The 1st Email (9/19/02) From Arusha, Tanzania:

"Habari Gani?" (How are things) So, this internet connection is somewhat slow, and REALLY expensive, but I just wanted to let you all know that I arrived here in Arusha last night at about 10:30 pm Tanzanian time after 26+hours of travelling.

Arusha is a really big city, but feels both big and small at the same time. I haven't seen a lot of it, but from what I can tell, there's not a lot of concrete, except for the streets, and there's a great view of Mt. Meru, which is something like the 3rd highest mountain in Africa, from our motel. That's really nice to see as it rises out of the ground from nowhere, much like Mt. Shasta.

We had our first day of PST (Pre Service Training... the Peace Corps (PC) is full of acronyms) today, and I learned my first words of kiswahili. It seems like a lot of the pronounciation is going to be similar to Spanish, so I'm jazzed about that. We are a group of 67 right now, replacing a group of 35 that will be leaving in December, so it looks like the PC in TZ is growing a lot. There are 14 other math teachers and people doign all kinds of other teaching, and environmental work.

Okay, so that's it for now. I will likely not email again for awhile, but just wanted to check in and let everyone know that I was here! Mom, Fin, Dad,&Kathy... I will let you know about calling me within the next week. Bye! Jessica