Ujamaa Hostel, Part II

With the exception of my arrival posts, I’ve tried to keep away from the “this is what I did today” posts. However, a number of you have been asking in your emails about questions related to daily life in Arusha, so I thought I’d break course from my usual routine by doing a Q&A style post that answered some of the most common questions I’ve received.

1) What is your daily schedule like?

For the most part, life at the hostel is very simple. I usually wake up each morning between seven and seven-thirty (never a set time, as I don’t have an alarm clock) and after cleaning up, make it to the breakfast table sometime just before eight. After breakfast, I head out for the day to either the Umoja Centre or the orphanage. I usually make it back to the hostel sometime around five o’clock, which leaves me an hour and a half before dinner. Occasionally, I try to squeeze in a workout before dinner, which mainly consists of jumping rope and doing a few bodyweight workouts.

Weekends vary quite a bit, just as at home, and depend largely on whether there are any special events planned. I’ve used weekends to go on a couple of waterfall hikes, attend a Christmas fair, attend a confirmation and a wedding, and visit Arusha National Park, to name some of the more interesting examples (although the occasional day lounging around the hostel feels good every now and then as well). Also, I tend to go out once a week for some social time, which usually ends up being Thursday nights at my favorite bar, Via Via.

2) What is life like around the hostel? What do you actually do at night since you have to be in before dark?

Dinner is usually over by about seven, so I have quite a few hours between then and bedtime, usually elevenish, to hang out at the hostel. While the entertainment options available at the hostel are a far cry from anything at home, they’re actually more than I dared hope for before arriving. They have a TV and DVD player with a large collection of DVDs (highlights include a couple seasons of “Friends”, about fifteen of the James Bond movies, and a collection of the best of Leonardo DiCaprio), a decent selection of books, a few board games, and amazingly, an acoustic guitar. Add to that the fact that I brought my own books, my ipod, and a couple notebooks for writing, and I actually have a pretty decent array of choices for how to spend my time.

That being said, life around the hostel, as well as how I spend most of my free time there, depends largely on how full it is. I've found most travelers to be fairly social, so when the hostel is full I usually spend quite a bit of time at the kitchen table, in the living room, or out on the porch exchanging stories or playing cards or board games. Conversely, when I’m alone I usually spend more time watching DVDs, studying Swahili, reading, writing, or working on lesson plans / donation strategy.

3) How are the other people staying at the hostel? What are they like, and have you made many friends?

The other travelers staying at the hostel have varied greatly in most aspects, including age, country of origin, and length of travels. However, I think it’s fair to make a few generalizations. First, while I’ve met people up into their sixties, most guests have tended to be in their twenties and thirties. Also, most came from western countries, such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, or Europe. Since arriving at the hostel, I’ve more or less been the only person staying for more than two weeks. Instead, most other hostel residents are simply passing through Arusha on a trip across Africa, or in a few cases, the world, that spans several months. I think this will change, however, after the New Year. The hostel advertises itself as housing for long term volunteers, and I’m told that after the holidays there will be many more long-term guests like myself.

Despite the wide range of diversity, I’ve enjoyed nearly everyone’s company who has passed through Ujamaa, and have made many friends in the process. Keep your fingers crossed that this trend continues with the longer term residents that will be arriving in January; otherwise I could be in for a long couple months.

4) Overall, what are your thoughts on your trip thus far?

I’m extremely happy with my time in Arusha thus far. While my typical days may seem rather uneventful, or even routine, I would argue it’s actually the complete opposite. With the differences in culture and the language barrier, even very simple things, such as buying fruit from a street vendor for the first time, tend to end up being a rather interesting, or in some cases, frustrating, experience. And as I said, with new travelers consistently rotating in and out of the hostel since I got here, I am never at a loss for new friends and new stories.

I certainly won’t glamorize things too much here though. Arusha does have its negative aspects, some of which will be the subject of future posts. And I do miss certain comforts from home, chief among them a fast food restaurant that will make me a huge steak burrito with rice, black beans, cheese, and hot salsa in about three minutes flat for little more than $7.00. However, the experience has more than exceeded expectations so far, and it’s hard to imagine that it will do anything other than continue to do so.