I'm here!

I arrived today in Arusha, Tanzania after flying into Kilimanjaro airport. I also had a layover in Ethiopia, which was crazy...I found a taxi and stayed at a hotel that the airline paid for, but the sights were so alien. At 10pm (it was very dark), there were crowds of people on the street, under tarps and hatched roofs and people walked along the freeway that we drove on. At the hotel, this bird was right outside my window all night (sound familiar, mom and dad?) and i had no idea what time it was and was paranoid about missing my bus so i stayed awake.
In Arusha there is beautiful weather, I am the first volunteer here, but more come tonight. Tomorrow or the next day we will go to the fabric market and then to the tailor to get skirts made. i am most excited about this right now. The hostel is fine, I am in a room with 11 beds, (makes me think of the 8 girl).
I have yet to have a hot shower since leaving LA, because the hotel in Addis Ababa didn't have hot water in my room, so another thing to look forward to tonight! I have already met a bunch of people, including many missionaries that were on my flight. All were surpirsed that I was traveling by myself. I also met a man from Kenya who was in Addis on business and we had an interesting religion discussion. He is a Pastor (Episcapalian I think he said). Excuse the horrible spelling. I told him I was Jewish and he told me about all the missionary trips that he has taken with groups to India to work with Hindus. He also told me my first HIV wrong assumption. He himself did not think this was true, but knew those that were convinced. He said that some people believe that Albinos should be killed (in fact there is a lot of violence against them, since they of course look so different). But he also said that some believe that the organs of Albinos cure AIDS and therefore they are sometimes hunted and then eaten.
He also asked me why I thought HIV was so much more prevalent in Africa than other places and my response was lack of accurate information. Which of course is SIC's goal and my goal as an individual as well.
I hope that this summer brings us that much closer.