Since I arrived in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday evening I’ve been staying in an incredible hostel called CEFA, an Italian NGO.  It’s a tall white building covered in pink floral vines with a rooftop terrace that overlooks the Indian Ocean.  Here I am in a developing nation with better accomodations than the dorms!  I was shocked!  They’ve been serving us a home made breakfast of rolls and local tropical jams, fresh bananas, eggs from the chickens outside, ginger tea, and chicory coffee.  Again, better than the breakfast I prepare for myself at school.  We’ve been discovering the former capital of Tanzania all week with an awesome Tanzanian guide named Patrick.  He’s been teaching us Swahili (how to thank, greet, barter, etc) and keeping us in the best parts of town.  He’s been a huge help! 

This morning we left Dar es Salaam and headed for Morogoro, a much smaller village about 3 hours from Dar.  Ironically enough, we’re staying in the HiLux Hotel.  Again, very comfortable accomodations aside from the pet lizzard in our room that won’t seem to run back out the door.  In trying to get him outside, we’ve only let the mosquitoes in.  You win some you lose some.  We arrived mid afternoon.  I ate kuku wa kopaka for lunch (a traditional Tanzanian dish that’s basically coconut sauce on chicken wings with veggie rice) and a beer known as Safari.  DELISH!  The rest of the day was spent playing soccer with some of the locals and walking around the town to get our footing.  For being so rural, the town is obviously making serious efforts to become more developed.  Three cell phone stores in a row serve as one example.  Dinner wasn’t worth writing home about, but it did the job.  And like I said, I’m eating better than I usually do when I microwave frozen meals at school anyway!

Tomorrow we’re off to Sekoine University of Agriculture to learn more about the country’s #1 industry and how it effects quality of life, land, and community planning.  Should be really cool.  I’ll write again once we reach Udzungwa Mountains National Park, the place where we’ll be settled for 4 weeks, on Monday.

My internet connection doesn’t allow for me to upload photos, so I’d be happy to share once I’m home!

Location: Morogoro, Tanzania