We're here!

I know, we really should have updated this last week when we actually arrived, but the orientation started right away so we've been catching our breath somewhat... Also, we only have internet at the orientation location, not in the house we're staying at, so we have to try and coincide blog inspiration with free time while still at the hotel.

Anyway, we arrived in Dar es Salaam in one piece on Sunday the 24th July, with all our luggage - hurrah! The fact that Olly has done this before was such a help to me as all I had to do was follow him and let him do all the talking - very convenient, especially when you've been on an aeroplane all night. We were met outside the baggage reclaim by a colleague who drove us to the house we'll be staying in while in Dar - another nice thing about Olly having been here before is that some other colleagues who are back in their home country for a while have generously offered us the use of their house and car, which is not only nicer than your living space being just a hotel room, but also has the benefit of being cheaper! We're really enjoying our time there - it definitely feels slightly less like still being in transit than a hotel would, even if we haven't bothered unpacking properly! (what's the point for just three weeks?)

We are now halfway through our initial orientation - it's been really good so far, not just to learn about how life in Tanzania and the specific branch that we're in works, but also to get to know some of our colleagues - people who have been here a while who are leading the sessions and also all the other new people - there are about 20-25 'newbies', mostly from North America and the UK and it's been great getting to know them and to share stories of how God brought each one of us here.

We have just over a week left of orientation, after which about half of the participants (us included) will head off to Iringa for 4 months of language school - during the first week of orientation we had a few introductory Swahili classes, which were great and I think most people are really looking forward to learning more.

I think that's most of the main news for this post... We'll try to be better at keeping this updated but please bear in mind that our internet access will be neither consistent nor very high speed a lot of the time!

We haven't managed to take very many pictures yet, but Cat did get this one from the plane window as we flew over Kilimanjaro - that's a pretty impressive mountain!