Arusha

Wow! Didn't expect to see that here!

I guess the fact that I haven’t written anything in 3 days verifies that I haven’t done anything significant over that period. There was, however, an interesting incident at school on Thursday, which you can read about more on the teaching blog. In a nutshell, there was a soccer match between Mangi Sabas and another school further away, played on the grounds of neighbouring Mawella high school. The soccer pitch was sloped in two directions so that the lowest point of the field was the far right corner. Still, it was a great atmosphere for the game, out in the open with the corn and the trees all around. If the skies had been clear, a towering Kilimanjaro would have added to the scene.

The game was good, especially from the Mangi Sabas point of view, since our boys won 4-2. Unfortunately, celebrations at the end disintegrated into post-game fan violence (started by the girls!), and things got out of hand quickly. It was an unreal spectacle to watch. In the end, fortunately, there were no injuries to report.

Yesterday I decided to go to Arusha for the day. About 70km away from Moshi, Arusha is the hub of northern Tanzania and the main centre for safaris in the northern parks (Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Manyara) as well as the departure point for most Kilimajaro treks. When I had mentioned my plan to go to Arusha, Deo volunteered his brother Julius to go with me. I accepted, knowing that getting there and walking around would be much easier with someone in the know. It meant covering all his costs, but at about $8 for the day for transportation and food, that wasn’t an issue.

We arrived in Arusha at about 1:00pm after a 90-minute bus ride from Moshi. Having Julius with me was handy at the bus terminal in Moshi as it is chaotic and there are touts everywhere trying to get you to get on their bus. As a foreigner, you don’t really know what the standard fare is, so they can easily rip you off. With Julius, that wasn’t an issue, so we paid the proper fare to Arusha, 2000 shillings or about $1.65. There’s no real schedule though; the buses leave when they’re full. Fortunately, we got the last two seats on a very full bus and were off in no time.

Arusha has nothing significant to see in itself. It is simply larger, with much more hustle and bustle than Moshi and a few of the streets looked somewhat “city-like,” meaning they were lined with mostly respectable-looking buildings and had some semblance of a sidewalk. The weather there is a few degrees cooler than Moshi as it sits a little higher, on the slopes of Mt. Meru. The mountain gets little recognition since it sits just 70km away from the roof of Africa (Kilimanjaro), but at some 4600m, it’s the 4th tallest mountain in East Africa.

After looking into some flights for June, we simply walked around taking it all in. Julius doesn’t often come to Arusha, and even when he does it’s more to meet friends, so it was a bit of a tourist experience for him, as well. We just went wherever our feet took us, and managed to cover most of the town in the 4 or so hours we were there (it really isn’t that big). Of note was the first traffic light I have seen in a month, although I did only see one. We also found a proper supermarket and even a gelato shop.

Soon enough, though, it was almost 5p.m. and time to head back to Moshi. As the bus pulled out of Arusha, the skies cleared significantly and Mt. Meru was fully visible. With its lower height, it has no snows on the top and its peak is pointed in contrast to Kilimajaro’s rounded top.
After the 90-minute bus ride, the dalla-dalla and walk back home, I was exhausted and was in the door just under a minute when Deo called. “I’m coming home now so we can go out to a club,” he said, and I groaned. I was tired not only from the day but also because his father had woken up and blared his radio and TV (simultaneously) starting at 5:45am this morning.

Despite my numerous excuses, he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so within an hour we showered, had dinner, and caught a taxi into town. Why he wanted to be there at 9:30pm was beyond me, as the place had no one in it. Admittedly, it had a charming little atmosphere and the dance floor, while extremely small by Toronto’s standards, had everything necessary for the club experience, minus the go-go dancers. Still, as nothing was happening, we sat and nursed drinks for about 2 hours before things started to pick up. It never really got packed, but by about 11:45 there were a good 50 or so people on the dance floor and others around it, so it did resemble a club atmosphere. Unfortunately, the music was mostly Africa beats, which my body doesn’t move properly to, and Deo doesn’t like to dance anyway (so why did we come??), so we mostly just took in the show. His wife got up to dance a couple of times and just before leaving Deo and I joined in for a bit, but that was about it. Despite the different music, people here don’t really dance any differently than those in the clubs back in Toronto.