Arusha
No one goes to Arusha. At least, no one goes there except as a departure point for a safari or other travel. Arusha itself has little to offer. But we spent two weeks there.
The first impression of Arusha is not very good. The bus stop is in a very poor section of town, and tourists are immediately swarmed by touts offering safaris, tours, taxis, hotels, newspapers, or anything else that you might want. The road is dirt, the buildings look like a shanty town. The tourists who pass through spend more in a few days on a safari that most locals make in a year.
We arrive after dark, and there are no street lights. We quickly head for our hotel, ignoring the touts. One follows us incessantly. At the hotel, unfortunately they have no rooms. But they do have a sister hotel just two blocks away. They assure us that it is just as nice (this one looks great, with a pleasantly clean lobby), and they offer to walk us over. While we walk the incessant tout tells the hotel staff that we have contracted his services for finding a hotel, and asks to be paid. Our hotel staffer tells him to get lost. We find the hotel, slip inside and find a nice spacious room with private bath and even a television! We drift off to sleep.
The next morning we awake to the sounds of pounding and construction. It sounds as if the building we are in is being torn down. We are on the second floor, so we peek up the stairs and find that the third floor is in fact completely torn out, with just the exterior walls and gaping holes for widows. Workers are knocking out cinder block walls just above our room. Later, viewing the hotel from the outside we can see that the entire building looks to be under construction (or rather destruction) except for just a couple of rooms. Ours is one of few left on the second floor, which is rapidly becoming a rubble pile.
We walk around town, and discovering the nicer areas we arrange to switch hotels. In the meantime, we decide to use taxis after dark. We eventually transfer to a facility run by the Lutheran church, a leftover from the missionary days. The church owns several of the nicest blocks of town.
We had planned out most of the safari in advance, but waited to see the company before placing a deposit. There are many stories of bogus operations, or poor business practices. For example, some companies drive rather shoddy vehicles which do not hold up to the demanding conditions of a safari, and break down frequently. If the vehicle breaks down then you simply lose out, without a refund and without made up time. Instead of a day in the game park, you spend a day on the side of the road waiting for repairs. Needless to say, we paid a bit more and picked a reputable company. We were quite happy, and you can read about the safari on several other pages in our journal.
On Saturday, we happened to be walking down the street when a wedding party passed by. A brass band packed into the lead truck, followed a long procession of cars celebrating the big event.
We found a cultural center that offers lessons, tours, and artwork, in support of the local villagers. Rod signed up for a drumming lesson, to learn traditional music. There are several drumming parts, one that just pounds out the basic beat, and others that are more difficult. Rod assumed he would take the simple part, but the teacher explained that that was the most critical part, since all others take their cue from it. So instead, Rod was supposed to learn the more complicated patterns. It was amusing as he would slowly learn one part, then another, but then couldn't remember the first part anymore when it was time to put them together. Eventually, he was able to combine the various parts into something that vaguely resembled the intended pattern. But it was still so far off that the teacher had quite a challenge to adjust his basic beat to match Rod's pattern. In any event it was good fun, and both Rod and the teacher had many good laughs.
In Arusha we met a group of college students from Doane College Nebraska , who are spending the entire semester in Eastern Africa . They complete four courses, including learning Swahili and African literature. They get to see many different facets of African life, visiting villagers and interacting. At one point in the term, they will need to apprentice themselves to a local worker for five weeks, learning whatever trade they pick such as carpenter, brick maker, baker, or whatever. That is a long period of time, and they will really grow from that experience. Our hats are off to Betty, the program director, for creating this program. She is a literature professor with a love of African, and she put together her two interests to create this program. http//www.doane.edu/africa/
In the nicer part of town, it is clear that there is a budding middle class here in Tanzania . The streets are landscaped, and the buildings freshly painted. There is even an international conference on wastewater treatment going on at a local hotel (the topic is use of wetlands for secondary waste water treatment, such as is done in Cannon Beach , Oregon
We stay in Arusha much longer than any tourists do. Partly, we planned a few more things, such as climbing Kilimanjaro, that we have dropped (Fran's shoulder, which she injured at the Great Wall in China , has gotten worse again, so we will see a doctor when in Delhi ). The result is that we have time to just talk and hang around with locals.
We talk about our travels so far, and what we might want to do differently. Mostly, we have decided to see less and spend more time in single places. We like to settle into a place, meet people, and get to know them a bit. In India we plan two extended periods staying put in a community, one in the north and one in the south. So, this stay in Arusha is sort of a test of the idea. We like it. We get so that we know all of the touts on the streets and joke with them. We know the staff at the restaurants. We are getting so that we are like the locals: we notice when a new set of white faces arrives in town.
We run into several Americans living in Arusha, running tour companies, or researching primitive man (the famous Leaky sites are nearby and are still active). We also get to know some locals. It starts to feel familiar and comfortable. When it is time to go, we spend a whole day just saying our goodbyes (though regrettably we still didn't get to say goodbye to Joseph!).
Ng’irisi Village
Ng'irisi is a beautiful village of 2,700 people nestled on the slopes of Mt. Meru Tanzania . The fertile volcanic soil and the plentiful rains provide a lush landscape for farming and raising livestock. The people of the village belong to the Wa-arusha tribe, a branch of the Masai As we mentioned on the page about the Masai, they are traditionally a nomadic people who following their cattle as they graze. When the Wa-arusha settled down on farms, their traditional way of life changed. During our short visit we were able to see a little of how pastoralism has changed their daily lives.
We visited the village as part of a cultural tourism program. This is a program created to give tourists a view of traditional ways of life while directing the profits back into the villages. In most of the villages the money funds the needs of the local primary school and development projects. It made us feel good that the money we spent would go to improving living conditions rather than creating wealth for tour companies.
Early on the morning of our visit we were met in the Arusha tourist information office by Emmanuel, our guide for the day. We exchanged greetings and started our walk through the city towards a taxi stand where we met a car ready to take us to the village. It had rained the previous day and the dirt roads to the village were steep, slippery and deeply rutted. There were no cars on the road, but we were greeted with the smiles and waves of villagers as they walked the opposite direction into the city.
We visited the main house, a school, a demonstration farm, and walked down to the waterfall. It was a very mellow day, slow paced and educational.
At the school we chatted with the headmaster. He asked us about our politics, and when we asked him about his he replied simply that all evil comes from the USA . Medical problems, AIDs/HIV, illiteracy and poverty were all the result of USA foreign policy. We talked with him a while, acknowledging some points but contesting others, and he ended a bit more positive at least recognizing that Americans are able to have their own opinions and discuss them freely. It was a bit eye-opening to talk to the headmaster of an Islamic school.
The children played outside during a break. In the classrooms were small wooden desks that they built themselves. Some children still had no desks, waiting for wood. The teachers were paid very little but were provided with housing. Getting more teachers for the school was largely accomplished by building additional housing for the teachers. In this area, where villagers were not allowed to cut trees in the forest and there were no stone building materials, this became a significant expense and barrier.
The children all flocked around Fran to get their pictures taken.
Oldauvai Gorge
The famous Louis and Mary Leaky (and now their son Richard) worked in the Olduvai Gorge , west of Arusha. For forty years, researchers have uncovered clues to the evolution of man in this remarkable site.
We met a man in Arusha who has studied in the Gorge, but also based his research on studying the animals in the parks today. John Kavall has a very interesting story to tell. In fact we got to read the first four chapters of the book he is writing. You have to wait until it gets published!
John has promoted a very novel theory of man's development. An accepted premise has been that man's direct ancestors were vegetarian, but that man then developed into an accomplished hunter. Watching the predators of the Serengeti today, it is not so obvious how early man would have competed successfully! The walking upright, the thumb, the larger brain, and use of tools all evolved, it was presumed, made man a successful hunter.
John had a different idea. Remember the leopard? It drags its kill up into a tree? A leopard will leave that cache unattended for hours, since no other animal can reach it. But basic biology says that nature abhors a vacuum, and when an opportunity exists, something evolves to fill the niche. John realized that the early man was still quite a good tree climber (longer arms, a bit hooked). Man, the great hunter, probably actually evolved as a scavenger! After the ancient leopard made the kill and pulled the prey into the tree, early man would poach the cache for an easy meal. Increasing evidence, such as bones with leopard teeth marks followed by human tool scrapping marks, seems to support the idea. In any event it made fascinating reading, and John is a very interesting guy with lots of stories to tell. He has known most of the important scientists who have studied here, and is now one of the senior folks. You can see the excitement of an analytical mind chasing a puzzle as he describes his work, with all of the colorful anecdotes that arises from a group of passionate people.
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