Week 1 Training and a safari

Our first week was taken up with some in-country training sessions (health, safety, culture) and general orientation around Arusha city.  We all visited our workplaces for an hour or so and began to sort out permanent rental accommodation and car purchases.  Jenny and I were both happy with our workplaces and are keen to get started.  Both will offer us stimulation and challenges.  I'm sure we will be useful.

Soo, me, Jenny and Phil at Momela Lakes, Arusha National Park

We have agreed to rent a lovely house in a large, bushy compound with several other houses occupied by expats.  Load this file into Google Earth to see our house (Oliver's compound) and workplace locations (Olkokola for Jenny and ECHO for me) house and work.kmz.

Master bedroom

Study

Kitchen

Dining room

We have looked at several car yards for a nice RAV4 but when we visited Jenny's workplace they said there was a Suzuki that went with the job so we will use that and take our time buying a car.  The Suzuki will be fine for work commuting and around town but I'm not sure I would take it out far.

Yesterday (Saturday) we took Soo and Phil, two of the other new volunteers, with us on safari to Arusha National Park.  This is a small park on the eastern slopes of Mount Meru.  We saw a good range of mammals (giraffe, zebra, buffalo, hippopotamus, blue and colobus monkeys) and about 50 species of birds.  The highlight was the large number of Flamingos (two species) feeding close to the shores of Momela Lakes.

Blue Monkey, Arusha NP

Greater and Lesser Flamingos, Momela Lakes

Today we are checking out of the hotel, having a welcome lunch with all the volunteers in Arusha and then heading out to Usa River to a training facility for two weeks Kiswahili language classes.  Jenny will need good Kiswahili skills in her workplace but I will be able to manage with the basics (just as well).

Bird list (81 species/2 lifers).