Salamu (Greetings) from Tanzania,
Jina langu ni Katie, which means my name is Katie. I am a senior nursing major and am excited to be able to share about my day with you all. For those of you who do not yet know we have arrived in Tanzania without experiencing any complications, we all have our luggage, and we are safe.
We had a pretty busy day today starting out with a delicious breakfast in which we all discovered how amazing passion fruit juice is. After breakfast, we had the opportunity to learn some Swahili from a translator/instructor of Swahili. We learned several different Swahili words and phrases that will help us communicate with the local people of Tanzania. One thing we learned how to say is habari, which means do you have any news. To respond to this we say nzuri, which means all is good. We all had a good time trying to pronounce all of the new Swahili words. After this we had lunch consisting of kuku (chicken) wraps, which is a dish that is commonly eaten by people in Tanzania. Later in the afternoon we were blessed with the opportunity to listen to a panel of people talk about Tanzania's health care system, politics, education, and social work. We learned about the health care system from Nai, politics from Henri, education from Selina, and social work from Nosium. Through this our understanding of Tanzania and its people has grown, and it has opened our eyes. We exchanged money later on in the day in downtown Arusha, and we were also able to go into our first shop. It was really interesting being able to see all of the things inside the shop and how they each represented a piece of the Tanzanian culture. I personally bought 2 colorful tapestries: one was of a giraffe walking during a sunset and another was of tribal people dancing. We also got our first taste of what it is like to bargain with people selling things on the streets in order to make a living. We were bombarded by several different people trying to sell their items, which was overwhelming but definitely a cultural experience worth having. We ended the day eating at a Tanzanian restaurant called Nicki's in which we were served either fish (whole fish with the head and scales) and chicken. It was a wonderful experience being able to eat a meal surrounded by local people. My heart broke when we saw street children asking for food and a man suffering from the effects of cerebral palsy/polio hobbling around in the restaurant begging for money. It definitely puts everything in perspective of how blessed we are in the United States and how much we take for granted.
Tomorrow we have a group of girls going on a hospice visit to poverty stricken areas, and another group of girls visiting the Maasai Cultural Museum and doing some shopping. Please continue to pray for us that God will use us and that His light will shine through to us. Please also pray that God will give us strength and understanding as we are faced with difficult situations that we may never be able to understand. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Asante sana (thank you very much),
Katie Allen
