A-town!

so we've made it to Arusha! curently sitting in an internet cafe on an 80s style dell which is super slow. we said goodbye to Ndarakwai at 9am this morning and hopped into Land Rovers which took us about 100 km to arusha. last night at Ndarakwai was amazing, we got to watch the sun set from a treehouse, and watched as zebras and giraffe and elephant came to the watering hole to drink.
once in arusha, we checked into Klub Afriko and we are all staying in little bungalows with full showers and bathrooms! we're all so excited to have our first real shower since we left the states. SIT rented out the entire hotel for us so we have it all  to ourselves. Doreen, our assistant director, is setting us all up with cell phones as we speak. its insane how cheap things are. The half an hour of internet i am currently pay ing for cost me about 50 cents, and our phones only cost 12 dollars. we have a health lecture tonight but then have the rest of the night free. theres a local bar at the hotel that we are all going to hang out at tonight. Thursday and friday we have free in Arusha and then Saturday morning we get to go to our homestays in Bangata, which is about 3km outside of Arusha on the slopes of Mt. Meru, which is the second highest mtn in Tanzania. Arusha is a pretty busy little city, the drivers are INSANE and dont really stop for you. we have also gotten a lot of shouts of "mzungu" which means "white person" from many drivers.
oh i also havent talked about our academic director Reese, or as we call him "Baba Jack". hes an American who has lived in Tanzania for over 20 years now. he is probably one of the coolest people i have ever met...his outlook on life is really laid back and he has planned this program in Tanzania perfectly, giving us plenty of time to get immersed in the culture while also balancing academics. Doreen is our assistant: shes a native tanzanian who was formally educated in kenya and comes with us on safari and helps run the SIT office.
gotta run, internet time is running low.
for all you methow people who know Ellen Whalen, she is alive too and currently sitting next to me!!! :)