A story. Taking place in Arusha

This actually happened a long time ago, I'm thinking maybe almost a month ago, but it was an adventure so I still want to tell you about it.

One day, Brendan and I went on an adventure.

It began as a normal Saturday, I woke up, ate breakfast, did laundry, washed my bedroom floor to keep the cockroaches away, etc. I met Brendan for lunch after I went and checked my email. We decided we were going to go to Green Hut for hamburgers.

Green Hut is a Tanzanian owned lunch spot that is (supposedly) famous for having good hamburgers (by Tanzanian standards). Walking in, it seemed like a fairly normal Tanzanian restaurant, but it was jam packed. They sat us at a table with another man because there wasn't any open tables (this is a normal occurrence). The man was strange and didn't speak with us, but that was okay- we just sort of started pretending that he wasn't there.

The hamburgers came with French fries ("chips" here) and ketchup (Tanzanian ketchup is like sweet red sauce) and some other unidentifiable sauce on them. They were pretty awful. Sort of bready and unflavorful, I think I ended up eating mostly French fries for that meal (which I don't even like very much). We were disappointed that it had turned out to be such a disappointment after so much hype. But we decided to go to the Cultural Heritage museum to brighten our day.

The Cultural Heritage museum is a super mzungo touristy spot filled with African-esque artwork, wood carvings, multiple massive gift shops, and a restaurant that lists all of its prices in American dollars (it's owned by an Indian family).

We thought maybe we should take a picky picky to get there ( a motorcycle taxi) but it would be hard to find someone who could be convinced to take two people and we weren't quite sure where it was. So we began to walk up the main road that runs through Arusha. After walking for about twenty minutes, we realized we really didn't know where we were going and that it would be a long long walk. So we went to a group of picky picky drivers hanging out on a street corner and after some hassle got two of them (one for each of us) to take us to the museum. The one who was driving me didn't know where he was going. We just followed Brendan's picky driver who was racing ahead, weaving in and out of traffic. At one point we lost sight of him, so I told the driver to just keep driving till I recognized a landmark. Eventually both Brendan and I ended up at the museum.

It was beautiful. The artwork isn't very well preserved so many of the paintings were warped and because there was construction going on, there was sawdust everywhere. But the building itself was gorgeous and it was cool to see the paintings, carvings, and photographs of Tanzanian things (not necessarily by Tanzanian artists as I found). There are multiple pictures of this up on Picasa.

After a longish romp through the building, and the multiple gift shops- we had some juice at the restaurant- only a tourist place would think it was okay to charge $3 (American) for a glass of mango juice when you can get it for the equivalent of $.80 (American) anywhere else in Arusha. It was then time to head to the rugby game we knew was happening at TGT.

Problem- we didn't know where TGT was. We asked a man at the museum who essentially told us it was 2km maximum distance up the road. So we decided to walk. The walk was beautiful. We walked through coffee plantations, saw some monkeys, walked past the international school, and walked way way out of Arusha. An hour and a half later we realized we were at the airport. It had been far more than 2 km. Ah but there, up ahead, was a sign for a Barclay's and TGT. We headed down a dirt road away from the main road. Twenty minutes down the road we had passed nothing resembling TGT. It was about 45 minutes till nightfall, storm clouds were gathering above our heads, and we could see the rain moving towards us.

I told Brendan we should walk to the next bend in the road and if we didn't see anything we should turn around, he agreed. Obviously, nothing was different around the bend so we headed back to the main road (turns out if we had walked five more minutes we would have made it- even though the game would have been long over already).

The thunderstorm was growing closer by the minute, we could see the lightening in the distance and could hear thunder and sundown was roughly 30 minutes away. But we were more than two hours away from town (we had only originally walked from cultural heritage which is already outside of the city a bit). We decided to start walking back and to flag down a dalla dalla if one passed us.

Shortly after we began to walk an overly filled dalla dalla comes flying down the road. We wave it down, only to find that there are absolutely NO seats left in this dalla dalla. I ended up squished half squatting next to a teenage girl sitting on some old man's lap (gross), sitting next to many other people sitting on other peoples laps. Brendan stood on the sideboard of the dalla dalla hanging out the side of the bus with maybe 4 or 5 other people also standing on the outside of the bus as it drove into town.

We made it to a restaurant just as the downpour began – back in Arusha town center after a crazy adventure. It was an enjoyable experience though. Thanks for letting me share!

 

More Selela Updates

    I had forgotten to add some things about Selela from last blog post.

1) There were tons of animals that we saw there. The first time on our way there we saw giraffes just walking along the side of the road. We got to get out and get within fifty feet of them. It was so cool.

2) I got through a lot of reading in Selela. The campsite was so beautiful and lush- it just begged you to sit down and read. I got through three books in two weeks. I've started reading more nonfiction here and a lot of African historical fiction- it's fascinating to learn about new cultures, ideas, and customs.

3) Our first day there we attempted to go up the mountain (which marks the border to Ngorongoro Crater). It was completely unsuccessful. We got scratched up, and only got about halfway up before we had to turn around so we could be back before dark. But it was beautiful and we had a beautiful view. We could see Mt. Meru and Kilimanjaro and many of the mountains of The Rift Valley mountain range. All of Selela was spread out before us with herds of cows and goats dotting the plains.

4) Rachel and I had the tent that normally sleeps 4 people (and is probably meant for 5 or 6) to ourselves the first week. So we had a palace tent for a week- it was ridiculous how much space we had. We felt like we were being pampered.

5) The Selela campground had western style toilets (not squat toilets), another way in which we felt totally pampered.

6) In the market place at Selela (which was small and cheerful), I bought a pair of Maasai shoes for 2000 Tsh. They are made out of rubber car tires. They're interesting and mostly comfortable unless I do lots of walking in them.

That's all, I just wanted to mention those things and I think I had forgotten to mention them. Also, I was wrong about lonely planet- they do talk about guest houses a little bit, but only for certain locations in TZ (maybe they think the other ones are too dangerous?)

 

Update on my how I've recently spent my time In Arusha

  I have now been back in Arusha for one whole week and I think I'm ready to go camping again! Arusha doesn't have alot to offer in terms of actual things to do as it is really just a spot where tourists come to plan activities elsewhere. So at this point, I think I've hit almost every mzungo restaurant and gone to most of the tourist-y things.  There is still some hiking I would like to do, but that can easily be completed on the weekends.

   Recently some of the touristy things I've done have been really interesting though, so I'm hoping I can search out another couple cool things before I go home.

This past week I went to the ICTR or International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  This is the international United Nations court that was set up in 1994/1995 to put all of the people who were involved in the Rwandan Genocide on trial. It has a permanent home here in Arusha - super convenient for me! It was so interesting to go and see part of a trial. I am planning on going back when I have more free time.  I actually had to try going twice before I actually made it inside to go see a trial.

On Wednesday I went with Brendan. We showed up at around 2pm (when we heard that courts would go back into session after their lunch break). We had to wander around a bit to try to find the right entrance. Finally we made it to the security booth where I traded my passport for a visitor's badge. We then went through a medal detector and put our bags through a scanning machine thing before being allowed into the UN complex.  The buildings are really cool looking- very modern (white and red) with multiple ATM machines, a place to buy food, a conference center, a duty free shop, and lots of offices, court rooms, etc.  We found a nice Asian man who spoke English to take us to where we needed to go to see if there was open court that day. When we got there, there were a few guards mingling outside talking of the closed door. Turns out- closed court for the day (which basically means they're going over sensitive information that they didn't want the public to have access to or know about- blah blah).  So we wandered around the complex a bit more then left for the day.

Try number two was Thursday. Rachel and I went to Picasso's, a super nice mzungo cafe, for breakfast first. She got an omelette and toast and fresh squeezed mango juice- I had already had breakfast at home, so I just got a mocha latte which was wonderfully delicious.

We then went back to the UN- around 10am. Once again, I exchanged my passport for a visitor's badge and we headed up to the second floor where the trials were being held.  This time there was an open trial. We had to leave our bags and all belongings with a guard sitting outside. In exchange we were each given a pair of headphones attached to a little black box with two dials on it. This was rather confusing until we walked into the next room and then everything became clear.

The court actually consisted of a bunch of little rooms and sections. The judges, the lawyers, the translators and the witness all had microphones in front of them and EVERYONE was wearing a set of headphones. This was so you could hear the trial going on in whatever your preferred language was. There were three translators who each had their own room (Kintarrwandan, French, and English). The witness was also on trial for a different case, so his identity was being protected by having him sit in behind a big blue curtain, so no one could see him.  The audience (where I was sitting) had their own room and then the judges, lawyers and the record keepers of the case were in the large room in the middle. Because everyone who needed to speak had microphones and everyone was wearing headsets this was an ideal set up. I was able to hear the whole case in English, even though the witness only spoke Kintarrwandan (sp?). The main defense lawyer was British- and the head judge was from an African country but spoke in English most of the time- so all in all most of the trial is held in English.  It's easy to see though, why the trials can take so long. Some times the translators would ask people to repeat things so they could translate them correctly or there would be a mistranslation and the whole court would have to back up and go over something again.

When we were there they had the ex-Prime Minister of Finance for Rwanda on trial.  When Rachel and I first showed up we weren't quite sure what was going on, but there was a nice kid from the University of Dodoma (the captial of TZ) who whispered to us the background story of the trial. The student's name was Lucas and he was studying how to become a legal translator at school. It was actually really cool. He had to go listen to a trial every day for almost a month.  But he had to listen to it in different languages every day, so one day English, one day French, one day Kintarrwandan, etc.

After close to two hours, the court took a break. Rachel and I went to the duty free shop to explore then wandered around the complex. In the conference center, the National Medical Research Institute for Tanzania was having an exposition of sorts. We wandered in and looked at people's research, talked to people about what they did, how they were funded, etc. It was really cool to see what people studied and how they operated. At one booth they had pamphlets on "How to Write a Proper Grant," research in general is a relatively new thing to Tanzanians and as shown by the sparse showing of people at the center, not well funded or respected yet either.  I asked a man if the institute provided funding to researchers or how projects received money and he gave me a blank stare. Essentially, I found after speaking to him for awhile, that the only money people can get for their research is from private organizations which are usually based outside of the country.

After this small adventure, Rachel and I headed back to the court room. But upon reaching it, we found that the witness had said he wasn't feeling well and wanted to postpone until the next day- so that was the end of our trip to the UN.  We felt satisfied though, especially because we heard the witness say completely contradicting things and basically ruin his own credibility. The defense lawyer tore him apart- it was amusing actually- just because he managed to get the witness so confused.

There have been a couple more adventures as of late,so I will speak about those in the forthcoming blog posts. 

Selela week Two and Safari

 After the first week in Selela, five of us had GSC drop us off in MtoWaMbu because we were going on safari! Rachel, Brendan, Adam, Alana, and myself all stayed in the Sayari guest house that night.  We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves during all of our free time on Friday afternoon. We wandered around a bit, found an internet cafe to check our email and bought some fruits and vegetables in the market.

I had been thinking of getting my hair braided (African style) for a couple of weeks and decided that since I had a couple of hours to spare, why not? I walked to the first "hair saloon" (a common mispelling here) that I saw and asked the woman if she would braid my hair- she agreed and put a towel down on the floor for me to sit on . I sat down in front of her stool and bent my head forward as she began the first of many many tiny french braids all over my head. I described to her basically what I wanted ahead of time and then she added a bit of her own style to it. It turned out pretty well even though it took almost three hours to complete (my neck hurt so much by the end). During hair braiding time, I had a man named Richard come and keep me company for a good portion of my suffering. He worked for a dutch cultural tourism program that does bicycle and boat trips through Manyara National Park.  It sounded like a really cool program and because of speaking with him, I am considering doing something similar in Kilimanjaro National Park.

              The next morning we woke up at 5:15am and had a feast in our room at the guesthouse consisting of things we had bought at the market the day before: milk  bread, peanut butter, bananas, honey, watermelon, tomatoes, and cucumber.  Then we packed up our bags and made it to the main road by 6am where we met our safari guide, John from SOKO Safaris.
                  The park of the day was to be Tarengire National Park, a little more than an hours drive south(ish) from MtoWaMbu.  On the way there we got to see the sun rise over the misty fields, it was beautiful. We also passed a couple groups of giraffes and some zebras before we even reached the park.

           Tarengire is known for two things (that come hand in hand actually) its baobab trees and its elephants (over 100,000).  Its mostly open grassland scattered with trees. Tarengire is special though in that it has a constant water source. Many of the other national parks see migrations of various animals depending on whether its dry season or not. Tarengire keeps many of its animals year round, although some do leave to go back to the other parks during rainy season.  We ventured in just at the beginning of rainy season, but it was a beautiful day while we were there.

        As soon as we got into the park we saw a bunch of water bucks (in the gazelle family) eating along the road. They were soon joined by some impalas (also in the gazelle family). Only a couple of hundred feet beyond them we saw a family of giraffes. A few babies were eating the lower leaves of the trees while four or five larger ones ate the higher branches. They were only about fifty feet away from the car- it was unbelievable to be able to get so close to them.

Only a little farther on, we ran into a herd of elephants. They were so big and moved so slowly! They had darker skin than any elephant I have ever seen before, but John (safari man) explained that the color of their skin depends on what color the dirt is. This is because they will eat dirt for the nutrients it provides (or some such thing- someone can give me the exact explanation if they know) and this will affect their skin color. Anyway- we watched the elephants for quite some time as they moved from one side of the road to the other.

        As we continued through the park we had the chance to see the Tarengire river and the many many baobab trees that the park is known for. We got to see some mongooses from afar (all of these pictures are posted on Picasa) as well as a bunch of vutlures and some storks feasting on a dead giraffe (we could smell the rotting flesh from pretty far away- gross gross gross).  The baobab trees were all stripped over the outer layers of bark. This is from the elephants who chew on the bark and suck the water out of it. The baobab tree is really porous, like a giant sponge, it soaks up a ton of water.
         We got to see a bunch more giraffes, elephants galore, and tons of baboons and monkeys as well.  We also saw quite a few ostriches, and many colorful, exotic birds ( I can't remember almost any of the names of them except for the superb starling). 

Until fairly recently, poaching was a huge problem in Tanzania (in recent years there has been an increase in cracking down on poachers and in preventative measures). At one spot in Tarengire, poachers had carved out the inside of a baobab tree so that they could hide inside of the tree while they were hunting elephants (and evading law enforcement).  Now it is a tourist attraction. We couldn't go inside the hole as it was filled with water and pythons are known to like hiding inside the tree, but we were able to walk around it and look inside. It was quite impressive.

    The only awful thing about Tarengire was the ridiculous amount of Tsetse flies. They were everywhere! I think every single one of us got bitten at least twenty times. The flies are vicious and their bites hurt (sort of like really bad horse fly bites). The tsetse flies aren't native to the park and were brought in by accident. Because of this- they have no natural predators and multiply like crazy. Also- they refuse to die. Many times we would squash them (step on them, smash them against a window, etc.) and believe they were dead, only to see them get up and fly away the second we moved our hand,shoe, etc.  Fortunately not all Tsetse flies carry sleeping sickness and none of us (as of now anyway) has felt any ill effects of their bites.

     That night we drove back to MtoWaMbu and camped at Twiga campsite. The safari company took such good care of us, we all felt really pampered. Our tents were super nice, huge, really thick canvas and the sleeping pads they gave us were inches thick (such a difference from what we're used to when we're working). They fed us more food than we could possibly eat and gave us hot chocolate and wine for dinner (both things that we don't ever see while we're camping with GSC).  After dinner we went swimming in the campground swimming pool.  For breakfast the next morning we had omelettes and crepes and more hot chocolate (I've come to appreciate good food so much). The whole experience was such a treat.

    The next morning once again we woke up bright and early to head out for the second day of our safari.  Sunday was the day to visit Ngorongoro conservation area aka The Ngorongoro Crater. The crater used to be a huge huge volcano that exploded a really long time ago (a couple of million years) and left behind a massive crater (also known as a caldera). The floor of the crater is about 100 square miles and from the top of the mountains surrounding it, to the bottom of the crater, its about 2000 ft deep.  To get to the crater we had to first drive up the Rift Valley mountains and drive along the ridge, through the village of Keratu, until we came to the crater. This took about an hour. Past Keratu, we entered the conservation area and had to get a permit for our vehicle.  We stopped to do this as well as to use the bathroom and wander around the visitor center for a few minutes.

Beyond the gate about twenty baboons were sitting in the middle of the road. They began to move closer to our car as we drove past them. John (safari man) explained that the baboons are mean (as I mentioned before) and when cars stop they will climb in the windows and steal food from people. For this reason we were not allowed to open our windows or open the top of the car until we had gone past them for a  ways.  We had to still drive up after getting through the gate, for about another twenty min. We then reached the edge of the crater. The view was remarkable.


 We then had an hour drive down into the crater. As soon as we reached the bottom, we were surrounded by zebras and wildebeasts. Wildebeasts are the strangest looking animals. Its sort of the appearance you would associate with a child's idea of a magical creature.  so bizarre.   We also saw two sleeping male lions relatively soon after entering the park. This was great, because the day before we had searched all over Tarengire but hadn't found a single one (only their tracks leading up a dry creek bed) despite hearing from other safari cars that they had seen some. Male lions sleep almost the entire day, so it wasn't unusual to see them slumbering.  Close to where the lions were sleeping we passed by a pond filled with a bunch of hippopotamus(es?). This was the second time I had seen a hippopotamus in TZ (the first time being in Ngurdoto way back in the end of January).  

After driving around for a bit longer, John suddenly stopped the safari truck next to what seemed to be a stretch of empty grassland. But his eyes were far more experienced than ours at sighting animals and he had picked out an animal lying on a hillock not too far off the road.  It was a cheetah. I was so excited, I had never imagined that I would ever get to see a cheetah in real life. It was surprisingly smaller than I had imagined, but so beautiful.  It sat up after we had been watching it for awhile and with John's super fancy binoculars I could see all of the individual spots all over its body and its face super close up.

We also got to see tons of different types of gazelles (like the eland and the reedbuck, the waterbuck and the hartebeast) and a black rhinocerous!  Also in the crater are alot of buffalo. They can be pretty aggressive, but since we were in a car- it was (theoretically anyway- they ARE wild animals) safe.  There were herds of the buffalo wallowing in mud pits all over the crater. They were so goofy looking. On picasa I have a video of an old fat one twisting and turning all by himself in the mud, while the rest of his friends all abandon him.
   We also got to see some hyenas (from far away though and they were sleeping) and a jackal.  In the middle of the crater is a salt lake where a bunch of flamingos live.  There are also elephants in teh crater. They were bigger than the ones we saw in Tarengire and John explained that many male elephants come to Ngorongoro when they are old- so we were seeing mostly old men elephants.
    As we were leaving the crater, we happened across two female lions hunting prey. We watched the one female go after a zebra for almost forty min. But she didn't get him and we had to leave to be out of the park before it closed (or they fine you lots of money) so we didn't see her attack.

When people go on safari in Tanzania they typically look for the "big five." These animals are: buffalo, elephants, black rhinocerous, leopard, and the lion. I managed to see four of them within two days so I was pretty satisfied ( I would still really like to see a leopard before I leave though!).

John dropped us off in MtoWaMbu Sunday night and we once again stayed in Sayari lodge until Monday morning when GSC picked us back up to head out to Selela to work.

The second week in Selela I taught two classes. One was a community group in the morning. Through some ridiculous organization we taught this group with four teachers (me, Jenna, Kristy and Brendan). In the afternoon, Brendan and I taught a class with Dismas in the local primary school. It was standard seven (equivalent of sixth grade) and the students were quite entertaining. Many times they asked us questions just to get a rise out of us (for example: what do you call a baby with an african father and a white mother?... they wanted us to say Obama), but they also asked alot of really good questions and were really interested in what we were teaching them. We taught them about relationships, anatomy, puberty, fertilization/reproduction,  and some basic life skills. 

Teaching two classes a day left us with less free time than we had had the week before, but we still managed to explore the jungle further and search for a way to the top of the mountains we were camping by.  One of the last days we were there, Adam showed us a path he had found that he believed went to the top (turns out it did, but we never made it there). Along the way up we met two maasai men who were about our age and spoke English. It was cool to talk to them, and they showed us how to make a fire by rubbing two sticks together (which believe it or not, i have never actually seen done before).  
At the end of the week, Adam and Alana gave the students a soccer ball to play with and to keep- they were really excited to have a ball to play with !
       

Selela

It has been quite some time since I have updated this. My apologies. I have been out in the bush. For the last two weeks we have been in Selela, a small village that lies just along the Rift Valley about 3ish hours (possibly a bit more- the road is pretty bad- rocky, dirt etc so it depends on the road condition for driving time) from Arusha.

Selela is mostly full of Maasai and Chagga tribal peoples.  There's a strange dichotomy in the village due to the opposite tribal cultures that live in the same area. The Chagga are traditionally farmers while the Maasai rarely farm and are only concerned with their cattle (and occasionally goats).  The two tribes, despite living in the same village, have little interaction. Most of the Maasai live a ways outside of the village center and only come into town on market day or to go to the guest house (which has a generator and so cold soda, beer, and konyagi).  The Chagga on the other hand live all over the village with their farms lined up along the sides of the mountains.

Selela was beautiful. Now that it is rainy season everything has begun to bloom and there was green everywhere. We camped just along the irrigation canal the village had built to bring water to their farms. It was a thirty minute walk from the village next to a banana tree forest and in the jungle clearing of the woods that bordered the banana trees. Vervet monkeys filled the trees around us, making noise incessently all day and night long. But just as you learn to block out city noises, we soon didn't hear the monkeys either. Baboons were every where as well.

The baboons were actually really scary. They are quite large, the males especially were probably close to ninety pounds. Baboons eat meat and feel threatened if you venture into their territory. There were multiple times when we went exploring through the woods by our camp  that the baboons would start screaming. I'm not sure if they were angry were not, but I always turned around and headed a different direction.  Once we saw them all start dropping out of the trees and coming towards us on the ground, it was then we decided it was time to head back to camp.

The monkeys were so cool though. We would throw them orange and mango peels. They would come and snatch up the peels then scamper back up into the trees with them before anyone (or monkey) or could steal their treat from them. Then they would sit on a branch just above our heads eating their peels with relish.

There were also a decent amount of toucans, which were SO cool . I totally love them.

Also, the food in Selela was phenomenal. I loved it. We had so many fresh avocados, tomatoes, bananas, and mangos. Lots of lentils, and rice, and even chicken- twice!

The first week in Selela we vaccinated chickens. This involved eating breakfast at 6 or 6:30 every morning then heading out to the farms to get the chickens before they left their coops for the day. The Maasai don't normally keep too many chickens, but the Chagga had a number of them.  I love doing chicken vaccinations because you get to see how so many people live. We get to see their houses, their farms, and how they live on a day to day bases. Many people here keep their chickens in their houses with them and sometimes other animals as well.

One day while vaccinating chickens, a Maasai woman found a red spitting cobra in her boma underneath her bed. The African spitting cobras are the world's largest spitting cobras and are among the world's most poisonous snakes. The snake was roughly a meter long ( I was not there but I had the whole thing described very vividly to me and I was shown pictures).  If bitten, someone won't die immediately, but they would need medical care asap. If they were to not receive it (As in, the closest hospital to Selela is over an hour away driving and very few people have cars or forms of transportation other than walking), they would die. The woman managed to kill it with a rock and threw it out of her house. Some men then built a fire to burn the snake (I'm not sure why they did this).   It's scary to know that snakes like this are common all over northern Tanzania.  Pythons are common as are many other dangerous snakes.

 I have only seen one big snake since being here and that was an injured one lying in the middle of the road. Harry, the driver for GSC, tried to drive over its head to kill it (following along with the popular opinion that an injured venomous snake is too dangerous to leave alive because it will attack anything it can) but we were unsuccessful.  As we were driving away we saw a bunch of children running up to it with sticks. Hopefully they managed to finish the job without being hurt.  The pictures of the squashed looking white snake on Picasa are of this snake.

Arusha facts, I'm taking a break from writing about Engaruka.

So now its time for a little bit more detail about Arusha. I can’t remember how much of this I have spoken about before.

Arusha sits at the base of a large mountain, called Mt. Meru. It is the second tallest mountain in Tanzania (after Kili, the tallest mountain in Africa) and is basically just a constant presence that I forget about for large periods of time. Every once in awhile though, I look up and it’s like “whoa, there is a huge huge mountain that I get to see every day.” I would really like to climb Meru at some point before I leave but this will probably not happen. 1, because it costs about $600 to do (which I can’t really justify spending for doing something that isn’t really really awesome), and 2, because it takes about three to four days to do and is highly recommended that you DON’T do it during rainy season (aka now till about 2-3 weeks before I leave). It’s supposed to be a rather tedious hike, especially because there are 13 fake summits to the mountain, so you keep thinking you’re just about to reach the top, then lo and behold, turns out there’s still a lot more to do. So it may or may not happen, but it’s a cool mountain and nice to look at.

In terms of danger for white people:

I haven’t really felt to be in too much danger since being here, despite hearing numerous reports abot muzungos being mugged, robbed etc. Since being here I have caught people trying to pick pocket me three times, twice it was actually the same man. No worries, I always keep my bag close to me and generally keep a hand over the opening, so nothing has been stolen (yet anyway – I may be jinxing myself here). Needless to say, the last time I felt the man (not so subtly I might add, he was a rather lowsy pickpocket) reaching his hand along the top of my bag, I flipped out. I was in the middle of a shoe shop looking at really awesome beaded sandals (where some guy was trying to rip me off by telling me they cost 24,000 TSh) and there were a lot of people all crowded into the tiny tiny shop. I shoved the guy back into a bunch of the other people in the store, hit him in the face, and yelled at him to leave me alone. I was already annoyed because the shop keeper thought I was stupid and believed that the shoes cost more than like $3 so I started yelling at the man quite a bit. He didn’t stick around, just ran out into the street. Obviously, I left the shop without buying shoes.

There was another time where I was walking with Kristy to our houses (we live really close to each other) around 6pm. This is more than an hour before the sun sets and there were a lot of people around all walking home from work, the market etc. A car full of Indian men followed us for a ways, yelling things at us and wanting us to get in their car with them. But after we ignored them (for probably close to ten minutes- it was a really long time) they eventually left us alone.
Those are the only times though that I have felt that Arusha is a scary place. Typically we stay in really well populated areas and I never go anyway by myself after dark, so I don’t expose myself to scary people. And while I do take public transportation, I never do at night and I always make sure I hold my bag in front me and keep my cell phone, camera, etc. out of sight.

The main form of transportation is the dalla dalla and while they aren’t bad, most of the time I opt out of taking them and walk instead anyway. If it is really far and would take far too long to walk, I always try to get a seat near the door or a window. You are less likely to be completely smothered this way and you can tell where you’re going. A number of times I have completely missed my stop because I couldn’t see out any windows (there were too many elbows, backs, bags, and just people in general In my way). Also, dalla dallas don’t really have set stops, so if you want to get off you either have to yell up to the front to get the guy to stop, or you can bang on the window frame with a coin and they’ll pull right over (or they normally do anyway- sometimes they just do whatever they want). The dalla dallas are color coded so you know where each one is supposed to go. All of the dalla dallas are mostly white, but they have colored stripes on the sides. To my house, I take the black dalla dalla that heads towards Njero, a rich mostly mzungo neighborhood a little ways out of town. It drops me off by a small store that is just above the brewery. I then have about a 15 minute walk home from there. A typical ride into town costs about 250 Tsh which is roughly twenty cents. There isn’t any real consistent payment that they charge you, you just pay what you think you should pay for whatever distance you’re traveling and then they’ll either give you change or ask for more money. You can argue but normally its not a lot and not worth the hassle if they charge you an extra five cents.
I try to educate myself on how much things should cost so I know how much people are trying to rip me off (they inevitably will, if only because I have white skin and they think I’m rich). I ask my mama all the time, how much should an avocado cost? What about a pineapple? Normally I find that I paid a lot more than it was worth, sometimes even double what she would have paid (it still only cost me less than a dollar to buy a pineapple, so its not a huge huge deal). I also keep my guide book handy so that I have a map of Arusha or wherever we are around with me and can know what things are like. If it’s a poor area, lots of tourists, etc. It’s not always reliable though.

Reading my Lonely Planet Tanzania book here, I keep finding things that I wish they had included, especially about things just around Arusha. For example, while many hostels charge somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 Tsh a night and the book includes these and what amenities they offer, they don’t mention anything about guest houses. Guest houses are typically where Tanzanians stay when they travel and are only about 5,000 Tsh a night PER ROOM. Many times each room will have two beds in it, so if you’re traveling with more than one person its an even better deal. These guest houses sometimes provide breakfast (usually for a little bit more money, but its worth it in most cases) and a shared toilet and sometimes even a way to bathe (they’ll either heat up water for you, or they have a cold shower, I know of one that has hot showers). They don’t advertise though, so if you are new to an area, it may be hard to find one.

Also, The Lonely Planet doesn’t list many local restaurants. While Muzungo restaurants are fine (and delicious and sometimes necessary places to go when you can’t possibly eat any more beans), there are plenty of really good, filling, cheap local restaurants that they completely ignore. Example, there is a restaurant in town called Milk and honey that has AMAZING curried vegetables and rice (and it’s a huge portion-way more than I can eat) for 4000 Tsh. Sherry’s Snacks, a particular favorite of GSC employees because its really close and really good food, serves you almost anything for between 2000 and 3000 Tsh. We call that place Space Cadet, due to a super ditzy waitress who works there (she forgets orders, has to double check that what she’s bringing to the table actually IS sprite or coke or whatever, and will completely forget to ask half a table what they want to eat- we like her anyway). In addition, Sherry, the owner, LOVES it when white people eat there (especially us, since we’re basically regulars) and will come and talk with you FOREVER.

Anyway, Arusha also has a lot of amenities that can’t be found anywhere else in TZ besides Dar and Zanzibar. It has a movie theater, a mall-esque collection of rather high end shops, multiple grocery stores that sell foods besides beans, lentils, rice, etc. , and a large collection of health and fitness clubs and intramural sports leagues. Although I have not yet seen this sport played, it is also where the national rugby team plays its international matches. I am planning on going to watch a rugby game in the near future, so I can figure out exactly what this sport is.

Living here is like living in fake Tanzania, while things aren’t super elegant, I forget a lot that I am in AFRICA. It isn’t until we’re camping in the middle of the desert that I remember again that there are people who have never seen white people here, that don’t have and have never seen electricity, that they don’t even have water to drink. All in all, I’m glad I’m staying in Arusha and only venturing out into the bush for three weeks at a time. I always feel like I’m being pampered when I’m at home here. I get to sleep in a real bed, and have drinking water whenever I want, and I have electricity (most of the time) and internet. It makes me super appreciative of how awesome Arusha really is (and how beautiful all of the green everywhere is).

More Arusha facts. There are a little less than 300,000 people that live in the whole city even though it is the third largest city in the country. The elevation of the city is really pretty high (1400m) which is good because it means Arusha is a lot cooler than most of the other areas around here. Its normally in the 80s F here which is a super pleasant temperature to live in year round. In the rainy season (beginning now) it even gets a little colder which is great.

The region Arusha is in (called Arusha region) is famous for a gemstone called Tanzanite (creative name, I know). This is the only place in the world it can be found. It is pretty, a blu-ish purple color and really expensive. There are mines all over the region that find it and Arusha is filled with Tanzanite shops and museums.
Arusha is also where the Criminal Tribunal for the Rwandan genocide is being held, so there is a large UN presence here. Soon, I am going to go and watch a trial. It’s on the to do list.

Lake Natron Weekend

We left for Lake Natron from Engaruka on Saturday morning relatively early. It takes about five hours to drive (northeast) from Engaruka to the lake. Lake Natron lies about 25 km past Oldonyo Lengai so we knew that we were getting close when we passed right by the volcano.
On the way there we passed by herds of zebras, wildebeasts, dikdiks, and gazelles. It was was so cool to see them in their native habitats just wandering around the plains.
When we had climbed to the top of our mound in Engaruka we had seen a large crater so on our way to Natron we stopped by the crater to check it out. Turns out, it had once been an active volcano that had essentially imploded and fallen in on itself,leaving this large crater in its wake. It was a good size crater with little greenery on the inside. It stood at the base of two other sleeping volcanoes and just beyond it on the horizon we could see Oldonyo Lengai or "Mountain of the Gods" in the Maasai language. We could also see the gases that the mountain was releasing creating a puffy white cloud that hung constantly around the top of the volcano.
The road we drove on was a dirt path, frequented with large holes, ditches, rocks, and other obstacles. About 45 min into our drive we got a flat tire from one of the rocks we had driven over in GSC's Land Cruiser. So we all piled out while Tom 'dogo, Harry (the driver), and Dismas changed the car tire. A little bit away from the road were a few Maasai bomas. The children immediately ran over to our car, "pipi?, pesa?, maji?" They never ask for anything different (candy, money, water- actually water only gets asked in rural areas, generally in town its pens, "kalamu"). We tried to talk to them but because they mostly only spoke Maasai, and we mostly only spoke English, our communication levels were low.
Shortly after the children came over though, the mothers followed with their babies wrapped tightly to their backs. They immediately started asking (in English), "eyedrops?, eyedrops?" It was at this point that we realized that almost all of the children that we had been speaking with (and holding hands with) had really bad cases of pink eye. It wasn't hard to see why though, one of the mamas (who was holding her baby in her hands) had manure and straw covering her hands so completely that no skin could be seen beneath her wrists. Turns out thats how they build the mud walls of their bomas. Hygiene isn't really a top priority here.
After we explained that we didn't have any eyedrops on us the mothers began to take all of their copious amounts of jewelry off of their necks and wrists and putting it on our necks and wrists (only the girls bodies, they ignored the males). They then began to sing and dance and gathered us in a circle on the road to teach us how to sing a call and response song with them, and move our bodies just right so that we got the jewelry to swing in the correct way. It was completely random and tons of fun.
Shortly after this the tire was finished being changed and it was time to leave the women. So we took the jewelry off, handed it back to the women (even though they wanted us to keep it in exchange for water, money, or medicine from us- but we didn't have extra of any of these to give to them) and got back in the Land Cruiser to continue on our way.
Twice we had to stop to pay Maasai men in little wooden shacks on the side of the road. Each shack stood at the line to a new region. The government doesn't give any money to regions to help make or upkeep existing roads, so the only income people have for their road systems in rural areas is to charge those who drive through exorbitant amounts of money. They don't charge Tanzanians, but each Mzungo had to pay 18,000 Tsh at one stop and then 10,000 Tsh at the other. If we had had our resident permits with us this price would have been cut in half, but because GSC didn't know (or at least told us they didn't know) that these charges were in place, most of us didn't have copies of our resident permits with us (apparently we're supposed to carry copies around with us everywhere we go, but until that point I hadn't heard that rule).
The closer we got to Oldonyo Lengai the more dead and barren and gray the landscape looked. When we finally got close to the mountain, we found that the whole area was covered in fine gray dust. The mountain looked gray and stony and had brief amounts of greenery on only one side of it.
We could see Lake Natron in the distance, but it looked only a dim, blue gray color and was hard to see even though we were relatively close to it. We continued on to stay this super lush and awesome campground. I don't know what it was called but it was super fancy. They offered platform tents that had king size beds and electricity in them for almost $300 USD a night. Since we had brought our own tents it only cost us 10,000 Tsh a person (about $8 USD), so it was cool. We got to enjoy the rest of the amenities, like flush sit down toilets, mirrors, working sinks, and canvas chairs in shady areas even though we weren't paying the posh prices. There was a bar and a restaurant at the campground too, but dinner cost $25 USD a person, and even a soda from the bar cost $3 USD, so we found food and beverages in the small village that was close by. We did get to enjoy the pool though, which wasn't large but really enjoyable (it was about 115* F each day we were there).

It was about lunch time when we got there so after setting up our tents we sat down on the grass underneath a shady trees where some monkeys were hanging out to eat. It was actually a super good lunch, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pineapples, mangoes, and oranges. If I ate lunch like that every day I was in TZ I would be perfectly happy. At lunch we found out that if we had wanted to hike up Oldony Lengai we should have done it the evening before as they didn't want us to do it on such short notice (its supposed to be a really arduous hike). We also would be potentially exposed to a large rain showed while up there and since it is slick already (being hardened molten lava) it would be more dangerous. In addition to these things, GSC didn't really want us to hike up the volcano. So we didn't go. Which I was really bummed out about. But oh well.
After lunch we went on a hike up a creek to a waterfall. The hike wasn't super hard and was really beautiful,as the creek was really the only water source for a great ways (besides Natron which has water that is far too basic to really support plant life). It was also really nice to walk through the water and to get wet since it was so hot out. About 1/3 of the way into the hike, while we were walking though water about waist deep, I caught my Teva sandal on a rock and the sole ripped off from the top part of the shoe. I managed to get both parts before they were washed away byt he current (so I could bring them back to Arusha and try to get it fixed) but I had to complete the rest of the hike with only one shoe (there and then back). It wasn't too bad since most of the walking was in the water. It was only when we had to climb up the rocky parts that my foot hurt because the rocks were SO hot. The waterfall was beautiful (as you can see if you check out Picasa) and had palm trees growing all along the walls of the canyon area that the creek went through.

Since my camera is waterproof, I took it behind the waterfall to where the more powerful chute of water was and where we swam for about four hours. The pictures aren't super clear, since water kept spraying all over my lens, but I tried getting a few pictures of it.
AFter the walk back (where I tried to do almost the whole thing in the water, with the exception of a few larger drops) we went back to camp to change out of our wet clothing (or in my case, put on other shoes). We then headed out to Lake Natron. The last 2 km or so we drove over sticky mud flats from where the lake had retreated. Because there is only a little bit of water constantly going into Natron, and nothing moving out of Natron, the water level is almost entirely dependent on the amount of rainfall that has been received recently. Since there hadn't been alot of rain, the water was pretty low. We were able to walk out farther on the mudflats than the car since we weren't as heavy, but in most places we couldn't reach the water without risking sinking deeply into the mud.
The lake was beautiful, and covered in hundreds of bright pink flamingos. As we could see them standing a few hundred meters out into the lake, we found that the Lake was only a few inches deep for a very long way (its very shallow the whole way across even though it does get slightly deeper in the middle). At that point, Natron marks the border between Tanzania and Kenya and we could see Kenya across the lake from where we stood. Natron is one of the only places where greater flamingos can live. This is because the alkaline nature of the water allows specific types of microorganisms to grow that represent the greatest portion of a flamingo's diet. Lesser flamingos (yes, there are two completely differnt types of flamingos- crazy I know- I had never heard of this before Natron) live in a wider variety of places, btu they do not have the bright pink feathers and can eat a wider variety of food. Apparently they have some other physical characteristics that are different as well, but I dont really know what they are.
We spent quite awhile looking at the flamingos, trying to get close enough to them to get good pictures (a challenging task), and enjoying walking in about 1 cm of water (our pictures look pretty cool, check them out on Picasa).
While we were there, a bunch of Maasai women walked over and tried to sell us jewelry; many of the Maasai in the area are very very poor and have no income. And although they can mostly survive off what they can get themselves, they don't have access to medicine, clean water, or fruits and vegetables (at least in places like Natron and Engaruka which have almost no water sources). Because of this, whenever they see white people they come and ask for money, medicine, water, and sometimes jewelry or sunglasses that they see us wearing.
They also try to sell us jewelry they have made. The jewelry is beautiful and even though they typically ask outrageous prices for it, it's not too hard to get them down to a reasonable price. They are also, many times, willing to trade what they have made, for things we are wearing ( I have bought very little, and have traded nothing, but the longer I'm here, the more I feel tempted to buy things each time I'm asked).
That night we went into the small village for dinner at a local restaurant. They were playing bongoflavor music (a type of modern Tanzanian music that is very popular). It was my first time ever hearing it and I decided that I liked it alot. There is one bongoflavor musician called Marlow who I particularly enjoy ( I am going to buy a CD of his before I leave TZ). I also tried Konyagi that night. This is a local liquor that is very popular among African men (only "loose" African women drink except on very special occasions). It can be bought in little plastic bags (they call them sachets) for very very cheap or in larger glass bottles (or just at bars or in restaurants). Its very normal for people to start drinking early in the day and since there aren't any laws about drinking and driving or drinking while working, we see people drinking everywhere (alcoholism isn't really recognized as a huge problem). anyway though, Konyagi is made from sugar cane (even though they call it gin) and is thick (ish) and kind of syrupy with a kind of sweet flavor. I found it nauseating and couldn't drink more than a few sips. I have no clue how people can drink whole bottles of by themselves a day.

The next morning, we decided to go back to the waterfall bright and early. So after breakfast we headed back up the creek (I wore tennis shoes this time). We swam for a long time. Adam decided to go off exploring while we swam. He found another path way up the mountain and followed it even farther up of the creek. After we had been swimming for awhile we heard him calling from way above our heads. Looking up, there was Adam standing on the ridge. We called down to us that it was really cool and we needed to climb up. I was wearing tennis shoes that day, so i decided i could brave the climb. Alana, Dismas, Rachel, Tom (Kiwi), Mike and I all scrambled up the crumbling rock side of the canyon. It was probably over 100 ft straight up with really crumbly rocks and only a few plants not so firmly rooted into the sides of the rocks to support us. It was a kind of scary climb since if we fell there was nothing but rocks and a shallow creek to break our fall, but it was completely worth it.

At the top we found a little narrow path wandering around the edge of the ridge, following the creek back to its source. In many places the path was only about a foot wide with a solid rock wall straight up on one side and a solid rock wall down on the other, but the view was utterly fabulous. Across the canyon were lush green plants with baboons playing in the branches. There must be an underground river flowing along the ridge line on the opposite side, because every few feet had water literally seeping right out from the rock to drizzle onto the creek a couple hundred feet below. When I wasn't busy climbing over obstacles when the path disappeared or watching to make sure I didn't accidentally walk off the cliff, I couldn't keep my eyes off of the scene unfolding across from me, it was so beautiful. At one point the creek was only about 30 ish feet below us (it dropped quite quickly through a series of small waterfalls just above where we had been swimming before), so we climbed down to get back into the water. Walking up the creek bed again we found a collection of moist green grottos, each filled with a series of waterfalls, mossy walls, and small creatures hanging out. ( I have seen a few scorpians here p.s. they're really scary).
We knew the others would be waiting for us to have lunch (those that hadn't risked the climb up the wall) and that it must be getting late so we put our shoes, shirts, bags back on and climbed back up to the trail. Following it back, we realized that we wouldn't be able to climb back down the original way we had climbed up, so we continued to follow the path back along the ridge line. It went on forever seemingly. Eventually we got to a steep steep place where it seemed the path just ended. We were up way higher than we had been and didn't really know how to get down. Adam had done alot more exploring up there then we had and we thought he might know another way to get down, but he was about 15 minutes behind us with Alana, so Dismas, Rachel, Mike and I decided we would try to climb down the ravine. I was freaking out because it was super steep and really high up. I was so happy when Tom appeared and said he could see where the path continued and we just had to do a little bit of climbing around this one rocky area. Thank goodness we hadn't managed to get down too far. We managed to make it back to camp with everyone all in one piece (I was rather sunburned though since all that swimming had washed away most of my sunscreen) by a little after 230. Everyone else had way given up on us and had eaten hours before.

After lunch we took down our tents and packed everything back into the cars. Two of the cars headed back to Engaruka so they could be there before dark. One car decided to stay so we could hang out in the nice shade and pool area of the resort style campground before heading back to a week of much more barren camping in Engaruka. I lounged around in the pool for about 2 hours talking to the other people who had decided to come swimming. First two older German men who were really into scientific nature things that went way over my head, then the bartender (a Tanzanian man) came over to speak with me for awhile. He was wearing an Obama belt. Lots of Tanzanians are obsessed with Obama, because he "half AFrican." I constantly get asked if I know him, if I live close to him, and if I want to "make an Obama" by the local men (its best to ignore them or they just keep going). Anyway, this bartender was pretty nice and didn't ask any obnoxious Obama questions so that was good. After awhile Tom (kiwi) and Mike (also a kiwi) came to join me in the pool. Tom is really into birds and pointed out the kingfishers, the weavers, and all sorts of birds that were in the surrounding trees.
A little after 5, Adam, Alana, Mike, Tom, and I (the last people from our group left in Natron) headed back to Engaruka. Because it was getting cooler and was starting to head towards night we managed to see a TON of wildlife. It was so cool to see gazelles, strange birds (that Tom identified for us but I can't remember what they all were), wildebeasts, and zebras everywhere. We drove straight through a herd of ostriches and saw Maasai men herding hundreds (literally) of cows through the plains. Because it was starting to get dark and some of these things (like the one giraffe we saw) were kind of far away, my pictures aren't all that good. But it was so cool to just be there and experience it.

We got back to camp a little after 9, just when everyone else was finishing dinner. Good timing on our part, there was still food to be eaten.

There is still one more week of Engaruka to share, but I will save that for another day. I'm supposed to be doing work now anyway, so time to be productive.