Karibu Kilwa... finally.

We left Kunduchi around 4am Sunday morning. It is now 10pm Tuesday night, and we have finally just arrived at the place we will call home for the next 8 weeks. Who knew it would take longer to travel along Tanzania's coast than it would to come from America to Africa!

Sunday morning, we waited at the central bus station in the out skirts of Tanzania's only true city, Dar es Salaam. The bus, which was supposed to depart at 6am promptly, still hadn't arrived at 8am. Finally we received word that the bus had broken down and we would have to wait n entire day before getting on a new bus. So, we had to shack up in what appeared to be a "love motel" that rented by the hour, in a not so comforting area of the city.

Luckily, I was amongst a group of people who wanted to make the best of the situation. After our morning naps, we traveled to the city center to visit some of the historical landmarks. We visited parks, the president's palace, and an American restaurant where we treated ourselves to milkshakes!

We made it back to our motel just as daylight faded and settled in for the night. Again, we woke up early to get to the bus station at 5am. This time, the bus arrived! We settled in to a cramped, over crowded bus for a six hour drive. Along the way, more passengers boarded, taking seats on buckets in the isle. We had obvious tire problems thought the entire trip. However, this did not stop the driver from off-roading at times. We were stopped at multiple police check points, but never questioned about any of the shady circumstances.

A bit surprisingly, we made it to Kilwa where we were met by our Tanzanian volunteer coordinator, who is "responsible" of us during our stay here. We were surprised to learn that we were staying at another hotel for the night. This hotel consisted of numerous individual bungalows, so we each stayed alone. The bungalows were equipped with TV, cable, running water, and air conditioning!! Unfortunately, we were faced with the bad news that all of Kilwa had been out of power for two days, so no AC for us. But we were fed delicious meals, got a good night sleep, and took our first warm showers.

Now that we have finally arrived to our official placement, we know why we were spoiled one last time. But, I will splurge more on my living arrangement after I give myself a little bit of time to adjust. All I can say is, I already appreciate home more than I ever have.