Life in Arusha

I wrote in a past post about the work I did with The Green Living Planet volunteer project and staying at The Greenhouse hostel. Because I chose to volunteer here, Arusha (Tanzania) became my home for about two months. I thought it only fitting that I share a taste of my experience living in Arusha and give a little more insight to the way of life and culture I saw every day.

*Sorry for all the photos, but a picture is worth a thousand words, right?*

Arusha is a city of over 1 million people and sometimes it feels very urban, big, and busy. The city is not very modern by most standards, but that came to be what I really liked about it; its simplicity.

On an clear day, there is a view of Mount Meru (elev. 14,977 ft)  from the city.

To get to and from the city center, most locals will walk or take a daladala (short-distance public transportation). Sometimes they are labeled with the area that they service, but more times than not someone is hanging out the door shouting the destination as they are moving down the road. (The policemen don't seem to mind.)

Only 400 shilling ($ 0.25) per ride and so to guarantee they go home with a profit, they don't leave until they are packed to the brim with people.

The daladalas are often painted with words or images that have some importance or meaning to the owner. There are hundreds of these buses in the city and so to stand out, the paint jobs can be quite nonsensical, strange, or even humorous at times.

Arusha Central Market: one of several local food markets. The place to buy fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, spices, fish, meat, etc.

I tried many of the traditional foods in Arusha. Many of them I very much enjoyed. Everything is always fresh and made from scratch. Typical foods (and often what was cooked for us at the Greenhouse) would include ugali (mashed maize), wali (white rice) or pilau (spiced rice), mandazi (fried bread), chapati (flatbread) and beans,


chips (potato fries), chipsi mayai (plain omelet with chips cooked right in), makande (beans, maize, and vegetable stew),


supu (meat soup), nyama (meat - cow, goat or chicken), ndizi (fried green bananas),
 

mboga (cooked vegetables - which could be any individual or combination of the following - spinach, kale, cabbage, zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, onions, tomatoes, green beans), and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Local Goods Market: one of several in the city containing mostly second-hand goods.

One necessary item you can't always buy at the second-hand goods market is a school uniform. I learned a great deal of information about and witnessed first-hand the education system in Arusha. There is so much that can be discussed, but here I am just going to stick to the culture.

All children, regardless of the school they attend, have to wear a school uniform.

Time at school is split between time for learning (including lessons of a vocational nature taught by us)...

and time for play.

 

For most children, they have to walk long distances to and from school every day. Only small privately-funded schools have school bus transportation.

My home was in the neighborhood of Sombetini, located just a 5 minute drive from the city center. It had a much more rural feel than other parts of the city.

 

This is the busiest Sombetini Road ever got.

 A typical storefront (just around the corner from the Greenhouse).

There was a movie production studio (see the sign) across the street

 as well as Arusha City Bar... "The best bar in town".

There are many small churches and mosques in the neighborhood. The mosque's daily prayers are blasted over a loud speaker waking us up early each morning and keeping us up late each night.

As you can see, much of Sombetini could use some clean-up and community improvement. So, the Green Living Planet crew took a couple days away from building the Terrat Primary School gardens and instead decided to plant 40 trees at the small, local medical clinic.

Everyday, the local children are so excited to see you. They have all learned two phrases in English, "good morning" and "how are you?" They repeatedly greet you with these, throwing in a wave and smile, until you disappear out of sight. Anytime they see you with a camera they always want you to take their picture (and then often times want to use your camera to take tons of crooked and/or out of focus photos).

They also openly welcome you to join in their daily neighborhood football match. Before you accept, think carefully about your decision. You are guaranteed to leave humiliated or with a significantly deflated ego, dripping in sweat, and extremely dirty. And this neighborhood game has more obstacles than any game of soccer you've ever played in before.

Any footwear (or lack thereof) is acceptable.

The ball is made out of plastic bags and rubber bands.

The goals are marked by rocks or sticks.

 

A motorcycle (or livestock) can pass through the playing field at anytime.

But in the end, the experience is well worth it. The skill level of most of the kids is exceptional. And every goal celebration makes you feel like you are at a World Cup match.

A few times, I was privileged enough to see how "the other half" lives. If you have a little money and your own transportation (thanks to Benson, the owner of the Greenhouse, we had both), you can drive a very short distance outside the city and enjoy some peace and quiet at Lake Duluti.

Or you can visit an upscale athletic club and participate in organized rugby, football, or tennis matches. If you'd rather, you can just observe while enjoying the 2-for-1 happy hour drinks. Then when the sun sets, you get to roast marshmallows around the bonfire with the brilliant, well-traveled, multilingual, ex-pat kids.

I have so many stories from my two months in Arusha that I couldn't include here... riding on the back of a boda boda/piki piki, driving a car in the chaos of the city, giving driving lessons to a Masai, run-ins with the police, chasing hedgehogs and turkeys around the yard, watching the house cats get spayed and neutered on the plastic picnic table on the lawn, eating the "best burger" in Arusha, giving and receiving cooking lessons, learning Swahili, getting my nails painted with henna, and so much more... I am happy to share any of these with you if you are interested.

Click here to see more photos of Life in Arusha.