Hello Tanzania

~ Sunday 10th August

These last two days have been a complete whirlwind. I've gone from Malawi to Dar-e-Salam to Iringa and now I'm in my room of the GapMedics house tapping out this post.

After the 4am start and emotional goodbyes at home, we left for the airport and boarded our two hour flight to the capital of Tanzania. I have to admit, my nerves were getting the better of me. I had no idea what to expect or what the hell I was doing all by myself in an entirely new country. I mean, I know I was with a legit organisation that did this kind of thing day in day out, but still. I was nervy and on edge and my poor parents were fretting as all good parents do, my parents excessively so. Bless them. Four weeks away from me haven't really taught them to let go much.

I walked out of arrivals, proudly donning the GapMedics t-shirt (I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me feel intelligent) and searched frantically for the staff I had been told would be waiting for me also wearing the t-shirt, so scouring the awaiting public was made a little easier. I spotted them relatively quickly which was a relief (more so for my parents) and then we parted ways again for a week, them hailing a taxi/mini bus large enough to carry all their luggage, and me with my designated taxi driver.

I was taken to Landmark Hotel which acts as a stopover hotel for the GapMedics students; students landing between Saturday morning and Sunday morning stay the night, and at 8am of the Sunday, leave for either Morogoro (under-18s) or Iringa (over-18s). It took me about half an hour to get there because the traffic was insane. It was at a standstill for over twenty minutes and it was so hot. That sticky, humid, unbearable kind of hot, and it was just so frustrating having to sit there listening to the hooting of cars and mini buses every thirty seconds without even budging an inch.

I finally made it and was taken to my room so I settled in and assured my parents that I hadn't been kidnapped or raped or murdered, and that instead, I was safe and sound in my hotel room with the door firmly locked.

That is until there was a knock on the door. It was the taxi driver. Holding my hoodie and the bag with all my reading books (as well as my return tickets and passport) that I had unknowingly left in the back of his car. I had completely forgotten about them. I didn't even realise that I was missing them until I opened the door to find him standing there with this huge apologetic smile and my stuff in his hands.

Yes, I really am that clumsy and reckless in life. I could have lost my passport. Jesus.

Once I got over the fact that I could have seriously screwed up my trip (and life) when my week hadn't even begun, I had a shower and went into the dining room to have lunch (they had wifi! After six weeks of no wifi, imagine my excitement at suddenly having free unlimited internet access). I met Kirsty who was the only other person from my group who had arrived by then and because we were due to meet the rest of the group for dinner, we went back to our rooms to rest it out till then.

Dinner was a chance to socialise and get to know everyone else with us and we also got to hear the horror stories from the returning students. One girl was saying that her friend was in a particular department on this one day and out of all the patients she saw, only one survived. I can't even begin to imagine how much of an eye-opening experience this is going to be.

Another girl, she was from the under-18s group, she told us that from her group, ten people contracted malaria and one of those was a girl who had both malaria and typhoid. Well, at least we've been warned!

It's worth knowing what we've let ourselves into...

After we were briefed for the trip to Iringa the following morning (9 hour coach trip - kill me now) we hit the pillow to be up for 6am and we left at 7 to head towards the coach station with the coach leaving at 8, and our torturous journey began. Okay, admittedly, it wasn't that bad. I quite enjoyed it. I had the music, the scenery, and a window seat - I couldn't really ask for more. We only had two toilet stops but the toilets were basically holes in a ground with no flush and a sink that had no running water for us to wash our hands. Suffice to say I was more than able to hold it so I passed.

Just before the drive through the mountains to the GapMedics Rock House, we passed through Ruaha National Park which was pretty awesome; we saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, antelopes, impalas, and passed baboons that were casually sitting on the roadside.

When we finally pulled up to the house, we were met by the cheering and applause of the students that were already there. It was quite the overwhelming welcome! We had a little intro session in the communal/social area (which is kind of like the living room of the house) then we were whisked off to our rooms to settle in before dinner.

Dinner was fab! Seriously, it was just like home food. I was pleasantly surprised. And my roommates Beth (from Australia) and Holly (fellow Brit) are so lovely so despite the gruelling journey and non-stop activity since this morning, I'm so excited for what tomorrow will bring.

Oooh and these are the pictures of the trip and the house - enjoy!