Decided to finally get into the world of blogging today since this will be the easiest way to keep friends and family up to date on my upcoming experiences in Tanzania starting April 16th.

I have booked a flight from Toronto International Airport via Swiss Air on Thursday April 16th pit-stopping in Zurich and then flying into Dar Es Salaam via Nairobi at 8:10pm on Friday April 17th.

13 days to go! I can't believe the days have passed by so quickly. Thankfully I feel very well prepared logistically. I have my entry visa secured, will get my last 2 shots this coming Tuesday, flight arrangemnts finalized, packing is under control. Still trying to get organized from a work perspective & wrapping up projects in NA and preparing for the UDOM project (University of Dodoma).

Our team consists of 10 IBMers from 7 different countries. I am the only Canadian on Tanzania team 4 but will be working with folks from the US (3), Slovakia (1), Japan(1), India (2), Australia (1) & Germany(1). Our team name on the Corporate Services Corps (NING) website is Dodoma Kikoa 1 and this is how we stay connected as a team. We have a fair bit of pre-work that has been required of us and I am finding it challenging keeping up to date on that but am making some good progress. The pre-work topics range from in country logistics to articles on TZ, cultural adaptability topics, consulting and client learnings, & communication topics. All very interesting!

We will be working on a project for the University of Dodoma. Dodoma is approximately a 6 hour bus ride (hopefully with few breakdowns and decent roads!) from Dar. When I arrive in Dar Es Salaam I will stay both Friday and Saturday nights. This will allow for a day or so of site seeing and settling in before embarking on the trip to Dodoma.

We have received our SOW for the project and it looks pretty interesting...more on that to come.