Dar Es Salaam - Mini-Tropical Retreat before Service

We flew into Dar a day before officially starting our service trip because we wanted some time to recover from our red-eye flight.  Travel was simple enough, although two Dramamine put me (Scott) in a strange, barely functional state (helps with the sleeping though).  Once we arrived, we got a ride to the Slipway where we discovered that they drive on the left here and driving is... a little scary.  We napped, ate dinner, and pretty much went to bed.

Since our hotel is right on the water and we're pretty close to the equator... it's tropical!  This was honestly a bit of a surprise to us, but we'll take it.  today we found a boat shuttle out to a little beach and we enjoyed a tropical afternoon at Bongoyo Island.

We met our team at dinner tonight (well part of the team, some have later flights) and we're very excited to get started tomorrow.  Our host (Edward) informed us that this (the beach, etc.) isn't the real Africa... so don't worry, our "service trip" isn't going to be us laying on a beach, Shannon has already been signed up to have a seminar with the kindergarten teachers, etc.

We don't think we'll have much power and internet is way less likely, so our blog posts may get spread a week(s) or so apart.  If you don't want to have to go to the site all the time you can sign up for an e-mail when we update in the "Follow by E-mail" area of the right-hand column (drop your e-mail in and follow the instructions).  Cheers for now!