We're in love!

So, here we are in our living room in Usa River after a Saturday morning of shopping in the market for our groceries.  The birds are chirping in the banana trees and farmer's fields outside of us. Outside our living room window Mount Meru towers above us.  Brent is drinking a Guinness (his prize find in a small local grocery store today) while Gabby, who has found many fellow wine-lovers among her, is sipping a French aged Riesling that has somehow made its way to the table in front of her.  We love this place!

After two long days of busing (read:loud, dusty, cramped leg, body-odour, hot, nauseous), we were relieved to arrive in the dark to St Jude's Moshono campus in Arusha.  The Moshono campus is where the primary (grades 1-7) classes are held, as well as the administrative hub.  We stayed the night in their guest accommodation, and the next day our orientation was held with a gentle, friendly woman named Carmel.  She took us around the whole campus and introduced us to everyone.  What can we say about St Jude?  It is like an extremely well-oiled, efficient machine.  Everywhere you look, there are people bustling about their work, and they seem extremely enthusiastic and passionate about their job- whether they are a teacher or cook or secretary.  It could be very well be our first experience with an NGO that is just as impressive in person as they are on their website.  Needless to say, we were blown away.

Then we caught an afternoon bus to the Smith (Secondary) Campus in Usa River, which is about 20 km away from Arusha.  It is quite a contrast to the other campus.  Out in the countryside, it is cool and quiet, with a less bustling atmosphere.  Don't get us wrong... it is still very much a well-oiled machine, but we were very happy to settle in to the quiet comfort and "country life" of Usa River!  The beauty of our surroundings and the friendliness of our coworkers here have made us feel immediately at home.

Our accommodations here consist of an apartment with a bedroom, attached bathroom, and beautiful little living room with a couch, desk, bookshelf and coffee table.  As we are on the corner block, we have windows on 3 sides of our place, which make it sunny and lovely during the day!  (Not to mention the view of Mt Meru, which is just icing on the cake!).  The communal kitchen is a place of fellowship, where we all gather in the evenings to cook and eat together, share stories  and laugh.  Our coworkers are mostly Aussies, with one Brit and two Americans.  Aside from the two Americans who are in their twenties, most are over 50.  We find them to be perfect company to us (especially Gabby) as they appreciate cooking, Scrabble, wine, and going to bed at 8:30.

Yesterday we went to visit Cradle of Love.  Again, we were blown away by this well-functioning, passionate organization.  The owner, Davona, is a woman full of heart and faith, and has poured herself into this ministry.  We found ourselves staying much longer than we wanted to, saying "okay, I'll just hug one more baby.  Okay, just one more..."  The babies are like this throng of dwarves that follow you around everywhere with their arms out for a hug.  It's all one can do to keep from melting.  We also met the two girls that Brent will be teaching in the mornings.  They are sweet and chatty little Tanzanian girls, with American accents.  We think it will be a good fit, as they immediately clung to us and shared all the details of their lives as we started cleaning out the classroom.

To sum it up... we are in love with this place!  Give us some time and the honeymoon will be over.  But we are happy as clams here!

Till next time,

Gabby and Brent

ps- stay tuned for Brent's snake story!