Greetings from Tanzania!

Yesterday, we only had one class, so a group of 12 people from the MSID program and I went to Arusha, Tanzania for the weekend! It was quite a bumpy ride! There were some parts that had really good roads, and then others were really rocky dirt roads. The bus ride took about 7 hours. It was great to get out of Nairobi and see the countryside. It was beautiful! There were green mountains, and giraffes right next to the road! Along the way, there were also some small Masai villages, which was really interesting to see. The Masai are an indigenous group in Kenya that were traditionally pastoralists. Many of the Masai there had a lot of piercings and were wearing traditional Masai clothing. The trip kind of got off to a shaky start at Tanzanian border. We were told that the visa would cost $50, but when we got there we found out that it was actually $100. Many of us didn't even have $100 with us and the only ATM there was only for local use, so we were really concerned about what we should do. The bus driver told us to just forget about getting visas and we'd keep going. Luckily we all pooled our money so that most of us could get visas. It feels good to be here legally! ;) We're staying at a really nice hostel here. It has toilets and hot showers and even real pillows! Many of us staying in our home stays in Nairobi just have a piece of foam in a pillow case for a pillow. All for only $15 for 2 nights. There are a lot of European tourist here, mostly from Germany and Britain, Mt. Kilimanjaro is pretty close, so I think that's why there are so many tourists here. Tonight we are going to Earth Dance, which is a Reggae Festival, apparently it doesn't end until 6 am! so that should be interesting!