August 1, 2009 - Kwaheri Tanzania!

I think this will be a short post today. Not sure how much I can write about waiting around airports, that’s of interest anyway!

We left Karatu at noon for the trip to the Kilimanjaro Airport. Well, it was actually about 12:20 cause Dwight had to stop and get a couple more Shukas. One never knows when one might need a Masai robe, so best to have several on hand

The drive was great…lots of beautiful scenery in Tanzania. We really enjoyed the time we spent here and the people we met.

(Above) Beautiful Tanzania

(Above) In Arusha the “taxis” all have different names. I tried to get a picture of one called ‘Led Zeppelin’ but missed it.

Since I started it with Uganda, I’m going to do a list of Random Observations for Tanzania as well…

- The most common language spoken is Swahili
- People are very friendly and polite
- When you stop in to see someone, you call out “Hodi” (or “Hodi Hodi” in more casual situations) and then wait for them to respond “Karibu”, which means Welcome; if they don’t respond then it means they don’t want to see you, so go away!
- The word “Shtuka” means shocked….”Nime Shtuka” means I am shocked. Ha ha, I love the sound of that. I think I will be shocked a lot when I get home, at least I will say I am!
- The Masai make the best security guards because everyone is afraid of them, they are known to be such fierce warriors
- The Acacia tree is abundant and has VERY pointy spikes on it; I got poked by a few when out in the field but luckily they didn’t break the skin
- When there has been a traffic accident on the highway, branches are placed on the road about 100ft in both directions to alert oncoming traffic; they do this in Uganda as well
- Tanzania gets two rainy seasons a year…the Long Rains in March thru May and the Short Rains in October and November; last year the Long Rains weren’t plentiful enough, which is why they are experiencing draught conditions now
- There are lots of tourists going on Safaris and the contrast between the luxurious lodges and real life for the many Tanzanians living in poverty is a bit difficult to reconcile
- It’s difficult to eat vegetarian…Tanzanians like their meat!

We had a 4 hour wait at the Kilimanjaro Airport but it actually went quite quickly. As I write this, we are at hour 5 of a 12 hour layover at the Nairobi Airport. It’s pretty quiet here right now. Oh, but earlier we had a celebrity sighting…Anthony Edwards (Dr. Green from ER) and his family were sitting at the table beside us! Dwight is snoozing and when he wakes up I will try to catch some zzzzzzzzzz’s.

Carrying a guitar in an airport is a great conversation starter. During the first few hours of strolling around the shops here, I got asked about it several times.

We haven’t seen TV or a newspaper in a week. To be honest, I can’t say I miss it. Hope all is well in the rest of the world. After I post this, perhaps I will Google a bit and see what’s happening.

P.S. I thought of a few more Random Observations of Northern Uganda so I’m going to update the list at the bottom of my July 25th post with them.