Arrival

Tuesday, Feb. 7

It feels as though I have never left. Everything is the same here in Arusha, including the dry heat. This will be a kind of sub-theme running through all that I see and experience this trip. Already I have heard comments like, do you know the snow cap on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro has melted; and so many cattle are dying because there is no water and people cannot even afford to buy them.

This is my fourth visit to Tanzania in the past eight years. People Marian and I have gotten to know here feel like ‘our African family’. Last night, after quickly making it through customs at the airport by giving the agent a pocket knife I had brought exactly for this purpose, I opted to take a taxi for the 55 km. ride into Arusha rather than the Impala Hotel shuttle bus. The wait for safari-goers to find their luggage was something I did not want to endure after spending nearly 24 hours getting here. So I bargained with the taxi drivers outside the terminal who converged on me making offers. Thirty dollars mama; okay twenty dollars. No, thanks, I can take the shuttle bus for ten. Finally, here is my taxi mama, I will take you for fifteen dollars. The driver was nice, his white car was clean, and most of all, I felt very safe, so I knew I would pay him twenty dollars even before he dropped me off at the front door of the New Safari Hotel.

Thankfully, there was room inside and the woman at the desk remembered me from our visit last year (“And where is your friend?”). Yes, she could give me the special rate I requested of $55.00 U.S. rather than the usual $75.00. I was shown to room 312 overlooking the back parking lot/courtyard and India Rd. The room was not air conditioned but the window had a screen on it and there was a fan. Everything was spotless, the was mattress firm, the towels white and plush, and there were four or five stations on T.V. to choose from as I got ready for bed. As a British soccer (football, here) game played in the background, I decided to do very little since I would move across the street to the Lutheran Center in the morning. I ate some crackers I had saved from the plane and drank the small bottle of water that had been provided, remembering to leave enough to brush my teeth in the morning. I was restless and did not sleep much but it didn’t matter.

I heard the Muslim call to prayer just before 5:00 a.m. then turned the fan off so I could hear the birds getting up, too, making different sounds than the ones I was used to hearing in Ottawa in the summer. After a hot shower, I walked down to the dining room and chose a hard boiled egg, two beef sausages (more like small hot dogs), whole wheat bread that I toasted, and was brought coffee with the traditional steamed milk, as it is served here. It’s like having a latte only without the froth. I spotted a bureau de charge across the parking lot and wandered over when I was finished to get some U.S. dollars changed into Tanzanian Shillings. The exchange was about the same as it was a year ago – 177 shillings to the dollar which meant I would be able to stretch my budget a bit farther during my seven week visit.

After paying for my room at the front desk, I arranged to have Samwel, the hotel porter, help carry my things across the road in two trips, then up the stairs to my room. My duffle bag weighed a ton and the solar oven I brought along was in a big awkward box. I gladly gave him two thousand shillings (about 2 dollars) and thanked him for his work. I looked forward to getting settled into what would be my Arusha home base during my stay.