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June 29 - Tanzania: Arusha

Last night, Jon and I were reminiscing about the trip we took to Europe a few years ago.  We were both working, and Jon had racked up a ton of frequent flyer miles.  So we flew First Class and stayed at 5-Star Marriotts in almost every city.  We ate at a restaurant in Zurich that had an art collection to rival any art museum.  And we dropped $200 per ticket to see the opera in Vienna.  It was quite a way to travel.

Well, this morning we had peanut butter and jelly for breakfast.

I found out a few days ago that my soon-to-be-employer, AT Kearney, has pushed back everyone's start dates by 6 months.  So my January start date has been rescheduled to July 8, 2002.  That's over a year away!  It looks like the student loans are just going to have to accrue interest for a while.  But the good news is that this seems to be a good time to travel.  Jon and I are considering buying a tent so we can take advantage of campsites instead of staying in hotels.  We just have no idea how we're going to fit a tent in with all our other stuff.  (The Kiboko group was constantly cursing the weight of our backpacks with the jibe, "Bloody American bags!").  Maybe after Kili we can get rid of some extraneous gear.  I don't really need tennis shoes anyway, do I?

Mtatus

Today we had to trek into town again to get to the Post Office and look for gear for Kili.  So we stood outside the Maasai Camp waiting for a taxi, when a man walked by and said a Mtatu would be along shortly and would cost 150 shillings (roughly $.20).  A Mtatu is a rickety minivan that acts as a bus in and out of Arusha.  And it's quite the operation!  There's the driver and there's the "conductor".  The driver drives.  The conductor's job, however, is a bit more complex.  He must lean out the window of the sliding door (which is usually partially open) to whistle at people to get fares.  Three quick whistles is apparently synonymous with "Hey! Mtatu here!  Do you want a ride?"  Occasionally, the Mtatu will stop and the conductor will get out to look around the side streets for fares.  When he's done, he will bang on the side of the van which is a signal to the driver to drive on.  The idea is to cram as many bodies into the Mtatu as is humanly possible.  The Mtatu we were in had 4 benches, and there were already 6 people in it.  By the time we made it into town, we were a happy crowd of 14.  That's not including the driver or the conductor.  But we made it in good time and saved about $2.00 on the way.

Post Office

So we went to the post office to mail a package back home.  The customs office is open from 8:30 - 10:00 and we got there at 8:45 to see that the window was still closed.  There was a Spanish woman there already waiting who was questioning the postal employees on the whereabouts of the customs officer.  Their response was that it was a separate operation and they didn't have control over it.  (Of course).  But they made a few phone calls and found that the woman had called in sick and the customs office was trying to send someone else.  Since it's Friday and we're leaving for Moshi tomorrow, we really needed to get rid of the package.  So we were willing to wait, and settled in to read our books.  The Spanish woman didn't share our feelings and left.  At 9:45, a man walked up to Jon and questioned him about the box and its contents.  He was very nice, and helped us package it up and fill out the customs form.  It was quite expensive to send although it wasn't very heavy, and he told us it would take 2-3 months to reach the US because we were sending via surface rather than air (which is much more expensive).  Crazy.  Afterwards we hit the Internet Cafe again and then walked through the market because Jon hadn't seen it yet.  

Pizzarusha Again

By this time it was 11:30 and we were wondering what to do about lunch.  Jon suggested that we go to Pizzarusha again since this is our last day in Arusha and it was yummy.  We had no idea how to get there so hopped in a taxi for a quick ride to the area - which is a bunch of back alleys and unpaved roads.  At one point, we passed a door with a barred window where the man on the inside was trading money with a group of men standing outside.  Very sketchy.  But Pizzarusha was delicious and we had the entire place to ourselves.  So we sat for an hour after lunch and read our books.

Out of Africa

Out of Africa, by the way, is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.  And I'm only 60 pages into it.  The author perfectly describes Africa, the culture, the natives, and even the wind.  It's amazing!  I keep interrupting Jon's reading to read him another sentence that I think captures a piece of our trip.  I wish I could write this poetically and inspire such images.  It makes me want to live here forever.  I wonder if I Dreamed of Africa is written with a similar tone, despite the fact that the movie was so bad.

After Pizzarusha, we walked back to town as we had actually paid attention to how the taxi got there.  It was a nice 20 minute walk, but the weather was lovely and we have all the time in the world right now.  We decided that we should get some more local currency for our trip to Moshi so we have cash to tip the porters and guides and whatnot.  We went to another Bureau de Change and then caught another Mtatu back to camp.  This Mtatu, though, had a different route (who would have thought that this is actually an organized system?) and dropped us off about 1km from the camp.

Herds of Goats

So we walked down the road.  At one point, we passed some children that were herding goats in the other direction.  My first thought was, "Now there's something we would never see in New York City".  Another thought was, "We just passed a herd of goats.  We're definitely in Africa".  Jon thought that this comment was funny, considering that - just last week - we had let plenty of other exotic animals stop the truck to cross the road including elephants, buffalo, zebras, and impala.  We even drove alongside a hyena running down the road.  (We clocked him at 40km/hr, by the way.)

So back at camp we cleaned out our backpacks and got organized for tomorrow's bus ride.  The next Kiboko tour will be coming through tomorrow afternoon, so we have to be out of the tent by lunchtime.  No problem.  We're actually anxious to get to Moshi and to see what it's like.  Then Jon went to the lodge to read and I took a nap.  We ordered dinner from the kitchen and then went to bed.

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