kearneyjourney

During the winter, there is a two-hour time difference between Tanzania and Central Europe, which shrinks to one hour during the summer period. We agreed to meet Ray at 09:00 the next morning and proved we were adaptable by immediately shifting to African time and showing up fifteen minutes late. Our itinerary had us scheduled to drive to Moshi and the foothills of Kilimanjaro to visit several Chagga villages and have lunch with a Chagga family.

Erick Donasian was our guide for the day and accompanied Ray and us to a Catholic missionary complex that included a primary school, a secondary school, a hospital and, of course, a church. As it was 26 December, a Sunday right after Christmas, the church was full; and when we drove up to the end of the road leading to the complex and got out of the car, dozens of children ran down to greet and stare at the wazungu that had just arrived. They were all dressed in their Sunday best , very bright and cheerful and grinning as we walked up the steps. Some of them said “good morning” and used whatever English they had already been taught in school.

Erick gave us some background information on the German missionaries that had set up the mission as far back as the late nineteenth century, then led us through a tropical ravine with lush plants and rich, red volcanic earth. When we arrived in the first village, he showed us various parts such as the store, the bar, a number of the homes, the different types of bananas they grew and explained some of the history and traditions of the Chagga people.

He mentioned that some of the old traditions are still maintained, but that most Chagga tribe members are moving off into modern society and dropping the old customs and practices. He and Ray, both Chagga, now live in Arusha and are part of a young generation of entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves in the modern Tanzanian economy.

We then walked over through a second village and eventually arrived in Mekwa, where Ray was waiting for us with the Land Cruiser and drove us up to the farm of a Chagga family that hosted us for lunch. I had initially been skeptical of the lunch part of the program, because I was unsure whether our European digestive tracts could deal with the local flora – and here I mean the type that dwell in one’s intestines. But it turned out that all the dishes being served had been thoroughly cooked, so there was little chance of our getting any nefarious bacteria in mix. We were served soup and a beef and banana stew (with the variety of plantain banana grown for such dishes) and rice. The only raw foods consumed were avocados and sweet bananas (or the so-called “beer bananas” with a very sweet, but simultaneously tart flavor – the best banana I have ever eaten).

To conclude the meal, we all passed around a large calabash full of banana beer. After the lunch, I gave the head of the family, Thadeus, a small loaf of European spice bread and some candied fruits that we had brought with us from Austria. Erick is organizing such visits with local families to give tourists some insight into Chagga culture and village life; and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

Afterward, we briefly drove up to the gate to Kilimanjaro National Park where one of the descent trails issues. Here, we were exposed to our first obnoxious bevy of trinket salesmen hanging their wares into our eyes and negotiating prices with us for items that we had no intention of buying. Gertrude did eventually cave in and purchased a bracelet for 5 EUR, which was probably three times too expensive. This, of course, made her a target for all the other salesmen hawking their trinkets; and she had more bobbles being thrust at her than she could cope with. We eventually drove away and headed down the road toward Moshi, where we passed a sign advertizing the Jane Goodall Institute, for which Erick has worked in the past. We also looked a bit at Moshi, which is reputed to be the second-cleanest city in Tanzania. I was surprised to discover that many of the roads in the town were dirt roads; and this was a pattern that repeated itself across the country.

We eventually drove back to the Arumeru Lodge and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool and preparing for our departure the next morning. Katie’s hand was feeling better, so that was at least one worry out of the way. To fight any potential digestive issues, Chris brought along a bottle of whiskey; and we started taking one to two shots of the stuff after every meal to serve as a crude disinfectant. This was apparently how the British kept the world from falling out of their bottoms during their colonial rule.
The Arumeru River Lodge had WiFi, so I paid the obligatory $5 access fee; and we all hooked up to get our necessary cyber fix. Initially, I was hoping to keep a log and update it every day with my smartphone; but the WiFi performance was so slow that I gave up and decided there would be a complete log at the end of the trip and that I would revert to pen and paper for the remainder of our days in Tanzania. There was WiFi in only two other places on our trip (the Ngorongoro Farmhouse and the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge), while 3G GSM connection was totally absent. Most times, I was just happy to have a telephone signal, which we did have in some of the strangest places (like at our remote lunch-site in the middle of the Serengeti).

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 16th, 2011 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.