Flight and arrival

Hujambo!!

         Our trip to Dar es Salaam was pretty smooth, other than our delay in Atlanta. The two longest flights were 8 and 9 hours and we spent no more than an hour in Amsterdam in between those two flights. 

          On the first lengthy flight, I was seated in between Nick and a very large Swedish man with bad breath and the airplane was easily 80 degrees. Needless to say I was pretty uncomfortable. My discomfort vanished, however, when I finally saw my hot pink suitcase at baggage claim in the Dar es Salaam airport. 

         We went around the city to avoid the heaviest traffic on the way to the hotel. We finally arrived at White Sands Hotel and Resort at 11:00 pm (Tanzanian time). I was assigned to a room with Alex who was a fabulous roommate. We were happy to see that a mosquito net was provided to surround our two single beds while we slept. 

    I was surprised by how nice the resort was! It was beautiful and right on the water. 

      

        We ate dinner very late with a colleague of Dr. Beymer-Farris named Dr. Ian Bryceson. He was raised in Tanzania and now lives and works at a university in Norway. Each student was introduced to him and was asked to give an interesting fact. I shared with the group that my family calls me bunny instead of my name. Dr. Beymer-Farris and Dr. Bryceson decided it would be funny to call me bunny in Swahili for the duration of the trip. I am now Kahlulu. 

       I warmed up to the name after he gave a short anecdote about the significance of the rabbit in Tanzania. Apparently the rabbit is the most clever of all the animals. It is much smaller than the stronger animals like lions and leopards but it is smarter and able to outwit them. I kiddingly responded that, naturally, it was a perfect description for me. 

       We left dinner and headed back to the room to go to bed. The shower was scorching hot while I showered then freezing cold when Alex showered. I found it very difficult to keep my mouth closed during the entire shower. We brush our teeth with bottled water and tried to avoid the tap when possible. I wanted to go to bed at a decent hour but had difficulty even after taking melatonin. I was exhausted but excited to see how how the next three weeks would play out.