1 day down, 55 to go...

The day has finally come: time for me to move from Dublin to Africa. I had a moment of silence for 151 Pearse Street, as it is a great place of fond, fond memories. To recall some of the most memorable: our heat broke during the two coldest months that Dublin has seen in 30+ years, people breaking into our house on two occasions or the mere fact that I have developed adult asthma due to the copious amounts of mold growing in god knows what crevasses in that house. All in all, it’s been real fun Dublin, real fun.

Anna (my roommate) and I arrived to Dublin airport at 4am. Please keep in mind, 27 hours prior to take-off I realized my fight was 4 in the MORNING and not at night. Thank you grad school. Due to the fact that no one wants nor does travel at 4am, we breezed through security and had 2 hours to spare. So what did we do, went to duty-free to buy some alcohol. I don’t even know if that is considered ethical while traveling to Africa.

As we began to line up to board we were taking bets on the diversity that we were soon going to experience. However, to our surprise it looked like we were boarding a plane to Florida; all white people. We didn’t know if this was normal or we had gotten in the wrong line. We eventually boarded KLM airlines to be gratefully surprised the plane was EMPTY, meaning each passenger got their own row for the 11-hour plane ride ahead of us. I felt like I was in my living room casually watching television just with some room service. I stretched out with my 12 pillows and 7 blankets and began the journey. In the 11-hour trip, I was awake for about 23 minutes. In these 23 minutes, the man sitting across from me was from Canada and lives part time in Tanzania with his Tanzanian wife in which they started their own tourist/travel company. We got the ins and outs of Tanzania and got a sense of comfort and excitement of traveling to a very foreign country.

Apparently when you fly to Tanzania in the day you can see the Nile River and the pyramids of Egypt. However, due to the fact that I was awake for a total of 23 minutes, I missed it. But after 11 hours, we finally touched down in Tanzania to the Kilimanjaro International Airport. I not only was heat stroked immediately but I was certainly not ready to witness the bugs that call the airport home. I have never in my life seen insects the size of these ones, not only crawling on the floor and walls but also on people. At this moment in time I wanted to run back on to the plane back to civilization. After getting our visas and luggage, we were greeted by Abi. He is the manager of the hostel we are staying at and a local from Tanzania. Imagine if Bob Marley was alive, this is Abi.

It was about 9pm in Tanzania and it felt like 2am. No lights, no cars, no noise except god only knows what animals or insects living in the woods. The Hostel Hoff (where we are staying) was about 45 minutes from the airport. As we were getting the run-down about Tanzania and life, we were casually listening to Celine Dion, Rihanna and Eminem all in one car ride. Thank you Africa. We finally arrived to the hostel and met everyone. The hostel consists of one main building which houses the kitchen, dining room, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and a TV room. There is another building consisting of 2 bedrooms and a bathroom and 2 additional tents, all surrounded by a enclosed fence protected by guards with machetes.

The hostel is comprised of volunteers from all over the world including the US, England, Germany, Israel, Sweden and Australia. People are constantly coming and going which gives it a good flow and you get to meet a lot of people. The hostel is owned by a couple: Amanda from Australia and her husband Simbo from Tanzania with a perfect little chocolate baby, Chase. We also have a cook and a housekeeper.

Never have I ever appreciated a bedtime of 9pm, an insecticide bed net, the nine geckos living in my room, bug spray and a ceiling fan that I don’t have. I have survived swine flu so why not conquer malaria.