The first 24 hours in Arusha, Tanzania
24 hours after leaving home, the airplane starts its descent into Kilimanjaro airport, and I can spot mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru peaking above the clouds.
The 1,5 hour drive from the airport to the hotel allowed us to see what rural life in Africa is. People making a living in all possible ways: small bars alongside the busy road to serve locals and tourists passing by, farmers herding their livestock on the roadside, people growing and selling plant sprouts on the roadside, rudimentary car repair shops, … overwhelming sights when you just come out of a luxury airplane bringing you in from Western Europe.
Now that almost the entire team is here and we finally had the chance to meet one another in-person upon arrival in the hotel, it was high time to freshen up and get ready for some food.
As you can probably tell from the picture above, the place we went to was known for grilled meat, and the given the crowd, we could only guess it was going to be good. Somehow we already new as Ruth, our local Pyxera contact (in the group picure on the right) had selected and suggested this location. A perfect end of the day after a long journey for everyone. Time for a rest.
Sunday July 9th, 2017. We spend the entire day getting to know eachother better through multiple exercises: Human Bingo, Life Road Map, MBTI, finding lunch together, … But we also spend time to walk around the neighbourhood of the hotel to learn where important things like an ATM, Laundry Service, food stores and others are.
The day is wrapped up in a restaurant where we are treated with a wonderful Masai story-telling/dancing performance, after which we get to taste different typical Masai dishes while sharing thoughts and first impressions with eachother.
A truly great end to a packed first day, while we’re all so much looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll finally get to meet our client Organisations and get into what they expect from us.
