has a bathroom and a fan and TV! It's nice to have a place to rest up after all the travel but we're all eager to get on to Arusha. Tomorrow we will go by bus...it will take 8 hours!
Celine and Kara and I went out with a Taxi driver to the city centre to buy our bus tickets, exchange money and get bottled water. The driver, Miller, was very kind and he pointed out sites along the way. He showed the houses of the first three presidents of Tanzania since it's emancipation from Britain in 1961. There are bliboards everywhere advertising things like mobile phones and Coca Cola. We passed some pretty western looking shopping centres. At one point Miller directed our attention to Times Square. There were all sorts of western like shops but passing along in front was a young boy pushing a huge wheelbarrow full of grass. There are men delivering eggs on their bikes and on the back are just stacks of eggs! We were all very nervous as we watched them dip in and out of traffic. There are very few streetlights or stop signs. It took us 3 hours to go into town and back! Tomorrow we have to leave at 5:30 to catch our 8:30 bus! I think we'll be alright though none of us have any idea what time it is, anyway.
Well, we'll talk more soon!

Maria