My New Tanzanian Life: First Days

I’m lying in my new bed of my new home, my home for maybe 2 years. It’s incredible. It’s surreal. It feels like I’m living someone elses’ life. There’s a lovely breeze blowing through my new curtains, birds chirping out my window, and I can hear the kids yelling and playing outside. I’ve already received a picture of a pumpkin drawn by my new friend Dickson, who held my hand through my whole tour of the Village. My cleaning mama has made my home look spic and span, and during my two long breaks today I unpacked everything and found a place for it. This already feels like my home.

I arrived at the Kilimanjaro International Airport around 1pm Monday. It took only about 10 minutes to walk off the plane into the welcoming fresh and hot air of Arusha, fill out an entry card, hand that with my passport and $100 to the immigration officers, and walk out with a handwritten visa in my passport. My bags were waiting for me on the conveyor belt, and after wheeling them 15 feet I found Moody, my driver holding a sign that said “Heather Sibet.” He greeted me with a big grin and questions about me and my home country and my trip arriving. He along with a friend loaded up my bags into our African mini-van, and we went barreling off down the road to the KIA lodge where we picked up the Sponsorship Coordinator staff Ashby.

Ashby and I spent the drive chatting, and we stopped in Arusha at Stiggbucks where we sat in a lovely outdoor garden patio and ate our lunch of GORGEOUS salads and iced coffees. We looked through Shop Rite, the Western-style grocery store, and it looks like I’ll be able to get all the necessities there.

Then we took off from Arusha to drive to RVCV! The drive took about 3 hours, I think. It’s hard to say because there was some unexpected traffic, a road detour, and 2 stops along the way because we saw GIRAFFES about 30 yards away, and I kept taking pictures out the window and our driver would stop so I could get out if I wanted. We also saw banana groves, coffee plantations, Lake Manyara, the little town of Karatu, and baboons! Not to mention a lot of cows, goats, and chickens—sometimes in the middle of the road. There were also Masai people selling things on the side of the road or going about their business of herding cattle or walking through the fields.

Finally, after a road so steep and bumpy that I had to close my eyes at some points, we arrived! I was greeted by Megan, whom I’ll be replacing as Volunteer Coordinator, and my bags were taken into my new wonderful home. I have a bedroom, sitting room, and bathroom all to myself in a little house. Unbelievable .

We went straight to the Volunteer House to join everyone for dinner. We had green beans, salad, shepherd’s pie, mashed potatoes, and fried chicken. Everything was great, and I met the 5 current volunteers. I went directly home to take a very much needed hot shower (the staff build a fire for each house every day in the afternoon to heat the water, it lasts a couple hours but yesterday they built my fire later because of my evening arrival), and went right to sleep, from 8ish pm to 6:30 am.

I got up and went to breakfast at 7:30, where I was treated to the Tanzanian pancakes I had heard about. Delicious thick but airy crepe-type pancakes, plus my first cup of coffee from the local plantation. I then got a 3 hour break to rest and unpack, and at 11 Megan took me on a tour of the whole facilities. There was a lot to see and people to meet! There are 5 houses of kids, 3 boy houses and 2 girl houses. Each house has 2 house mamas to take care of the kids, and 1-2 volunteers living in them to help. There is a staff house for the 20ish Tanzanian staff who live here, and houses for the foreign staff too. Some men were building new furniture when I walked through, washing cars, mamas were doing laundry and cleaning houses, prepping food for lunch, etc. The kids went to their morning classes, then had organized play time before lunch. Just walking through, the kids and mamas are so cheerful and friendly, asking my name, giving me hugs, and repeating “Karibu” – welcome.

At 12:30 we ate lunch—pizza, salad, watermelon, leek soup, and incredible brownies. Now I’m on a rest break until 2:30, when Megan will do more training with me.

I feel incredibly blessed to be here. I can’t believe my good fortune to have the chance to live in this heavenly beautiful place and to get to be loved and love each child and employee throughout my time with them.