Karibu!

Abby and I arrived to Kilimanjaro Airport safe, sleepy, and with a full belly of airplane food, around 8:30pm on October 17th. We were herded through the “terminal” by all the arriving tourists (mostly climbing Kili or doing safaris), and without any organization or formal line, waited what felt like an hour to pay $100 (US citizen pay double) to receive our Tanzanian entry visas. Imagine the shuffle to get to a crowed bar, but without any music and large backpacks in your way.

By the time we received our visas, very surprisingly, all four of our checked bags were waiting for us. We loaded each other up like mules, one backpack on our back, one on our front, and one being pulled behind us, and headed out to what we hoped was the front of the airport to meet our ride. Thankfully, Mama Lynn herself, along with her youngest son Marcus, and Light in Africa’s only current volunteer Polly greeted us.

On our drive from the Kilimanjaro airport to the Light in Africa Tudor Village in Boma, Mama told us a little about what we can expect. For our first week, we would be sleeping in a tent – yes tent – to try and “wipe out all preconceived notions, help us understand some of the poverty around us, and break down our Western habits”. After she gave us that little “talk” we had about 10 minutes to digest before we arrived, and let me tell you – there was some definite nervous laughter coming from us.

Even though the tent was about the size of a bedroom, our first night was a shocking one for sure. What felt like all night, I heard too many roosters who don’t understand their job of waking people up only at sunrise (i.e. cock-a-doodling ALL night), neighboring goats, LIA’s pet donkey Dolly (who they just noticed is actually a boy), frogs, many new bird sounds, and thankfully – have encountered minimal bugs.