Off to Morogoro

Today we departed to Morogoro town, which is located about 120 miles west of Dar es Salaam.  The drive was beautiful, filled with lots of green and scenic African landscape.  We knew we were approaching Morogoro when we could see the breathtaking Uluguru mountains in the distance.  The climate even began to cool as we got closer to our destination, and it was a welcome break from the humid heat of Dar.  It was hard not to be amazed at how incredible this place is, with the mountains rising above the rest of the town.

We got a first glimpse of the town center, which was filled with many shops, markets and lots of people.  It’s certainly a smaller than what we’ve been used to for the past couple of weeks, but very busy and exciting nonetheless.

We arrived at our hostel, located at a teacher’s college just outside of the main Morogoro town.  While it was exciting to move into new surroundings, it was a bit of a reality check in a lot of ways, and prepared us for what we would expect in our own housing for the next year.  Gone were the hot showers, wireless internet, and air conditioning we were used to at our hostel in Dar (luxury accommodations, indeed).  Instead, we arrived to find very basic accommodations that included mosquito net covered beds, a basic bathroom with cold running water and a stall-less shower.  At first it took some getting used to, and hit me a little hard that this would be what our living situation would be for the next year.  However, after some getting used to, you realize that it’s not so bad.  It’s safe, clean, and we have a bed, running water and electricity, which is all you can really ask for considering where we are living.

On another plus side, there are lots of monkeys running around!  Apparently, they’re like squirrels here- always running around in trees, chasing one another, or snacking on whatever food they can find nearby.  I much prefer the monkeys over squirrels, and I can’t imagine I’ll get tired of watching them run about.

It’ll be a fun week in Morogoro, where we can relax, have fun, and get some good teaching practice.