Arusha, Tanzania

Hello again friends and family!

We have spent almost a week in Arusha, and although we were still here, I thought I would write a blog post about it since I always seem to get a lot of positive response when I post :-)

Arusha is one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Tanzania. Its on the northern side of the country, near the Kenyan border. Its about an hour or two drive from Mount Kilimanjaro, and tends to be the starting point for many safaris to all of the famous national parks. Like Lushoto, it has a pretty high elevation, which means that it stays relatively cool here. Considering how close we are to the equator, I am still amazed that we don't need air conditioning or even a fan to stay comfortable in our room.

Besides the safaris and mountains, Lushoto has a political draw for this part of Africa. They seem to hold a number of international conferences and courts here- there is an East African Human Rights Court currently in session here. The International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda is also located in Arusha. That means that people charged with committing war crimes in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda are tried here. As we are planning to go to Rwanda next month, we thought it would be interesting to sit in on some proceedings. It seemed like a good educational experience. The Lonely Planet (guidebook) made it sound like you could just show up and watch. We found out that is not so, but with some help from a few very friendly U.N. staff members, we figured out what we have to do to get in, and we are going to try again this week. (It turned out that their computer system was down last week and everything was held off until further notice).

Anyways, since this is the safari capital of Tanzania, we thought we would look into going to the Ngorongoro Crater or the Serengeti. However, we were disappointed to find out that the government has made the entrance fees and vehicle permits astronomical, so we decided not to go. To go to either of those, it looked like it would cost a minimum of $300 per person per day with a tour company. That is much more than our backpackers budget can handle if we still want to see much more of Africa!

So, we decided to do some more cultural tourism like we did in Lushoto. This time, we took a trip to the small village of Ngirisi just outside of Arusha. Its up in the hills, and while there we got to take walks through the farms, learn about the different crops and trees, and learn about local life. We learned a little about their home life by going into a villagers home. Apparently they think that cows do so much for them, like provide milk, meat, and consequently money and well being, that they allow the cows to sleep inside. Not in a barn, but in their house. The traditional house is packed mud and bricks. No electricity or water. No beds. No walls, just partitions made of sticks. The cows sleep in one partition. The man of the house sleeps by the door (like a guard), the mother and girls sleep in another partitioned area, and the boys sleep where they can, most likely by the cooking fire in the center of the house.
The fire for cooking inside the house.
The woman of the house displaying her large gourd she uses as a container.
It was very interesting to learn about. We also saw the outside of their schools and went to their 'holy tree'- a great big tree in the shape of Africa. It was pretty cool.
The Africa tree.

Another little trip we did was a canoe trip on a lake nearby. It was an average sized lake, but seemed to be on a reserve. There was absolutely no one else on the lake, so it was quite peaceful, and we paddled around for a few hours.
Andrej enjoying the canoe.
Andrej was fascinated by the papyrus.

We saw lots or unique birds and some really large lizards on the banks.

After canoeing, a guide took us on a walk to the village market. On the way, we learned a lot about different types of medicinal plants and what they are used for, as well as everything you could ever want to know about bananas. The market we went to was huge and bustling. People were selling fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, etc. It was like a gigantic farmers market, and organic food lovers dream. There is certainly no shortage of food in this part of Africa. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen that many fruits in vegetables in my life.

One other little interesting note- our hotel in Arusha is in an area of town that seems to have all the mosques. There appears to be 2 on either side of our hotel, and you can hear them broadcasting their call to worship (often simultaneously) on their loudspeakers. I have no idea what they are singing, but I still think it is a really neat sound, and I actually like listening to it most of the time. In the quiet of the pre-dawn hours (5 am) they wake me up every morning. However, it seems that the one at 5am is always haunting and beautiful, and I find that I don't really mind that it wakes me up. I fall back asleep soon again anyways. Today was Sunday, and around 7am, the noise became mingled with church bells, and it was fun to listen to.

Other than that, we have been enjoying city life in Arusha- going to movies, eating good food, using the internet, and planning our further adventures. This week we are planning to press on to Uganda. Uganda sounds like a fun and beautiful place. We are also hoping to put ourselves to work- it looks like we will be volunteering and building a classroom block at a school for orphans and underprivileged children at a school run by a Rotarian from Uganda who came to speak at one of my Rotaract meetings last year. We are looking forward to a change of pace and to meeting a lot of new people!

Bye for now!