Orientation - 17 July

Dear Reader,
You'll be pleased to hear I slept well under my princess canopy (aka mosquito net). I woke up earlier than necessary at 5:00am so I checked my messages and did some reading before drifting back to sleep.  Breakfast was at 8:00am so I was able to get some rest before I needed to get ready. 
Breakfast was yummy - we had omelette style eggs simply called eggs, a pastry similar to a donut but better, boiled sweet potato and fresh local bananas.  We also had fresh mango and passion fruit juice- delicious! You're missing out on that one for sure.
After breakfast we had a full group introduction including all CCS volunteers, CCS in- country staff and local volunteers. As volunteers can choose their placement length there's a good overlap - this group's placements range from 2-7 weeks. After all introductions were made the new volunteers stayed behind for orientation with Mama Thea and George. I won't go into detail as it was a very thorough orientation meeting.
Orientation was followed by lunch.  We saw (and smelled) our chef Andrew cooking it while we were in the tour of the house.  We had beef stew, rice, lentils and veggies. Another satisfyingly tasty meal!
After lunch we met with our placement partners. I was pleased to meet Evarist, coowner of Hope Haeva Daycare. Evarist and his wife Haika started the school three years ago. Haeva is a combination of their names. He told us all about the history of school as well as their schedule.  I'll fill you in on that later.
I'll be volunteering at Hope Haeva with a family group that came on the same day as me- young Ben, his mother and grandmother. We'll be joining Karen and Maddy, a mother daughter duo who have already been volunteering at Hope Haeva for 2 weeks. This will be their last week. 
Once all formalities had been taken care of we headed into town.  I withdrew some Tish  (Tanzanian shillings) and picked up a pair of Moshi pants since it's a lot cooler than I expected and I can wear pants to work. We priced a weekend safari then stopped at the grocery market.  I picked up some hand soap as it wasn't provided in our bedrooms. I have been leaving my bar soap at the sink and carrying the container to the shower but for about  $2 USD I got a bottle of soap that will last longer than my three week placement- well worth it. I also topped up my snack supply with some cookies, banana chips and ice cream.
As mentioned it is cooler than I expected so grilled cheese and mushroom soup was a welcome dinner.  We also had pumpkin, green beans and onions and salad. Have I mentioned I'm pleased with the food? 😉
It was a full day with the promise of an exciting morning ahead so I decided to get everything ready and have an early night!