We arrived on Friday morning in Dar es Salaam. The heat and humidity was struck us as soon as we stepped off the plane, but so far it really hasn’t been as bad as we were expecting. It’s actually pretty pleasant, but it’s a good thing our hotel room has air conditioning. We are staying in a hotel for the first three weeks for orientation. Orientation starts on Monday. We decided to come a couple of days early to adjust and settle in. Daniel has been sleeping more than usual, but otherwise he seems to be handling the transition really well.
The plane trip went like a dream. Daniel was in a decent mood for the first flight and our seven hour layover at Heathrow, and then he pretty much slept through the entire ten hour flight to Dar, which is a good thing since it was an overnight flight. We were really hungry when we got to the hotel, along with another Wycliffe couple who were also on our flight. It took a while before we got to order food from the restaurant here, and then it took over two hours to actually get our food. When it came, they’d messed up the order and they came with six plates of food for the four of us. So things are a little different here : ) But since then everything has gone smoothly. They were having a conference here the first day, and I think we caught them a bit off guard. Most of the staff have very limited English. It will be really good to learn some Swahili to be able to communicate with people better.
Our hotel is near the beach, and Viggo and I went for a walk to check it out yesterday. We dipped our feet in, and we dipped Daniel too, but not for long because he was afraid of the water. He was kind of tired too, so maybe it will go better next time. It sounds like we will be pretty busy from Monday on with Orientation courses starting every day at 8:00. Daniel will be with some other kids and a nanny in a childcare room adjacent to the conference room. It will be his first experience with any other babysitter than his grandparents, so I hope things go well!
