The End

Wake up, pack everything, get on the bus. 

The bus went over the Kenyan border.  I tried to take in the last bits of scenery, fully aware by this time that I couldn't really process what was happening anymore. 

The bus went into Nairobi and straight to the airport.  I couldn't check in early and access the terminal, because my airline only has one flight per day, so I sat at an outdoor cafe.  For 12 hours.  And not some quaint outdoor cafe, some dirty, crappy Kenyan airport cafe.  Eventually, check in, make my way to the gate, and onto the plane.  The total travel time, from Arusha to the US, would be 40 hours.   This part was halfway through, and marked the end of my trip to Africa.

Immediately after the plane took off, I fell asleep.

Kwa heri, Tanzania

If there's anything left to do, now's the time to do it.  Did my laundry- by washing it in a bucket and hanging it out to dry.  Saw some live music at a French-owned expat restaurant, and made dinner for the Belgian neighbors.  Met Shannon for Indian food at some swanky hotel.

The rains came in Monday night.

A Final Adventure

Hop on the bus out towards Moshi, hop off in some random village along the roadside.  A taxi takes us off-road, about an hour south, through the Tanzanian bush.  Baobob trees and mud hut villages line the path.  At the end, we emerge at a little oasis, the Maji Moto hot springs.  We went swimming in blue, fresh water at just the right temperature.  You could jump in from tree branches or a "George of the Jungle" swing.  It was an amazing place, moreso because it's not in guidebooks or on tourist maps- you need to spend time with locals and expats to know it's there.

73: Friday in Arusha

Dalla dalla into town, head to the internet cafe.  An email tells me I've been offered the position of law clerk for the Senate Judiciary Committee, a wonderful and vaguely surreal piece of news.  I'll start the first Monday back in the US, the week I hear about the bar results. 

So it's a good morning.

Most of the rest of the day was spent arguing with Masai craft shop owners about the prices for carved wooden animals.  I bought my sister a warthog, because she loves both Pumba and bacon. 

Another day, another dalla

So I've fallen into a routine in Arusha.  It mostly involves a lot of internet cafe and regular cafe.  And lots of walking. 

It all seems so regular.  Until I think about it.  I start off by heading into town on the local minibus, comically overcrowded deathtraps known as dalla dallas (don't worry parents, I've already had my last dalla ride).  I hop off at the turn for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which I walk past.  I'll pass women in traditional kange cloth, balancing baskets on their heads.  Similarly dressed women sit on the sidewalk, selling veggies and tropical fruits from wicker baskets, while red toga-clad Masai warriors check their facebook accounts in the internet cafe.  Safari 4x4s head up and down the street, for Kili, the Serengeti, wherever. 

Evenings are usually spent back at the apartment building, where interns, teachers, and volunteers from Belgium, England, Ireland, Zambia etc sit around the table, cooking dinner on portable gas stoves. 

71

I had planned on going to the market, but apparently there was some light rioting.  So I stayed in safe parts of town.

A Tanzanian lawyer and judge got me drunk.  They kept ordering beer in Swahili and then I had no choice.  Normally I'd keep my blog a little more professional, but hey- it was a lawyer and a judge.  Also, the lawyer definitely handed the judge a stack of cash...

I also lost Shannon's keys.  She wanted to kill me. 

Arusha once again

Wake up, pack everything, head to Arusha.  Saw "Planet of the Apes" with Shannon and Seepan, which we defined to be "gorilla tracking." 

Back to Moshi pt 2

Getting back to Moshi from the Pare Mountains, I settled in with a group of locals/expats/foreign students.  One of the Americans in this group had been working and living in Tanzania for nearly 5 years.  I mentioned something about Netflix, and she responds "I don't like watching movies on the computer, I prefer to just rent them from the video store."

I had to break it to her.  But things change when you're gone, and I'm sure a few surprises await me.

Back to Moshi

A lot of Tanzanians pretend to speak english, when really they're just saying "yes" and "no" at random.  It's really annoying, because instead of finding someone else, or using simpler english, or pantomining, or whatever, you just get some idiot saying "yes" to all your questions.

How far is it?  "yes"
Where's a good place to eat?  "Yes."
and so on.

Here's the conversation I had with the hotel manager as I tried to find the bus stop that would take me back to Moshi:

Scott: "Where is the bus stop?"
Manager: "yes."
Scott: "That wasn't a yes or no question."
Manager: "yes."
Scott: "I need to go to Moshi.  How do I get to Moshi?"
Manager: "yes"
Scott: "Moshi, dalla dalla (minibus)"
Manager: "yes"
Scott: "You have no idea what I'm saying, do you?"
Manager: "yes"
Scott: "dalla dalla kwenda Moshi iko wapi?"
Manager: "oh, over there."
Scott: "thank you" (in swahili)

Get out of town

Wake up, pack everything, hop on the bus.  I make it to a place called Usangi, in the Pare Mountains, a village and a mountain chain that no one has ever heard of.  But the guidebook says it's a decent place for a self-guided (read: cheap) hike, and it's only an hour or two from Moshi.  Random, but hilly, green, and beautiful.

I make it in, and once again am the only foreigner in the entire village.  No one knew where any hiking trails were (or, more accurately, because they are Tanzanian, they merely pretend to speak English, and just say "yes" or "no" randomly until you stop trying to ask them anything).  But I finally found one, and was able to summit the hill on the same day.  From the top, I could see all the way to Kenya.  Mountain ranges in the distance, and a massive lake filled out the landscape. 

So I finally got my hike in. 

67: not every day can be exciting

sometimes you mostly just sit.  I came north so early, in part, to beat the rainy season.  Were I still in Zambia when the rains came, it would be a miserable slog back to Nairobi.  But now that I'm in this area, trapped between the Serengeti, the emptiness of central Tanzania, the ocean, and a restive Kenya- and also broke- some days are more about internet cafe and just soaking up daily life than any specific adventure. 

Tanzania strikes again

Set up a phone interview with some people in DC, Skyping from the internet cafe.  It was going so well  until, of course, the power went out.