Welcome to the blog for the Paideia 450 Tanzania course! We are excited to depart in just a few days and experience the joys and challenges of a new culture. Our group will depart from the Chicago airport on Monday, January 6th and travel to Amsterdam. From there, we will fly to Kilimanjaro airport near Arusha, arriving Tuesday evening (East Africa time). For your reference, East Africa time is 9 hours ahead of CST. While we will be spending a good portion of our trip with limited network connection, we will send updates as often as possible. Stay tuned for our descriptions and photos of our travels.
 
My name is April and I am the blog coordinator for this trip. Throughout the month you will get a chance to hear from all students, with different perspectives of our experiences. I am a senior from Minneapolis, Minnesota studying Accounting with Spanish and Math minors. In my free time, I enjoy running, spending time outdoors, and playing the piano. I also enjoy traveling and am very excited to visit a new country! I had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala and Costa Rica last J-term and learned so much about the culture by interacting with my host family and other locals. Being immersed in a culture will really enhance our perspective of the world and we will be able to carry our experiences with us when we return home.
 
In preparation for our departure, we are all reading about the culture and history of the Maasai people. Additionally, we have been practicing key phrases in Swahili, the national language of Tanzania, and Maa which the Maasai people speak. Our skills will be put to the test in just a few days when we touch down in Tanzania!
 
Baadaye (Later), April