Beware of the "wiggly finger"

 Habarini!  So I finally made it! After so long it is still amazing to me that I am actually here.   I haven't been able to blog much with all the traveling and lack of internet so let's just start from the beginning.

I flew out of Tulsa airport on Sept. 21st and flew to Philadelphia via Chicago.  Chicago was not the best experience.  When I got there, I had to drag my carry-on and "personal item" all the way across the airport without the assistance of maybe my favorite invention, the moving sidewalk.  When I finally arrive, I am sliding my bag off my now separated shoulder when they come over the intercom and announce that the departure gate has moved.  So I loaded back up and hauled my pack mule self all the way across the terminal to the new gate.  I finally take a seat and they tell us that the gate has moved again.  Other than that, my trip was pretty uneventful except for a terrifying trip on a shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

Staging began on Sept. 22nd, but not until around noon, so I decided to tour the great city of Philly.   I went on a tour of Independence Hall, Betsy Ross's house, saw Ben Franklin's grave, and the Liberty Bell.  Then I headed back to the hotel for the unknown.  My roommate, Eula, and I headed to the lobby to wait for staging to begin.  We handed in all our forms and other really fun stuff.  Meeting everyone went very smoothly.  Everyone was really great and got along well.  For our last supper, a group of us headed to China Town to have supper.  I have the adventurous choice of Ox Tail's Soup; maybe the wrong choice for a last dinner.  We then went on a quest for a final ice cream to discover that the store was closed.  We opted for beer instead.  The next morning, we checked out and hopped on a bus to JFK in NYC, and to make a long story short took a plane to Dar es Salaam, with stops in Zurich and Nairobi.  When we made it to Dar es Salaam, we hopped on a daladala (a bus) and drove to hostel we are staying at. 

Our days now are filled with endless seminars trying to teach us how to not get robbed, go to the bathroom, and other knowledge we are expected to absorb.  One of the best talks was about the "wiggly finger."  Apparently if a female shakes a man's hand and he wiggles his finger against her hand, this does not equal good things.  Basically, he is propositioning you and you must immediately put an end to this awkward situation.  We have also gotten so many shots that we have trouble raising our arms and had to stop playing frisbee because it simply caused too much pain.  We are also trying desperately to pick up the language.  We even wrote a different vocab word on each card of a playing deck and played drinking games with them.  If you knew the word you saved yourself from drinking.  The Security guy from the U.S. Embassy also scared the bejeezus out of us about staying safe in Tanzania.  For my mother's sake I will not touch on these too much.  If you are really that interested just email me.  I only have one word for the food: interesting.  We have the same foods for every meal, ranging from chicken gizzard and liver to hot dogs. 

I am saving the best story for last though.  The other day, I was playing soccer with a two kids, probably around 3 and 5.  After a while of playing, the 3-year-old and I started playing chase.  It was hilarious because it made him laugh really hard and it was possibly the cutest laugh ever.  Well this was all good and well until I finally made him laugh so hard that he wet himself, which was really actually funny until he ran up to me and hugged my leg. Whelp, no re-wearing those pants.

And just so you know, I counted and I have more than 30 mosquito from my knees down.