Coming down

The only downside to beginning my life in Tanzania on a major high is that, like all good highs, it ends. ....thud. A bit of an explanation:

Before coming to Tanzania, all of the Global Health Corps Fellows spent two weeks at Stanford for training/orientation. It was a sort of freshman year-meets-global health camp experience, complete with campfires, eating in dining halls and lots of group drinking activities. We bonded, shared about our lives, stayed up late and made fast and deep friendships; it was great. And then we got on a plane with our teammates and slept/ate/drank/watched movies all the way to Africa. We landed in Dar, found a bar on the ocean and marvelled at how awesome our life was going to be here. Even though I came to Morogoro last week, I went back to Dar for the weekend and stayed with Ameet and Andrew...where we basically continued our day-drinking/beachey/relaxed life. Again, it was great.

And so now I'm here, in Morogoro. I'm generally not into broadcasting my personal thoughts and feelings in very public spaces, like a blog, but I figure...new country, new job, why not? I don't want to sound overly dramatic, because I really do like Morogoro and I think it's going to be a great place for a year. It's just that the reality, and a couple of the frustrations of being here on my own, are setting in. For instance, just the mere act of figuring out when and where I can eat has been a major challenge this week. Trying to understand people, fumble through with my very nascent Swahili and constantly never be understood, all is a challenge.

This weekend we move into our house, and I've been promised a trip to the market on Saturday, so hopefully with a little more control over when and if I get to eat and a place to call home, I'll be able to begin the process of making Morogoro home. But it will take some time; I know that. The last month (well, last several months, let's be honest) have been one big collection of huge highs/lows and changes. It's been an amazing ride to go from Nigeria-Denver-Minneapolis-California-Tanzania, but one thing sounds really good right now: equilibrium.