Habari from Africa!

Hey, Waldie'ssoon-to-be-in-law Fuzzy here -- Waldie is sending emails back from Africa and I'll be posting them here. Enjoy! Waldie starts... now:

Hey Folks!

As you can see from this [post], Chris and I made it to Tanzania! We are in Africa y'all! We still can't believe it. But the sights, sounds and smells around us can't deny it. This is Africa.

So the long and short of it is this. Our flights were fine. Long but uneventful. And long. Did I mention the flights were long? Oy! We were ready to be out of moving transport when we arrived last night. But our friend's friend, Predi, picked us up at the airport when we arrived and drove us to her sister's house. The house was about a 45 minute drive (through a maze)
into the "suburbs" of Dar. Her house was very nice though and they really gave us the royal treatment. They had cooked us dinner and bought us soft drinks and gave up one of their rooms for us. We ate and talked a little, had a "shower" (poured cold water over ourselves) and went to bed. The house had electricity (and a TV and computer) but no running water, though ironically it did have all the accoutrements for it (faucets and such). For a toilet we went in essentially a hole in the floor and poured water down it. You'll see picts.

This AM we awoke to the sounds of women singing, men selling their wares on the road, birds chirping and a rooster. We were pretty tired this AM but got up and had a really nice breakfast, though Chris was feeling a little ill (from the travel I think). Another sister, Jacki, took us around the burbs to see the school in which she taught and to show us the "neighbors." This was a really nice introduction to Tanzania and a nice welcome. The streets in the area are all unpaved and the houses ranged from hovels with barely a roof, to really nice brick enclosures with whole compounds. We were quite a site, apparently. The little kids were saying to us Mzungu (white person) and Shikamoo (a greeting of respect).

We are in the City center of Dar now in a hotel (the Safari Inn) which looks almost like a hole in the wall but is quite sufficient. There is a restaurant attached. We have a double bed and a private bathroom. And there are a bunch of westerners staying here too. The lobby also has a TV and computers, where Chris and I are typing this. We plan to rest the remainder of the day (it's almost 6:00 PM here) and eat at the hotel to rest up for tomorrow when we'll probably do some exploring.

Ok, I'll sign off now so Chris can check his email. We will write again in a few more days to give another update. We love you all and can't wait to get home to share our pictures and our stories in person with you all.

Kwa Herini,
Waldie and Chris