Getting my Bearings

Almost at the end of our first week here and we're all learning to find our feet in our own very individual ways!

For me, it's nice to be back in Dodoma after 12 years. So much has changed and yet so much is the same. Of all the programmes we could have been placed by MAF, this will probably be the easiest place for me to get my bearings.

I still have some local friends, I have been able to reemploy my old house girl, I have been able to delve into the recesses of my brain and salvage some of my Swahili knowledge and put it into practice and the layout of the town is pretty similar.

That being said, there are a lot of things still to learn, as things have understandably changed and moved on in the last decade or so. Where to go to buy certain items, who's the cheapest, what is a good price for something, which fundhi to use to make clothes and so the list goes on. There is a lot more choice in the stores than I remember (my eyes have popped out of my head on more than one occasion this week!) and so many more of the roads are now sealed, so I almost don't recognise places I know I have frequented many times before. 

Thankfully our next-door neighbours have been a great help and guide to us as a family but particularly to me, who will have to run the household (which is a big deal out here), as they have been out here for many years already. As our Link Family they helped during our preparation time and are now walking us through the different things we have to get our heads round out here too!

I know for a fact that half of what I've been told since we arrived has gone in one ear and out the other ... not because it's not valuable information or helpful but because during a time of such huge transition for us, there is only so much I can process and take in. 

I'm grateful that there are so many lovely people here, who having gone through it themselves and are all really understanding. When I admitted today that I would probably be asking the same questions over and again in the next few weeks, they just nodded knowingly and said they would be ready to answer them!