So how do I put my first month in Tanzania into words?

It seems as though I constantly have a zillion thoughts running through my mind. Leaving a comfortable, familiar life and moving to Africa will do that to you. The things I have seen and experienced in the last month have sent me on quite a roller coaster ride. There have been times of joy, peace, frustration, excitement, being humbled, feeling overwhelmed, feeling homesick . . . the list could go on and on. It is nearly impossible to put all of what I am experiencing into words simply because I often don't know how to sort it out in my own head.
How do I express the feelings I had when I met a widow who is the same age as I am, lives in a mud house, has three young children and is HIV positive?
How can I describe the fun it is to sit and laugh with a group of children as they touch my skin and my hair because it looks so different than theirs?
How do I express how much I feel like a wimp when I see women sit in the hot sun all day and break rocks to earn a few pennies, or see children carrying heavy loads of water, wood, produce, or any number of other items on top of their heads?
How can I possibly tell you how cool it was when I saw my first glimpse of Mt Kilimanjaro since arriving? (OK, so I can tell you the best part about it was the fact that it was a clear cloudless night and the moon was so bright it was reflecting light off the snow and ice on the top of the mountain)
I really do want to share my time here with you and will hopefully make posts more frequently. Now that I have settled into some sort of routine I think I'll do a better job.
I have found that I express myself better with the help of photographs. I have now linked my online albums to this blog (look on the left side of this page). So far I only have a few, but trust me, there will be many more to come!

Enjoy!