Arusha

A few weekends ago we had an optional weekend stay in the city of Arusha after finals ended. Yes, my classes officially ended a few weeks ago and now the rest of the program is completely focused on directed research, which I am beyond excited about! For those who haven’t heard of Arusha, it is basically the only major city of northern Tanzania and a recently developed one at that. It has only become as busy as it is in the last 20 years or so. It is about an hour from the airport that I flew into, so we had stayed in Arusha that first night since it was late and we were still a ways from camp. So this was my second time in Arusha, and boy was this experience so much different from the first. The first night I spent in Arusha I was so overwhelmed by how different everything looked from the hotel itself to the streets outside. I was an emotional mess from just having left home for three months and my shower was frigid and the traffic kept me up all night. I remember not associating it with the greatest of times.

However, I chose to come back a second time and get to really experience it. We stayed for two nights in the same hotel as the first time, and by total chance I ended up in the exact same room as the last time I was there. Update: the traffic still kept me up but was nothing some Tylenol PM couldn’t fix and the shower was super hot and had great water pressure, which was a luxury compared to camp showers. So needless to say, the second time was a little better. We were actually the first group to go to Arusha for a two-night stay, as headquarters was very hesitant to let the previous group even go for one night. As a result we had lots of fun rules such as stay in groups of at least four, stay within certain areas of the city only, no public transportation, and we had to be in the same place together once it got dark. Honestly, these rules felt childish at first, but I ended up feeling grateful because there were moments where I definitely would not have felt very safe. Overall, I ended up being really grateful for being able to get a taste of Tanzanian urban life and compare it to the rural areas we are so used to living in and experiencing at this point.

On our way to Arusha on the first day we stopped just outside the city and went to a Snake Park. Here they have lots of snakes and some other animals in exhibit next to the Snake Clinic, which is the only place in Tanzania that has the anti venoms for snakebites. Even though it was through glass, I finally got to see some black mambas. They also had quite a lot of southern African pythons, which are about 3-5 meters long! Apparently they are known for swallowing people whole so that’s kind of morbid but also cool. These guys were so big and even better…they are commonly spread throughout Tanzania. I was just thinking the other day how I really needed to add some more dangers to my already long list of potential disasters and dangerous things that are here. Also at the park I got to hold and play with a grass snake, which turned into a lot of fun. This snake was particularly playful and loved to slide all over your back, neck, and arms. Also, for some strange reason they felt that having some camels live at the snake park seemed like a pretty good idea. They let us ride them for $1 so I guess I can say I rode a camel in Africa for a buck now. I still feel partially guilty for choosing to ride the camel because I wasn’t in love with why they were keeping the camels in the first place. I did find it hilarious that a camel pair of mother and baby was named brown with the baby named Pepsi. Yupp, the camel is named after a soda brand.

After our visit here we headed into the heart of the city, and boy was it bizarre to see traffic. We headed for our hotel and got situated there. I should also probably mention that the last time we stayed there at least 10 kids from camp got Giardia the next week, so many of us were very paranoid about how this was going to go. Like last time we brought our clean water from camp to brush our teeth and refill our water bottles. As of now, I am still currently healthy, and nobody else got Giardia again from Arusha. However, a new sickness of food poisoning went around and at least half the camp had to go to the clinic within two days of returning to camp. I also somehow managed to avoid this terrible experience.

Our first stop was to explore the massive used clothing market that more or less feels like it is underground and completely closed it. Basically, it took the craziness of the typical African markets and squeezed it into a much more cramped and dark area. They had more clothes than I could imagine. Basically all clothes Tanzanians have are used clothes shipped over from America and Europe. We didn’t spend too much time here because it was overwhelming but we also had some unwanted company. We were warned that it is not uncommon for people to spot foreigners on the street and in friendly conversation find out where you are going. They will cleverly follow you to your destination, even if you know where you are going, and then promptly ask for money for “showing you the way”. We hadn’t been on the streets for more than two minutes before we had one of these people. We never told him where we were going, but we had a hard time losing him until the market. We were able to get away without him asking for money. There was multiple times on the streets that I did not feel the most comfortable. Multiple times I would pass men and they would reach out and grab my arm. They would always immediately let go but it certainly kept me on edge and always alert whenever we were walking around. Another popular thing here is when you walk by locals will yell “wazungu” at you which basically translates to white foreigner. This also gets annoying and frustrating after a while.

After the clothing market we headed to a different part of the city to explore another shopping area with more fabric than you could imagine. I didn’t get any fabric, but I did purchase some safari shoes, which are a very “safari chic” shoe that I have only seen here. That night we headed to a plaza area with lots of good restaurants with get this….VARIETY!!! There were so many choices from American to Italian to Mexican to Asian etc. and it was glorious to have so many options and food that tasted more like it came from home. The first night I got a pizza and indulged on a coffee-hazelnut gelato milkshake and I could easily have died from happiness at that very moment.

The next day most of our group went to a local lodge with a shop called Shanga, which we toured. This was one of my favorite stops of the whole weekend because this beautiful little workshop makes handmade artwork, jewelry, dishes, etc. The shop runs by employing both physically and mentally disabled Tanzanians, who end up becoming incredible talented artists when they come here. I found it to be a wonderful cause. They had a really touching quote painted on one of the walls of the workshop: “Kindness is a language which blind people see and deaf people hear.”

After Shanga we headed to a coffee shop in the city where I got yet another milkshake. I think by the end of the weekend I had at least four of them, which was very bizarre because I literally never order milkshakes in the states. Clearly I have some American food separation issues. After this some of us decided to explore the Natural History Museum. From the moment we set foot in there it became a very bizarre experience. First, we were given a guided tour instead of just being able to walk around. The museum was mostly photography on local flora and fauna, taxidermy, and they did have some casts of fossils on display. They did have a relatively informative exhibit on human evolution and Tanzania’s role in its research. We didn’t end up learning too much new information from our guide, but he did inform us that the secretary bird is named such because when it stomps on snakes it looks like its typing. It seems to make sense but I am certainly still skeptical of this new information.

I did observe that Tanzania must not have great regulations on the care for captive animals. I noticed this a little at the snake park but it was much more painfully obvious here. They had a live eagle in a cage outside the museum. I asked where they got it from and they told me that it was rescued from poachers. What broke my heart was that this cage was so small there was no chance this big and beautiful bird would ever fly another day in its life. After this whole experience and seeing all these beautiful exotic animals in the wild, and even seeing that wildness be dimmed by tourism, it will be very hard for me to set foot in a zoo again. No wild creature should have to live in a cage or confined enclosure. I understand that many are rescued and given a second chance at life because they can’t be released, as well as many end up in captive places because they were illegally kept as house pets. In these instances I find it okay that these animals continue to live in captivity; however, no animal should be put on display for the rest of its life because of unfortunate circumstances. I do understand the role of zoos and other wildlife sanctuaries for nature education, conservation, and research. It just makes me sad that the animals no longer have private lives where they can enjoy their days without being watched by people all day, and always confined by enclosure walls. I will certainly feel much more conflicted about visiting zoos again.

The museum was also running a current taxidermy business where they would stuff game from trophy hunters and ship it abroad for them. I found this to be quite odd too. The strangest part of this whole experience was at the end of the tour when our tour guide (who was a man) asked which one of us wanted to be his wife since he gave us the tour. Obviously nobody volunteered….we all just kindof awkwardly smiled and hurried out of there. Then, of course, back at the entrance to the museum they had a live marabou stork and a pair of turtles. The turtles were currently copulating quite loudly for everyone nearby to hear and the marabou stork was running around with its wings out and tried to attack one of the girls in the group through the fence. Once we all left we kindof just all turned to each other and wondered what the hell that whole experience was.

After the museum we stopped at a t-shirt shop where I got a wonderful sticker that said “Let the Rhino be horny”, which is now on display on my laptop case for all to see and enjoy. After this we headed for the big grocery store near our hotel. It was strange to think that this was the first grocery store that I had been to in 3 months. This big almost American like store had Lays potato chips and grapes…two things that I had not come across yet. Apparently they also had Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms! If anything, this entire weekend was just a tease of being able to have all American food I want in just a few weeks. When we first got into the grocery store we were offered a sample of Johnnie Walker. It was bizarre but kindof nice to be a minor as far as the states are concerned and get offered a shot of alcohol while getting to walk around a grocery store. That night we were brought to another plaza where I was able to indulge in some Chinese food. I am fairly convinced that this plaza was the source of our food poisoning.

The next day was our last morning and we headed to the Cultural Heritage Center. This was my favorite stop of the entire weekend. They had multiple gift stores and another Tanzanite store; however the main attraction was this beautiful art gallery that had hundreds of stunning pieces of African art ranging from furniture, sculptures, paintings, and photography. I highly recommend going to see this exhibit if anyone ends up in Tanzania one day. Apparently Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visited this place during their presidencies. At one point one of the nice staff there offered to bring us to the “flea market”. We all kindof just agreed even though we had no idea what that meant. They basically brought us around the back of the building that had quite a sketchy appearance and far away from anyone who might be looking for us. They brought us to a warehouse, which ended up being full of overstock/old items that would be much cheaper than in the gift store. It ended up being really cool to walk around even though I didn’t take advantage of yet another spending opportunity. We were all just mostly relieved that we weren’t kidnapped as a result of that experience. After this we stopped at another great food place where I had a wonderful burger, especially since I have had little to no meat since I have been here.

After all this it was time to head back to camp. I apologize for so few pictures from the weekend as I left my nice camera back at camp to avoid it getting stolen, and I didn’t keep my phone out in public very often. Stay tuned for more posts about my directed research experience!