Mar 28, 08:58 AM
Arriving in Tanzania
[Composed Sunday, March 26]
After a great night in Nairobi last night with two friends we made from England, we made it to Arusha, Tanzania, this afternoon around 1:30pm.
Our friends, Corinna and Theresa, are travelling together for the next year (they’re already about two and a half months in) across the entire world. They booked one of those “around the world tickets” and have now seen Italy, Israel, Egypt, Kenya, and will head onto South Africa next. They will make their way to the Americas in November/December. Don’t be too scared, but we were really inspired by that kind of travel. Who knows? Maybe we’ll do that someday, too. A whole year off seems like an impossible luxury, but wouldn’t it be incredible?
We shared a meal with them in Nairobi at a restaurant with covered outdoor seating and waited for an evening rain shower to pass before making it back to where we were staying for the night, the Parkside (near to where we stayed our first night in Nairobi that now seems a long time ago, but was only 3/17). It was sad to part with them, as we met them at the Mt. Kenya Hostel and shared many meals with them under the shadow of that wonderful mountain, but said goodbye and left very early this morning for Tanzania.
We were up around 5:45am, showered, packed our bags, and finished breakfast just in time to board the bus that would take us to Arusha.
The bus was quite nice, compared to some of the other transport we’ve used. By nice, I mean, one person per seat, a seat belt, and a comfortable chair—nice for about a 4 1/2 hour trip to Arusha. For one leg of our journey from Mt. Kenya to Nairobi, we were in a mini-bus meant for 12 passengers that contained no less than 22. Mark said it was sardine can meets clown car. Luckily, that was a very short section of the total journey. The “matatu” we took for the next section was less packed with people, but did include the requisite live chicken. It was actually a jauntily combed rooster in a large purse.
On our way, we had to cross the border of Kenya and into Tanzania. This process was much less of a hassle than we expected it to be, although all in all, it still took about 40 minutes or so at each stop to let everyone off, have their passports stamped, only to get back on the bus and do the same thing all over again just a few minutes up the road into Tanzania. It was a cool experience, though. It was great that we’d already received our visas ahead of time for Tanzania, so we didn’t have to deal with that part of the process. A few miles into the journey after the border crossing, everyone noticed there were two passengers missing. Oh no! We’d left two women at the border. But, they were zooming in a taxi to catch the bus and it made quite a scene for the local children who came toward the road to watch what the fuss about. It was also odd to see a taxi on a stretch of road with nothing but savannah in every direction.
Aside from several quite persistent safari touts, trying to sell you safaris, Arusha is beautiful. We found a nice, clean hostel near the town center run by the Catholic Archdiocese. The climate here is temperate, and everything is green. One of the main reasons for travelling to Arusha for us is to witness some of the proceedings at the International Court of Justice, which houses the hearings on the Rwandan genocide. Begun in 1996, it is unfortunately still going and seems to be quite a slow process. But will be a great learning experience for both of us, and especially for Mark, as he looks toward law school in the fall.