Take Off

Hello everyone! We know that this has been our first post in a while, so you will have to forgive us. We were extremely busy working on finalizing every detail of our design. Not to mention the fact that we were also preparing for our final SLAB presentation, collecting all of our supplies for the trip, personal and project based, AND we were all taking our finals, about half of our team even graduated! Needless to say, we were quite busy. However, as we are writing this, we are currently on our way to Tanzania so all of this work is about to pay off!

Before we departed, the contractors were able to finally pour the concrete for our septic tank after having to excavate a fourth time due to collapsing from the rain. They were also able to lay the foundation and add in the necessary columns of rebar and piping spaces. We are extremely excited to finally see the work in person, because all of the pictures they have been sending us look awesome.

Our journey began at 3pm CST Monday afternoon when our whole team boarded our first flight from Houston to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we were able to have a couple hours to go exploring the airport and were able to meet some fellow international travelers, we even met two Tanzanian nuns who helped us learn a few Swahili phrases! Amsterdam is also where we were able to meet with Mary Lou where we all boarded our flight to Dar Es Salaam. In Dar Es Salaam we were met by Mohamed and some of his friends, who helped us carry our bags and brought us to a hotel here in Dar where we will be staying the night and then driving out to Tanga tomorrow morning. We are all safe and sound and extremely tired. We will update you as soon as we get to our next internet connection, which should be tomorrow.