<p>Here is another report on the trials and joys of junior year (or in our case semester) abroad. We finally made contact with D in Arusha, northern Tanzania. She is spending the spring semester studying wildlife ecology and conservation to complement her biology major and environmental science and policy minor at Smith.</p>
<p>We were warned that contacts would be infrequent due to sporadic internet access, poor telephone lines and many trips to very remote areas. We sent her with a cell phone with a Tanzanian sim card and many laborious instructions on how to get it working. </p>
<p>They went straight from the Kilimanjaro airport (got there via New York, Dubai and Nairobi) out into the bush, where they camped, got to know each other and the Academic director (Baba Jack) and had several fantastically close encounters with elephants, monkeys and beasts I don’t care to think about! </p>
<p>Then it was back to Arusha for 24 hours where they stayed in a modest hotel, before heading out for their 3-week home-stays with Tanzanian families in a little village on the slopes of Mount Meru outside Arusha. They will be taking intensive Swahili lessons together during the day, and then go off to their families. D’s family consists of Mama and Baba, five children ages 1-13, one “helper”, two cows, several goats and chickens. They have no electricity, but do have running water.</p>
<p>Our first contact with D was an e-mail she wrote from an internet cafe stating that she had not gone with the others to start the home-stay, she was still in the hotel because she was sick. They had taken her to the clinic that morning, and both her malaria test and white blood cell counts were normal. She was already feeling better, just nauseous and lethargic, and we shouldn’t worry!</p>
<p>Yeah, right! I got on the phone with her program, found out the name of the hotel, and after several very humorous attempts at communicating with various staff, got D on the phone. She was pretty annoyed with me for making such a fuss, but got happier after we finally figured out why the cell phone wasn’t working. We have now chatted and text-messaged several times, and I think this will be our mode of communication for the next few months. </p>
<p>She is now off with her host family, and next week they will be dropping them off at the Arusha market to practice every-day Swahili, and then they are supposed to make their own way back to the village! The common mode of transportation is the “dalla-dalla” a shared minibus/taxi that often crams in 15-20 people! D said she had already tried this once, she wasn’t to worried.</p>
<p>The next few months are packed with trips to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, another week long home-stay with a Maasai family, independent project and more. More updates to follow.</p>