Zanzibar

Some quick background information relevant to this post:

1. Zanzibar is a group of two islands that lie about 50 kilometers - about 90 minutes by ferry - off the mainland coast of Tanzania. However, when most people refer to Zanzibar they are actually referring only to the island of Unguja, which is where most tourists head to. For ease, I will be doing the same. I couldn't find official size estimates for the island, but its something between 500-750 square miles. A better way to describe it would be to say that it takes about 3 hours to travel on semi-decent country roads from north to south, and 1 hour east to west.
2. Dar es Salaam (“Dar”) is the de facto capital of Tanzania (the actual capital is Dodoma but all government buildings are still in Dar) and the country’s largest city. It lies on the coast of the mainland, and it’s ferry port is where more than 90% of all tourists pass through to get to and from the island of Zanzibar.
3. Stone Town is the main city on Zanzibar Island, and contains the sole port where ferries can dock.
4. As of the time I arrived, Zanzibar had been without power since the middle of December. However, as luck would have it, power officially returned the day I arrived on the island. Not that they don't still have frequent power outages for 15-30 minutes at a time, but still, it's something.

On Sunday, March 7th I finally left Arusha. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I was headed to Zanzibar for almost a week before meeting up with a few contacts in Dar and heading down to volunteer in Southern Tanzania. As of right now, I have already spent a week in southern Tanzania and have much to tell, but I wanted to dedicate one post specifically to my time in Zanzibar before getting into that. My plan for Zanzibar was simple: Arrive in Stone Town on Sunday night, spend the entire day there, and then head up to the northeast side of the island early Tuesday morning for four days of rest and relaxation on the beaches outside the small village of Kendwa. However, as happens frequently here, my plans quickly went off course. The bus from Arusha to Dar arrived at our destination at 4:15pm, over an hour late. As the last ferry leaves the port of Dar at 4:00pm, I was forced to stay the night in the city. Fortunately, this didn’t throw off my plan too much. I actually met two Americans on the bus ride who were in the same predictament, so we agreed to find a cheap triple room in Dar for the night, then catch an early ferry out the following morning and be on the island by noon. We’d then spend the next day in Stone Town together before parting ways on Tuesday morning, as they were headed south to a different part of the island.

Thankfully, this plan fared better than my previous one, and we arrived in Stone Town on schedule. What I, and I’m assuming every other tourist, noticed immediately after stepping off the air conditioned ferry, was the heat, which combined with the humidity from being surrounded by the Indian Ocean, was almost stifling. You literally feel as if you’ll never stop sweating and, honestly, unless you’re lucky enough to find air conditioning, you don’t. Some of you also might know that I haven’t cut my hair since arriving in Africa, which I can assure you did nothing to help the matter.

After catching a cab to our hotel, we dropped off our bags and set out exploring the town. The city center of Stone Town is a virtual labyrinth of winding alleys squeezing their way through closely packed buildings, each of which has fallen into a various state of disrepair and helps serve as a reminder to the city’s rich history spanning several centuries. Overall, it greatly reminded me of Venice, albeit without all the canals.

To be honest, I didn’t really do a whole lot with my day in Stone Town. My ambitions of taking a spice tour and touring some of the historical sites were quickly overtaken by the heat and the fact that we showed up in the city with only about six hours of daylight left. So instead, the other Americans and I spent the day casually exploring the city, stopping every few hours at a small restaurant for some shade and a cold beer. We made it to the beach at dusk to watch the sunset, and then had the rather unique experience of watching a group of local kids and teenagers who were using a large old tire they had fashioned into a springboard to perform different aerial stunts (which I will post a video clip of when I make it back to the U.S.). For dinner we headed to an open fish market at the waterfront, where local fishermen were selling grilled portions of the day’s catch (which I recommend doing if you ever make it to Stone Town), and then we headed to a hotel to finish off the night with a few more beers.

As planned, I went my separate way from the other two Americans the next morning, and took a two hour dala dala ride up to the north shores of the island to Kendwa. Here are my thoughts on Kendwa: The beauty of the place is unreal. Pictures of Zanzibar’s beaches are quite famous because of their beauty and, I assure you, the pictures don’t amount to seeing it in person. The beach itself compares to the best I’ve ever visited, and the water color of the ocean is something I’ve never seen – sort of glowing clear green that turns to a rich deep blue as you head further from the coast. This, combined with the bungalow-type hotels and the small wooden ships used by the local fisherman, gives the whole area a very secluded and undeveloped feel.

But beyond the beauty, there isn’t really a whole lot to say because, well, there really isn’t a whole lot there. The bungalow-type hotels are a far cry from the posh beachside resorts of Florida, Cancun, or many other popular American destinations, and while the small crowds and slow pace of Zanzibar are nice, at a certain point you find yourself wondering what to do with yourself. During the day there are no beach football or soccer games going on, and while I did see a volleyball court, there didn’t ever seem to be enough people around to play. There’s no TVs, no pools, and only two restaurants to eat at. These restaurants also double at night as bars, but the night life is hardly any livelier than the daytime.

Of course, I fully realize that this exact thing is most likely viewed by others as the reason why Zanzibar so charming. In a world full of developed beaches with high rise condominiums and large crowds, the secluded bungalows and undeveloped stretches of beach are as close as most people can get to having their own secluded paradise. I can imagine Zanzibar would be perfect for older couples looking to ‘get away from it all’ for a while, or even new young couples who will be spending most of their time, to put it delicately, ‘creating their own entertainment’. However, for a 25 year old solo traveler looking for some semblance of a nightlife and more excitement than laying in the sun and re-reading his collection of Earnest Hemingway short stories for the fourth time over can provide, Kendwa (and the rest of the beaches in Zanzibar, at least from what I’ve heard) may not be the ideal hot spot.

In short, I would say this about Zanzibar: If you’re in the area, it’s worth going. You’ll see some beautiful beaches, a unique town with a rich history, and especially if you’ve been doing a lot of traveling, it will be nice to simply lie around in one place for a couple of days and get a decent tan in the process. Personally, despite getting bored over the course of my time, I'm glad I went, and for the most part enjoyed the slow place and the chance to relax. That being said, I’ll most likely chalk it up as one of those places that I’m glad I got to see, but which I won’t be in a hurry to return to.

Tanzanian Weather

Just a short post for today to answer a question I’ve gotten a lot lately, which is about the weather in Tanzania. I can’t completely answer that question because, like the U.S., Tanzania is a geographically diverse country with many different climates, albeit on a much smaller scale. For instance, the south as a whole tends to be cooler since it’s further from the equator, while the coastal line tends to be much more hot and humid. The northern part of the country also tends to be warmer, except for the northwestern highlands, which are cooler due to their elevation.

So while I can’t answer this question in detail for the whole of Tanzania, I can answer it for Arusha specifically. Here’s the gist: From a temperature perspective it’s hot, although not overly-so, since it borders on the northwestern highlands. Being in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed here, although the northern part of Tanzania is so close to the equator that it doesn’t matter all that much. December, January, and February are the summer months here, with the latter two being the hottest of the year. During the day right now it’s not uncommon for the temperature to reach 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit, and at night it cools down to 70-75 degrees; a tad different than the weather back home right now, from what I’m told (which is the primary reason I chose to come to Tanzania from November – April). During the winter months, however, I’m told that it doesn’t get too much cooler. Typical highs during the daytime are around 70-75 degrees, while in the nighttime it gets down into the 50s.

One aspect in which Tanzania is distinctly different than anywhere in the U.S. is that it is subject to dry and rainy seasons. During the dry season, it’s not uncommon to go weeks – even months – without rain, while in the wet season it may rain everyday, sometimes at torrential levels. Tanzania has two rainy seasons each year: the mvuli (the short rainy season) and the masika (long rainy season). As you might expect, the only difference is that the long rainy season lasts longer and brings with it more rain. The small rainy season takes place for about a month from early November to mid-December, while the main rainy season takes place throughout the whole of March and April and into May.

Of course, all of this is assuming the weather behaves normally. However, much like back in the States, the weather has been far from normal lately. The temperature has acted as expected but it doesn’t vary all that much to begin with, so that’s not saying much. The rainy seasons, however, have been a little screwy. Most of November was actually dry, and the rains didn’t actually arrive until almost early December. However, they made up for their tardiness by sticking around until halfway through January. Additionally, the main rainy season seems to have arrived early, as we have had rain most days over the past week.

Despite the abundance of rain lately though, I can’t really complain. The weather is still warm, and even on the days that it does rain, the sun still manages to make it out for a fair portion of the day - much like Florida weather, actually. I’m only hoping that it doesn’t ruin my time on the beaches of Zanzibar or make the roads down to southern Tanzania more difficult than they already are.

Visa Issues and Swords of Meat

On January 27^th, a few days before my dad arrived for his two week visit, I made my first journey of any distance outside Arusha by spending a night in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.

My only real purpose for visiting Kenya was to renew my Tanzanian visa. To explain, I was issued a one year, multiple entry tourist visa through the Tanzanian embassy in the U.S. before arriving. However, the visa came with one rather annoying condition, which was that while I’m free to enter and exit the country as many times as I wish for the one year period, I’m never allowed to stay for a duration greater than 90 days at any one time. While I haven’t bothered to find the exact reasoning for this requirement, assuming that reason exists (which isn’t a safe assumption), I would venture a guess that it’s to keep people from “living” in Tanzania on a tourist visa by simply renewing the visa once each year. That makes sense in theory, but a popular way to circumvent this requirement, which I used, was to simply travel out of the country for one night, and then re-enter the country the following day, making me legal for another 90 days – and in my case, for the duration of my trip.

To be honest, I had no real interest in traveling to Nairobi. It has a reputation for being one of the most dangerous cities in Africa – as evidenced by its nickname, ‘Nairobbery’ – and many of the tourist attractions there are more expensive, which still would have been fine except I didn’t plan for any of them in my original travel budget. However, one attraction that was too tempting to pass up, regardless of cost, was an all you can eat “nyama choma” (steakhouse) named Carnivore. As someone who self proclaims he could eat steak every night for the rest of his life and never tire of it, I welcomed the thought of an all you can eat smorgasbord of grilled animal carcass induced euphoria. Making the restaurant even more appealing was the fact that I have been on a severe meat deficiency for most of my time in Tanzania. The hostel serves almost an entirely vegetarian menu, only occasionally interrupting its various takes on bread and vegetable medleys to serve fish or hamburgers. And while I’ve made an effort to find lunch venues that serve meat, the beef in general that I’ve found in Tanzania is of less than ideal quality. Combine these facts, and you can understand why I was so keen to visit a place whose name literally means ‘meat-eater’.

With only one objective in mind upon arriving to Nairobi, my trip was pretty simple and straightforward. I hopped on the 2:00 pm bus leaving from Arusha, traveled the seven and a half hour journey to Nairobi, got dropped off at the hotel, threw my bags in my room, and caught a taxi to take me straight to Carnivore. Being 10:00pm at the time of my arrival, I had plenty of time to enjoy dinner and make it back to the hotel to get some sleep before catching my 7:30 am bus back to Arusha.

Before I describe the dining experience, let me give a short background of the restaurant. Twice it has been voted among the 50 best restaurants of the world, although to be fair, this was before they had to stop serving some of their more exotic meats such as zebra, hardebeest, and camel (some lame reason about conserving the African wildlife or something…whatever). Nonetheless, it is still one of the most popular dinner destinations for tourists, and I had high expectations.

When I walked in, I was immediately confronted by a large circular barbeque pit room with see-through wire caging for walls. On the inside of the room were huge grills operating at full force, and on the cage walls themselves hung huge portions of cooked meat waiting to be served to customers. Not a bad first impression. Being transfixed by the barbeque pit, it wasn’t until I was finally on my way to be seated that I fully took in the size of this place. Not only could the restaurant itself easily seat about 300-400 people, but it was also connected to one of the biggest nightclubs I’ve ever been in (which sadly, I was only able to take a quick lap around after dinner before departing back to the hotel).

After being seated, my waiter for the evening came by to explain how things worked: there was a set menu, he would bring out soup first, then salad, and then when I was ready I could put up a flag to signal the other servers to start bringing me meat. Then, when I could eat no more, I would take down the flag; kind of like raising a white flag in surrender, only the exact opposite.

While waiting for my soup, I had the time to survey my surroundings a little further. As I mentioned, the waiter said that once I raised the flag, servers would start coming over to offer me various cuts of meat. Well, it turns out these servers are all over the place, and are easily identified by the fact that they are decked out in zebra-patterned aprons and a hat that looked like a cross between that of a Venetian gondolier and something Greg Norman would wear while he was choking away a Masters’ Championship to Nick Faldo. Most importantly, they were all carrying swords and spears of meat, most of which had to be two and a half feet long. I couldn’t wait.

So while I was admiring the biggest shish kabobs I had ever seen, my soup finally came out. At this point I was starving from spending the last 10 minutes staring at meat, so I think I inhaled the soup in about 90 seconds flat. Turned out it was some sort of broth based from animal meat. Imagine that. Needless to say, I was happy about how things were starting.

Next came the salad. Actually, I should say that next came five different salads on one of those rotating food serves. This wasn’t so I could pick my favorite, mind you; every salad was for me. To be honest, the salads all looked great and I’m sure I would have enjoyed them, but I was at an all you can eat steakhouse. Further, I had been on a healthy overdose of vegetables for the past three months, so there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of sense in wasting any space on lettuce leaves. Therefore, I did the only sensible thing and proceeded to ignore the salads entirely. And with that, it was time to put up the flag.

Within about three minutes server number one came over. “May I offer you some crocodile, sir?” Yes sir, yes you may. After taking my first bite, I immediately had flashbacks to one of my childhood (teenhood, I guess, to be more precise) trips to Florida where I tried alligator. At the time, I didn’t care for it much. But hey, this was crocodile; it could be different. Then again, maybe not. It still sucked. Similar to alligator, it’s just a little too chewy, and I’m not sure how to better describe the taste than by saying that even when it’s cooked properly, you’re left wondering if maybe it didn’t go a little bit bad before making it onto the grill.

The rest of the meal, however, was superb. Over the course of the next hour I demolished my way through multiple portions of sausages, two different cuts of beef, chicken, pork, three different cuts of lamb, and some surprisingly good ostrich meatballs. After thinking I couldn’t take one more bite, I reached for the flag. Time to surrender, or so I thought.

Just as I was reaching out, the guy serving the baby lamb chops – which were crazy good and the unexpected winner for my favorite cut of the night – came over. “Would you like another lambchop, sir?” Twist my arm; sure I’ll have another. But then he followed up with, “Actually sir, I only have three left in this batch. Would you just like to finish them off?” Ugh… Trust me, at this point I really wanted to say no. But considering how much I had ranted over the past weeks and months to anyone and everyone about how much I was craving meat since arriving, it just seemed like it would be a slap in the face to all of those who had to suffer through listening to me if I would have said no. So, silently thanking myself for having the sense to ignore the five salads, I went to work. Granted, they were baby lamb chops, but still, if you’ve ever been to that point where you absolutely don’t want to take another bite, then you can understand what a Herculean task chowing through three baby lambchops could be. Nonetheless, I endured through it and finished them off. By the end of the meal, over half my plate was full of only bones, gristle, and fat.

Overall, I’d have to say the meal was pretty solid, although not ‘top 50 restaurant in the world’ solid. Nonetheless, for someone craving meat since he arrived three months earlier, it definitely hit the spot. If you ever find yourself traveling through Nairobi, I would recommend taking the time to stop in.

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.

Thoughts on Traveling

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2nd

Just a short post today, which is really just an excuse to share with you one of my favorite videos that a friend sent me about a year ago. This video was made by an American guy in his early 30s, Matt, who loved travelling. One day while travelling he and his friend had the idea that it would be a good idea to video record him dancing like a complete idiot. After posting the video on the Internet, he then went on a second extended trip to dance in other cities, and then eventually got a company to sponsor a third worldwide tour, where he not only recorded himself dancing, but also got other people to dance with him. Not a bad way to get someone else to pay for your travels.

At any rate, even for experienced travelers, which I would consider myself far from, learning to survive in foreign countries full of people who speak another language and have completely different customs can be daunting or even, at times, just plain exhausting. Nonetheless, I think this video is a good reminder that even though each of us comes from a culture with it's own unique languages, religions, customs, and traditions, that in spite of all these differences, at the most basic level, we all come from a mutual genetic make up, which allows us to share in similar thoughts, dreams, and emotions. And because of that, even something as basic as dancing like a complete idiot can bring us together to celebrate the common joy and happiness of simply being human. That's my theory, at least.

So without further delay, here is the link:

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Just click on the play button of the video found under "Dancing 2008", and be sure to have your audio turned up.

Enjoy!

Moshi Hike

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH

Today I went on a dayhike outside of Moshi – a town approximately 75 kilometres East of Arusha (Click on the link and zoom out to get an idea of it's proximity to Arusha) with another one of the hostel residents, Lauren, and our guide Mtui. The hike itself was in the hills above the city, which gave the whole experience a very ‘remote’ feel, despite the fact that we were only about a forty-five minute ride from the city center. The trail took us around a forest covered ravine between two hills, which culminated in a waterfall that was several hundred meters high. However, in addition to the natural beauty of the place, I also enjoyed the chance to hike through the local area villages and farms, sometimes literally through their fields. I was fascinated by how the natives of the area were able to overcome the challenges of their geography, and took great interest in the bridges and aqueducts they constructed, the fields that were planted literally on the sides of the hills (sometimes as steep as 25-35 degrees, in my estimation), and the small quarry we passed from where bricks were excavated for houses and local buildings.

The return journey back to Arusha was also eventful, although not exactly in a pleasant way. To explain, I have to first say that transportation in Tanzania (and Africa in general, from what I’m told) is somewhat chaotic. Nowhere was this more apparent that at the central bus station in Moshi. Upon arriving back to the bus station from the hike, Mtui was immediately swarmed by a group of about eight people, each one in charge of finding customers to bring aboard their own bus (As hikes in the area are somewhat common, these ‘customer scouts’, for lack of a better term, have learned that when you see two or more white people following one native, it’s a good bet that he’s a guide in charge of arranging transportation for the whole group). Mtui literally had to throw out a few solid juke moves and then run away to prevent these guys from physically pulling him in the direction of their bus, and I even saw some pushing and shoving between them as they were trying to fight off one another for his attention. Eventually, the most persistent of his pursuers dragged Mtui to his bus, where they negotiated a price for our passage. The story should have ended there, however, somewhere in all this madness something got lost in translation, and we wound up on a bus headed to Dar Es Salaam, the capital city, which is in the complete opposite direction of Arusha (not Mtui’s finest hour, to say the least, but we forgave him). We wound up getting off the bus at a weigh station and then waiting for another bus to take us back to Moshi, at which point we boarded a third bus to travel back to Arusha. All in all, it wound up being a two hour detour on top of an already long day, but nonetheless we did finally make it home, and just in time for dinner.

Ujamaa Hostel

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8th

Not only has the hostel lived up to expectations, it has actually managed to exceed anything I could have hoped for. For 16,500 Tanzanian Shillings(Tsh) a night, or approximately $14, they provide lodging, breakfast, and dinner. They even do my laundry, with the exception of chupi (underwear), which I am responsible for myself. The place itself is about a 15 minute walk from the main road in Arusha, which actually makes it look like it's in quite a rural location. However, the security around the place is very good. It has a concrete wall around the entire complex, with broken glass stuck onto the top to prevent anyone from climbing over it (I don't mean to make it sound like a huge estate; it's just a small concrete courtyard out front, the actual hostel, and a fairly decent size backyard). They also have a guard on duty who stays at the front gate through the night. While this may sound a tad unsettling that these measures are necessary at the hostel, it's actually fairly standard practice for hotels, hostels, and larger homes.

View of hostel from the "road"

The hostel itself can house up to 16 guests in four bedrooms (3 dorms and a two person bedroom), although apparently they aren't very busy around the holidays. As of today there was only one other guest, however, there are supposed to be several others returning in a couple days from either trekking Mount Meru (located just outside of Arusha), a safari, or from the island of Zanzibar. In addition to the bedrooms and bathrooms there is also a living room area with several couches, a TV, and a bookshelf where travels can leave behind old books and pick out new ones to take. The hostel also has a DVD player and quite a collection of DVDs, which will be nice for times in the evening when I have nothing to do, or just when I'm feeling a little homesick. While I only committed to a couple of nights thus far, designed to be a trial run, I already feel very comfortable here and have a strong feeling that I wll be calling this place home for the next four months.

Backyard of hostel

View of Mount Meru from backyard (I'll try and get a better one on a clearer day)

Bedding, complete with mosquito net

First Days in Arusha

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7th

The last two and a half days have managed to be fantastic, uncomfortable, disorienting, and productive all at the same time. For starters, my sleep schedule has been absurdly out of whack. Although I slept the equivalent of a normal night's sleep my first night of arrival (midnight - 8AM), the schedule I've been on since has been anything but. On Thursday (after waking at 8AM)I slept from 1PM-8:30PM, 9:30PM-4:00AM, and then 6:30AM - 8:30AM on Friday morning (and missed both lunch and dinner in the process). However, in the last two days I have steadily readjusted, and I think that tomorrow I should again be on a fairly normal schedule. On the rare occasions I haven't been sleeping, I have been in town with Faustine, who has been more help than I could have ever hoped for. So far I've made it to an Internet Cafe (to let the family and friends know I arrived safely), an ATM, a currency exchange, and got set up with a cell phone. My next step is to find more permanent housing and continue to explore for volunteer opportunities. It turns out that Cradle of Love, an orphanage near Arusha that was suggested by my friend Jacque (who came here last year), does not have room for me to stay on their grounds. However, Dovana, the director did make it sound as if there may be an opportunity for me to volunteer, and invited me to go visit on Monday. As for housing, I have a promising lead called the Ujamaa Hostel. It is fairly cheap and even advertises that it can connect volunteers with organizations in need. Hopefully it lives up to the hype.

Arrival

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4th

After a grueling 31 hours of traveling - from O'Hare to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport, and then a car ride from Kilimanjaro to the town of Arusha - I safely arrived at my destination tonight. The trip itself was very uneventful, with the exception of an emergency landing we had to make in Nairobi for a medical emergency with another passenger (and even that was much less exciting than it sounds). The only real part worth mentioning would be the last hour and a half since landing. I was picked up by my contact in Arusha, Faustine, and his friend, who owned the car, after landing about 11:00PM local time. I was surprisingly at ease for most of the ride, considering I had no idea where I was, how to get to our destination, what my hotel would be like, and that I had only just met the two guys I was traveling with. I think this probably speaks to Faustine and his friend, both of whom were exceedingly kind and willing to answer all of my questions as we drove along. Upon arriving here at the hotel, I wasn't sure what to think. Not that I had any expectations, but again, it was the middle of the night, I had no idea what part of Arusha I was in, and it didn't appear that anyone here spoke any English. Not exactly settling. However, once I got to my room my fears were put to ease. The room is fairly plain, but is still more than I could have hoped for. It has a bed (complete with misquito net), a private bathroom area that includes a sink, toilet, and best of a all, a shower with hot water, and it even has a small tv. I spent a few minutes watching a soccer match (no idea who was actually playing), and then decided I was better off writing a few words on my travels and heading to bed. Although I haven't a clue as to where I am, and only have a small semblance of a plan as to how I'm going to find volunteer opportunities, I do know that I safely made it to my destination, and that's enough for now.