I'm alive!

Hello world.

After three flights (two of which were each well over 7 hours), an eleven-hour layover in London, and a three hour car ride later, I finally made it to the SFS center in Rhotia, Tanzania. The dirt here is amazing. I haven’t seen any super awesome rocks yet, but don’t worry, I’ll find them. The food here is also amazing and I'll probably come back about 15 pounds heavier. I’m guessing it’s because of all the butter.

We haven’t done much in the way of exploring but here are a few news items that you may find entertaining:

1. During my eleven hour layover in London I bought about two pounds of British chocolate. OH MY GOD IT IS SO GOOD AND NOW IT’S GONE AND I WANT TO CRY.
2    2. Yesterday, a seventy-year-old woman beat three others and me up a hill while we were running. Beat probably is the wrong word because in reality she totally destroyed us.
3    3.  Last night, while I was attempting to crawl out of my bed I got caught on the mosquito net and slammed my chin on the side of the bed. Naturally, I now have a bruise the size of a softball.
4    4. My Swahili is hysterical, but I’ll get there. I also keep trying to break out in French; not sure why my brain considers that a legitimate response to Swahili.

Today we started classes, which believe me is even harder to sit through when Africa is right outside your window.

EDIT (per request of the fam):
Our camp consists of banas (or cabins), a classroom, a dining room, lots of open space for activities and a beautiful cabana overlooking everything. I'm having trouble uploading pictures now, but hopefully I'll be able to soon so you can see what it's like. The food is a mixture of a lot of fruit and veggies, rice, pasta, bread, and meat. I haven't eaten much meat (totally predictable) but everything else has been wonderful (especially the fruit).

I promise when my life gets a wee-bit more interesting I’ll add more.