The introduction

It's been three days now that I've been in Arusha. I arrived late Thursday night and have settled in nicely to my home with Joe and Amy. The first couple of days have really been about catching up on sleep and getting over the jet-lag.

The house is cute; a three bedroom cottage surrounded by beautiful gardens in a reasonably safe area. We have three staff that look after the house; Clara who is our housekeeper; Thomas the day guard and Supati the night guard. Will post photos of the three of them soon. Such beautiful kind hearted people, who lead and live such simple lives. Joe is Amy's housemate and has been living in Arusha for 3.5 years. He is a legal and policy advisor of the UN. An interesting character from New Jersey. Very polite, a gentlemen. You can tell he has lived here for awhile due to the way he conducts himself around the town. He is set in his ways and the house is very much his. I should mention his cat Rascal, who is beyond a doubt the most annoying and irritating cat.... doesn't help that I hate cats.

Friday night, first night out, was the introduction to the UN crew; all of Amys friends. Jumping on the back of Joe's bike we headed to Nicks Pub. You have two options for dinner at Nicks Pub; chicken or fish, chicken with with chips and banana or fish with chips and banana. Think of a pub, and think of the furthest thing from it. Nicks was just plastic tables and chairs with a pool table, serving whole fish and BBQ'd chicken. Drinks were cheap and Charlie, Chelsea, Nicole, Newch, Joe, Gigi and I sat around talking. All are extremely interesting people and come from an array of different backgrounds. Both Charlie and Joe have been living in Arusha for 3 and a half years. Gigi is a French pilot who bases himself out of Dar Es Salaam and has been here for 2 years; very very French and loves a drink.. too much most probably. Newch (nickname for new Charlie) is new and has only been here for 3 weeks, she works in archives at the UN and has come from a six year stint in Cambodia; great girl, really friendly. Nicole & Chelsea are here on the same placement as Amy and have been here since May, they're contract ends on December 31st. Nicole, otherwise known as Strippy, is from San Diego and Chelsea is from NZ. Both lovely and have made me feel apart of the group already. People come and go from this place quickly so having new people come into the group is not rare. All are incredible people who have had such interesting lives. Chelsea has just come from Northern Iraq after teaching English there for 6 months with her boyfriend; shes in the prosecution team at the UN.

Arusha is not what you'd imagine. There are a lot of expats here so the place is rather westernised and prices are pretty expensive. An average meal will cost you around 12,000 shillings which is approximately $10 AUD. Tanzania is the safari capital of Africa and Arusha is the base of Mt Kilimanjaro so there a lot of people that pass through here. The UN also house 500 employees who all base themselves out of Arusha. In saying that, it is still Africa and there are parts of Arusha that really lend itself to this. Dirt streets, hundreds of people, shops crammed on top of one another. It is small, but beautiful as it's surrounded by two mountains. It takes no more than 10 minutes to drive around the entire town.

Everyone has a car,so getting around is not a problem. You're strongly advised not to walk anywhere, especially at night. There is a bridge called muggers bridge which is renowned for pick-pocketing and theft. Unfortunately it has been rumoured that a girl was raped there just last week. In saying that, I do feel safe and I think at the end of the day it comes down to ensuring you have your whits about you. Incidents like that are going to happen all over the world. In Zanzibar two weeks ago, two girls had acid thrown on them due to the way they were dressed. Zanzibar is an extremely Muslim city, so many locals felt insulted by their attire.

Arusha is a funny town and will definitely take awhile getting used to. I head off to the SEW workshop tomorrow to start my first day with SEW (sewtanzania.org). I'm excited to meet the women and hear their stories. My first week will be all about meeting the women, familiarising myself with the product and the supporters of the organisation. The first point on the agenda is Zanzibar Fashion Week on 25th October, and Nicki has already lined up a couple of meetings with me in terms of marketing, campaigns and manufacturers. The contract is for a month and I will reassess my position and thoughts on this in the days leading up to it. Since being here, I have developed a strong desire to work in an orphanage for a month.. we will see though, I'm not making any rash decisions.

It's been an interesting couple of days. Excited for Amy to arrive home tomorrow morning and spend some time with her. Joe departs for New York tonight, so I will have a switch of housemates.

xx