Day 5 (Thursday) Team scheduled practice

Both teams arrived last last night into Arusha between 10 - 10:30 PM. Drake University was staying in the same hotel as we are and the Mexican team is located down the road within 2 miles. We road to the practice facilities along with the Drake team and coaching staff.  It was interesting to witness the reaction of these college athletes as we road through Arusha proper.  They were all excited to finally be practicing and finally be able to release some of that pent up energy.  As we started hitting the real poverty heart of Arusha the loud talking and joyful playing turned somber as they saw for the first time the kind of poverty that the poor of Arusha go through.  Some of the housing was just tin or wooden shacks.  We read today that the average Tanzanian individual makes only $350 USD per year as compared to a rural farmer that might only make $1 - $2 a week.  The positive side of this story is that the people we have met are very happy cultures where Christians (30%) live and work with Muslims (30%) and agnostics (40%) that there is little crime or culture clashes.  This was a big day for the seven of us officials also in that we were finally able to turn off the study videos, and meetings and get dressed in our stripes.  I hope these pictures do justice to how excited both teams are to be here.