First days in Arusha

Yesterday and today I have had a little more time to get familiar with the area. I’ve picked up on a few Kiswahili phrases, which have been fun to throw around, although I’m positive I’m botching most of them.

Yesterday I was really concerned that this trip would be a very pampered and hand-held experience. I wondered if I would get to know the city at all. We got all of our errands done by noon and spent the rest of the afternoon dining at a posh colonial style restaurant. Aside from the gift shop and dining patio, the place had a sizable yard with a fountain bubbling in the middle of it. The yard was littered with cushioned, rod iron beds, some with canopies. It was very nice, but seemed so disconnected from the city in which it was nested. It was not the type of experience I was hoping to have.

Today, I got to wander around the city square and my hotel neighborhood. As you approach the city square you come to a round-about which is the epicenter of Arusha. In the middle of this round about, there is a clocktower where 3 large flat screen about tvs 20 ft in the air show wildlife 24 hours a day. I guess this was Tanzania National Parks Authority's effort to promote the wildlife parks. It's cool because some kids have never seen things like lions or zebras. Still it's funny to walk past huge LCDs of lions hunting down prey and devouring them in the middle of the city square. Walking along the main road I saw at least a half a dozen buses, but I would say they’re more like the Scooby-doo van than any buses I’m used to. They drive pretty fast and when they approach a “stop” a guy on the passenger side leans his whole torso out the window to flag down any potential passengers. The bus slows and if someone needs to get on, that person basically needs to run after the bus b/c it never actually stops! All of these buses have their own names. My personal favorite is the T-Pain bus - further proof that everyone loves T-Pain.

The people here are really nice. They all want to try their English out on me, which is good b/c I’m trying my limited Swahili on them. Walking around town today was definitely the best part of my day. More TAWIRI conference tomorrow! I hope it's interesting.