Africa has been so great so far! Yesterday we had our first Swahili lesson over breastfast and then we walked into town. The town center was busy but pretty small. We exchanged our money and got phones to call home. The lifestlye pace is much sloweer than what I am used to and I found myself getting annoyed at how long it took to get a phone but I soon realized by looking around that this was the way things worked in this part of the world. I soon was put in check and fell right into the pace myself. It was so nice to walk at a leisure pace without the concern of being somewhere in a hurry. We had a nice lunch in town and soon after, jetlag hit all of us and we went back to the hotel and took a nap. That night we went to our professor's broter in law's house for dinner. When we walked into the house the whole table was full food. While eating the food just kept coming and it was SO good. I wanted to keep eating but there was no more room. After dinner we joined in the living rom to celebrate Joseph's (who was turned 8) birthday. We sang English Happy Birthday. After blowing out the candles they did something that was quite different from our culture but specific to theirs. They cut a small piece of cake and then cut that piece into a few smaller pieces. They then put tooth picks in each piece. The birthday boy then feed each member of the family and guest a piece of the cake. This truly showed their emphasis on family and cooperation in their culture. After that their was a prayer. Joel who is Ryan's brother in law wanted to tell us a few things so Ryan translated for us. He basically told us that he was so grateful to have us in his home and he wished that we had more time to spend together so that we could get to know each other and develop a friendship. His words were so meaningful but more was the way he looked at each one of us in the eyes when he talked. I could tell the he was so sincere in his words. I lef that house feeling so touched and warmed by the whole experience.

Today, we woke up at 5 am to head to Dar es Salaam. We tried to see Mt. Kiliminajaro from a distance but it was too cloudy. What was suppose to be 7 hour road trip turned into a 14 hour nightmare. First, the other car (we had 2 car between the group) broke so we had to turn around. It took 3 hours to fix the car but luckily it broke down in a cute little town at teh edge of the mountains with a beautiful backyard dining area with a playground that kept us entertained. Once we got on the road a few hours later, the same car that broke donw earlier got a flat tire. Later, the car I rode in started to have trouble with the clutch and no more than 20 minutes later we got a flat tire. We finally all shoved into one car and drove 3 hours extremely cramped to Dar. Once we arrived, we went to the Peakcock hotel to have dinner and they had African dancers and live music that was great. We met some great people, especially some Kenyans who were so nice and helpful. Tomorrow we are going to an AIDS clinic here in town.