We (me and 40 other volunteers) all arrived in Dar es Salaam four days ago after experiencing some frustrating airport delays and about 36 hours of travel, but something cool that we all learned about some African countries, while having a 7-hour layover in Ethiopia, is that the entire airport clears out and shuts down for lunch and the airport offers free lunch to the customers while we all ate a set meal outside the airport security with the staff and other travelers. People seem to value meals and respect meal times much more than I have ever considered doing myself. We eventually got to the hotel in Dar es Salaam where we will stay for the first week to get acclimated and take some “survival language” and other necessary cultural courses to be able to survive in our home stays for the next 3 months. The days have been super packed but filled with great conversation and more language than I thought I would ever be capable of learning in three days. The schedule we have been following is 5:45-6:45AM watch the sunset by the beach or go for a run/walk with a partner, 7:00-8:00AM is breakfast, followed by language lessons and cultural survival lessons from Tanzanian teachers. These lessons include how the dress appropriately, how to take your daily malaria prophylaxis and how to choose which we want to be on, how to handle some of the cultural norms that we have not experienced and how to address them with the respect and an open mind, and all about Tanzanian culture. At 10:00-10:30AM is the nationwide recognized “tea time” where people stop for coffee or tea and a small snack, after this time we continue lessons until 12:30 when we eat lunch. The lunches have consisted mostly of rice, fish/chicken, veggies, and fruits (the best fruit I have ever had). After lunch we continue lessons until “Soda” another nationwide recognized time to have a break and a drink with a small snack before continuing lessons until 7:00PM when we have dinner. So it feels like I am pretty much just eating and learning right now, but it is all much more interesting than I ever thought it would be and I am starting to appreciate the Tanzanian value for snacks and resting :). Everywhere I go and every Tanzanian I have spoken to so far is super excited to try to talk to you and very friendly and willing to help you learn their language, which can get frustrating when there is so much I want to say but I know so little, but everybody (strangers included) speak slowly and are happy to converse with you.

I should expect to move in with a host family next week for the next three months of pre service training (PST) before swearing in and moving into my site village in September, and I am so excited for everything that’s going to come!

So far my favorite thing that I have seen was yesterday, there is a local barber shop called “Diplomatic Design” accompanied by a picture of Barack Obama and Kanye West, for whatever reason I think that’s hilarious!

Also, my favorite word is “shagalabagala” and it’s an adjective used to describe things that can be used interchangeably or something that isn’t organized, and it’s super fun to say.

Bryce Gertrude Frank