More about the first few days in Dar, as promised

The first day was stressful, because of all the new people I met, the unfamiliar campus, and strange language. It reminded me a lot of the beginning of freshman year, especially the feeling of being clueless about customs and the urge to move as a "herd". Twenty-one wazungu wandering lost around campus. Today I feel much more confident about finding my way around, as does everyone else, but the first day was difficult. The campus here is also much larger than St. Olaf's campus.
The dorms are very basic. One shower, and there is only cold water. We cannot drink the water from the sinks so we buy our own water at the store, and we need to hand wash our clothes. Also, there is no toilet paper or soap, so we provide that as well. None of the bathrooms around campus have toilet paper, and most are just holes in the ground, no toilet. Everything is open-air, but our rooms have good screens to keep out mosquitos. I never thought about the luxury of American dorms before coming here, but even the least desirable campus dorm is like the Hilton compared to here. Don't get me wrong though, I am just fine with everything. I don't mind living simply, the only thing that bothers me is that I can't recycle all the plastic bottles we go through.
The wildlife here is so great! All the flora and fauna is different from those in the U.S. I can only describe it as like being a young kid again, where everything you see is new and fascinating. My favorites are the monkeys on campus. There are several troops, must be at least a hundred monkeys total. I have been warned that they are mischevious, but so far they haven't bothered us. This morning we walked through the middle of a monkey war - pretty interesting, and I want to spend more time observing them later. I also saw a nile monitor, which is a very large lizard, while walking to Mlimani City. And the bats here are huge too. Everything is bigger in Africa!!
The radio stations like to play American music. They even played Lady GaGa the other morning (Maren, you would have been so happy)
The food is good, probably because most of it is fried, but as long as you like simple food you would like African food. Jon would be happy here.
Public transport is very exciting here. They use dalladallas, which are these small buses that are packed unbelievably efficiently with people. We fit our group of 20 plus two Dar students who were helping us and a couple other riders into one dalladalla. It doesn't feel as claustrophobic if you stick your upper body out of the window.
We have a week of orientation before we start kiswahili next monday. So right now we have most of the day free, so we explore campus - there are ficus trees all over that have large vines that you can use to climb or swing on. Just like Tarzan.
Pictures coming soon!