Orientation at Ndarakwai Ranch

So for some insane reason i actually have internet! I'm literally in the middle of the african savanna but this guy who runs a ranch next to us has wireless, which we're pretty sure he gets from Kenya. we're about 30 miles south of the kenyan border, in northern Tanzania, at a place called ndarawkwai ranch. we have a fairly good view of mount kilimanjaro as well! ive only been here 2.5 days but i have already have the most amazing time so far. we landed at mt. kilimanjaro airport and were quickly loaded up on a big bus and taken 80 km on the bumpiest dirt road i have ever experienced. although 80km is only about 50 miles it took around 2.5 hours because we were going 5mph at most times :) we saw zebra on the way to camp, which was so cool because it was our first time seeing an animal here! once at camp we were fed a great spaghetti and leek soup dinner at 1am and all fell asleep after setting up our tents in the dark. well, i didnt really sleep, i woke up at 5am and just decided to get up and have some coffee. we have coffee and tea about 4 times a day here. the next day the goal was to "keep us all awake" because we were all suffering from 10 hour time changes. we had an amazing breakfast (fresh papaya, toast, eggs, juice...the food here is SO good, and the camp crew that cooks it all are local Tanzanians) and then went on a hike up a small mountain where we had an incredible view. we are really in the middle of nowhere..you cant see anything for miles. but on our walk we saw warthogs, zebra, elephants, and even giraffe way off in the distance! its amazing to think that its all just wild, we're not in a contained area. i got a million ticks but theyre small and dont have lyme disease so thats good. the rest of the day we discussed the different aspects of the program and went to bed at about 8pm, and i can happily say i slept right through until 6am, which i really needed. oh yeah, i also took a shower yesterday which was good. it lasted about 4 minutes and i probably still have shampoo in my hair but hey, its a shower.
today we had our first swahili lesson and learned all the proper greetings etc. tonight we have a night game drive where we drive out in big safari cars and see some more wildlife that only come out at night. tomorrow we're going to village to go to church and then have a sort of bbq type thing after. We have orientation unttil next Wednesday when we are bussed into Arusha and officially start Kiswahili class and our homestays!
ok i meant to write more but i just found out the guy whose internet we are stealing pays per megabyte through his phone so i feel bad so im gunna cut this short. i'll probably be able post next week!