I can't believe I'm in Africa!

I'm writing from Arusha, Tanzania! I got in last night around 8pm and it was way too dark to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. There aren't many lights here, so at night it's pitch black. There are still a lot of people walking and riding bikes at night, and I thought we were going to hit one of them on the ride from the airport. Only about 1% of the people have cars, so everyone is constantly walking everywhere.

Today was just a "recover from jetlag" day, so we're just checking out the city of Arusha. It has about 300,000 people and it is as poor as you can imagine for a city this size. Almost all of the roads are dirt, with massive pot holes everywhere. I went to one of the local markets today and it was pretty crazy. This is a weak time for tourism because it's the rainy season. People who rely on tourism for their income really struggle this time of year. Since almost all the white people here are tourists, people follow you around and beg you to buy things. Plus one of the other volunteers was handing out dollars to a few kids, so we had about 30 people following us around trying to sell us things. The people here are great, but business is cut-throat. Everyone is selling the same things, so the most persistent people are the ones who make the sale. A few dollars makes a huge difference, but there is so much poverty that you feel helpless to do much.

My trip got rearranged a little. I'll be staying with a host family (who I will meet tonight) instead of a hostel. I prefer that to a hostel. I'm also doing the safari at the beginning instead of in the middle of my trip. So, tomorrow I leave for Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater and I get back Friday night. A few other volunteers are taking the same trip. After that I'll start doing HIV/AIDS counseling (although I'm told it's mostly AIDS, not HIV). A lot of the people here don't find out they have the disease until it has become AIDS, so it is pretty common for them to die within just a few months of finding out. I was surprised to hear it was that fast, but nobody has money for antiviral medications or even money to treat the other diseases and illnesses that come from having a weakened immune system. At that point not much is important except resolving anything that needs to be resolved and hopefully finding some meaning and accepting your mortality.

They're fairly desperate for counselors (or anyone) to meet with people. There was only one other volunteer helping with this when I got here, and she just has a bachelor's degree in anthropology with a minor in psychology. I'm trying to teach her some basic counseling skills and she's coaching me on the issues she has run into over the last month.

Unfortunately I can't upload any pics on this computer, but hopefully I'll be able to do that somewhere else when I get back from Serengeti.