Arrived in Iringa.............

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It is 10:19am right now, I am sitting at a Internet Cafe in Iringa. I apologize in advance but this post is going to go all over the place. Please see if you can follow it

I have been going to bed late (11:00 our time and getting up 5:30am our time) I am still fighting jet lag. The good news is I am not napping in the afternoons so i will eventually get over this.

AFRICA has changed so much since 10 years ago. All the amenities can be found in a small town like Iringa, cel phone cards, cel phones, clothes, restarurents, INTERNET CAFE thats where i am now. It cost 1000 (94 cents) shilingi an hour, which is cheap for me, but expensive for the locals, there are some university students here, that need to use the internet for their studies.

Religion is very important here and a big part of every day life. First biggest culture shock was the call to Prayer in Dar es Salaam, there were three moslem mosques in the neighborhood i stayed in, and as i was fighting jet lag, I was awake at 5:00AM, when the call to prayer happens, and everybodys clock is a little different so i actually heard it at three different times :) heheheehe.

All the schools are either Christian or Muslim, and we are the only Baha'i school, in Iringa Region. Neat thing here, people dont care if you are Christian, Muslim (there is a very large muslim community here) or a Baha'i, they all say Kariboo (Welcome) and Habari (Hello) Most people know the staff at the Ruahu school, so it will just be a matter of time before people here know i am a working there. its really neat actually. If you like to keep a low profile and just go about your day, I wouldnt reccommend coming here if you are mzungu (not African, or Arab) Usually the Europeans that are here are called Mzungus. There arent many, and everybody looks you up and down. (For anyone that has travelled to a remote country where foreigners are rare, I am sure you have had this feeling.)

Iringa is a small town of about 150,000, its cold, and windy, reminds me of an African Victoria actually :) :) :) , everyone who knows i am a canadain told me i would love Iringa. So far I do. Time is the hardest thing to get used to here, Its got a relax (jamiacan relaxed) attitude, People say to me relax, chill out man, things happen very slowly here. (In a very loving way mind you)

and when i am frustrutated or impatient with something the people say Hakuna Mutata (no worries) So everyone who reads this blog will have learned two words in Swahili or if you have watched the Lion King hehehehe.

I have met some really cool people at the school, Nabil, Half persian Half Ecuadorian guy who loves Football, he is a Year of Service volunteer, teaching Geography, Rahan, Half Persian Half American from New Mexico, US is the resident computer expert here and teaches many computer science classes, (although he has no formal training), I sometimes feel overqualified to teach computers here, but it is also very humbling. There are some things i dont know that i need to learn about. Windows Servers and networking and also Mauvis Beacon (teaching kids how to type), and debugging problems, and sometime even fixing computers. The motto i have learned is if its broke, you fix it yourself, and if you dont know how, you learn.

There are also two girls from Austrialia and New Zealand, but i dont know them very well yet

I will try and post more about what i am going to be doing here as soon as i found out myself hehehe