One Light Town

Arusha is now a "one light town." A traffic light was recently installed (as in since I've arrived a week ago) and just started functioning yesterday. It is quite a strange concept for many people here and they didn't grow up with the understanding that green means go and red means stop. My friend Meagan told me about teaching a group of people the game "Red Light, Green Light" and that was dangerous enough! Now we're playing the game with cars and pedestrians. Last night as I was being dropped off at home we passed through this intersection. I saw a lot of people waiting patiently for the walk signal to cross the street, and I thought wow, they're already following the rules perfectly! But then I noticed that the light was already green the way that they were heading and that they were actually just watching. I suppose it would be fascinating to me as well if I had never seen traffic move in this fashion. If I get bored this Saturday night at least now I know where the most happening spot in town is :)

adjustments

Life always requires adjustments in one form or another. Since arriving in Tanzania last Thursday night I've had to make quite a few. Here's what I've had to try to adjust to so far:

~a time zone seven zones away from what my body is accustomed to
~driving on the other side of the road (I haven't actually gotten behind the wheel yet, but it won't be long)
~sleeping under a mosquito net every night
~simple errands taking a lot longer than what I expect
~being a minority
~not understanding the language (yet)
~always having at least a little bit of dust on me
~spending time with people taking importance over "productivity"

~new roommates (including the gecko that seems to live in the vent above my bedroom window, since he eats mosquitoes I think I'll let him stay)

This gives you a little bit of an idea of what my life is this first week in Africa. I'm really enjoying myself although things are not always easy. Keep praying for me as I continue to adjust!

its official

I am officially on my way. I left NC at 12:20 today, now I'm just "enjoying" my 3.5 hour layover in Detroit.