I'm sitting in the rooftop restaurant at the hotel- the sun has just risen and it's a cold and rainy morning. There are a million sounds coming up from the street level, voices in at least 4 recognizable languages, loud honking, shouts of street vendors and the rain splashing under the car tires as they pass by. I purposely took an extra long shower this morning in anticipation of not showering until we get back to Nairobi, next Thursday. We haven't made concrete plans for when we will head back to Nairobi- Charles and I have decided to see how things play out and decide based on how comfortable everyone is.
I woke up early this morning with many things on my mind. Lahale's family speaks 3 languages- Masaai, Kswahili and (very seldom) English. I spent a lot of time brainstorming last night different lesson ideas for the children.
The past two mornings I have woken up at five o'clock on the dot to loud chants from the local mosque- the first morning in Nairobi, Kenya and the second in Arusha, Tanzania. Pretty neat experience...although alarming the songs are beautiful. There is a much larger Muslim population in Arusha than in Nairobi perhaps becuase Arusha is closer to the Indian Ocean, where Arab traders settled on the coast in the 19th century. Arusha is clearly a tourist town with Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Nrugurga (sp?) crater very close by. I love this African grunge, hostel lifestyle I've already had two hippy looking people approach me to ask if I wanted to join a group of people to check out the crater.
I had my second Kswahili lesson yesterday from Charles- I can officially count to ten, say hello and how are you, ask what your name is and some others... more to come!
Next time I write I will have come and gone from the village with much more to say
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