Hamjambo from Tanzania!

Hello everyone!
I arrived safely to Kilimanjaro airport after many hours of travel. I went through JFK and Amsterdam, so it was actually fairly direct. A Global Service Corps staff member Fatima came to pick me up at the airport in a taxi, and drove me to the hostel we are staying in for our first week, the Center House. We arrived around 9:30 to find out that my room had been given to another guest. They put me into a room in a different building (there are several). My room was meant for large groups, so I am sleeping alone with seven other beds and a bathroom to myself! I met the two other volunteers, Steve and Russel, at breakfast the next morning. Both had arrived several days before and had been exploring the town. Steve just finished school at Oregon St. in Biology and Russel is a "retired" nurse who seems to keep quite busy as a landlord among other things. They will both be working with groups regarding HIV/AIDS, while I will be working with groups regarding sustainable agriculture.
We set off to find the GSC office a bit after eight. Our map was not good, but we were fairly certain that we had found the correct location. Unfortunately, there was no sign of GSC. We asked a man in the street, who asked his friend, who brought us around the corner and asked another man. He made a phone call and told us the office had moved - he would bring drive us there. A man from Montreal (with a house in Isle le Mont, VT (sp?)) was sitting in the front seat, ready to go on Safari with our helper. He drove in the opposite direction, past the Center House, and dropped us at the new office.
We were greeted warmly by the GSC staff (who thought they had lost us...they had come to the Center House just after we left). We (staff, counterpart, and volunteers) introduced ourselves and began orientation. Everyone is very welcoming and happy. They shared their personal interests and backgrounds with us, and seemed genuinely interested in learning about us. The two directors from the San Francisco office are visiting so they participated along with a long-term intern/orientation coordinator, home-stay coordinator, office assistant, Tanzania GSC director, the two sustainable ag. trainers, the garden manager, and the counterpart for the HIV/AIDS group. I look forward to talking more to all of them, and feel greatful to be in such a supportive environment.
We had all our questions answered about how the program would be run and how our time would be organized, which was all very nice to know. We spent several hours on a walking tour of Arusha with Patrick, our counterpart (born on my same birthday, same year!). We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch where I ate ugali and beans - one of the local staples.
The second day was spent at the office, where we learned from a local doctor about the Tanzanian health care system, from several past counterparts about different tribes in the region (they each spoke about their own tribe), and from a leader of a local NGO about gender and empowering women.
Today, day three, we started at the office with our daily Swahili lesson, then visited Women in Action, the NGO we had learned about the day before. After eating lunch prepared by the garden manager in Tengeru, we visited the sustainable agriculture demo plot.
There is much I haven't said! I've been having a great time, have been learning a lot, and am surrounded by great people. Friday I am placed in my home stay and next week I start work.