more photos!

My view of Mt. Meru from my balchony

Outdoor seating at my favorite cafe in Arusha (so far!)

Kinyonga!
Pretty Yellow Weaver, there are TONS of them outside my room!

House tour!! My room in Arusha

A Daladala is never full..

On Saturday, Gertrude, Happy & I meet in town to go shopping. Happy says she knows of one place that’s very cheap, but it’s a little ways out of town, so we’ll have to take the bus. We walk, stroll really, at an amazingly slow pace, I walk as slow as I possibly can, but having such long legs, I have to keep stopping so that I can walk with my friends. We stroll in the direction of the bus stop, an extremely busy parking lot jammed with daladalas, taxis and full size coach buses headed on their usual route, wherever you would like to go, or to Nairobi or Dar es Salaam. Daladalas are everywhere, running people all over town, they are color coded, but I haven’t figured out what any color actually indicates. As we approach the bus stop, straggler vehicles that didn’t make it into the congested lot are waiting for passengers to pick up. Men stand outside the open slider door, yelling, calling out the route name and stops, hustling people into their vehicles. These “conductors” are not passive. We try to walk by a daladala with a green band painted down it and 2 men step in our path, arms extended as if they are herding the 3 of us into their van, calling out the stops and I don’t know what else in Swahili. Happy pushes one aside and shoves through, Gertrude and I follow as we make our way to a van with a yellow band and step inside. Daladalas are no bigger than a VW bus, but they are gutted to the metal and outfitted with tightly packed vinyl seats. The 3 of us squeeze in the 2nd to last row. After picking up a few more passengers, the conductor slams on the roof a few times to signal the driver and the bus tears out of its spot. Arusha is crowded and the daladala zooms through town around people walking, men pushing or pulling large wooden carts full of produce, shoes or other goods for sale, taxis and cars that just aren’t moving fast enough. There aren’t really any driving rules in Tanzania, or at least that I can tell. You can pass people at any time, on either side and motorcycles just fly down the middle of the road, dodging cars and Land Rovers on both sides. The daladala stops almost every 5 minutes to swap passengers, every time swerving suddenly off the side of the road when the conductor spots someone looking like they want a ride. I can’t tell if they pull off for people that look like they might have money, white tourists or if they are just hollering at girls along the way. Every time we approach a “bus stop”, the conductor, who is already hanging halfway out the window, swings the slider door open before we even come close to stopping and stands on the step, hanging out the side of the vehicle, holding onto the inside of the roof with his fingertips. He bangs on the roof repeatedly and yells more things I don’t understand, people get on and off; he collects their shillings. If a guy is getting on, sometimes the bus doesn’t stop at all, the door opens, the driver slows down and the guy runs and jumps onto the daladala like he’s jumping a train. When I think I cannot possibly squish over anymore, we pull over and pick up 3 more people. I am crammed in next to Gertrude and poor Happy is pressed up against the window. My knees are digging into the metal seat frame in front of me so hard, I know I will have bruises. People stand along side what you may call an isle, bent over the people seated in front of them, their cheeks practically resting on the seated passenger’s head. I count 22 people. Personal space is truly an American standard. We race along the road to the market, packed like sardines. Actually, among the black plastic bags and wrapped bundles, someone is definitely carrying fish and the daladala is filled with the smell of seafood that was probably sitting in the hot sun. I take note of the irony. Between the pungent smell of dried fish and the diesel exhaust that is coming out of the truck we are seriously tailgating, I try to hold my breath. It’s around 85 degrees and I can feel the sweat and coco butter starting to get slimy under my knees. I am wearing a tank top and billowy skirt. The man behind me is wearing long pants and a pullover fleece. The girl in the front is wearing a long sleeved, ribbed sweater. My Massachusetts winter blood cannot thin out fast enough, I’m sweating profusely. The large woman in the polyester business suit practically on my lap isn’t helping. After about half an hour we arrive at the market and the daladala bursts with passengers. I cannot get out fast enough. I dig into the pocket in my purse to pay the conductor. The entire trip is 1000 Tsh, the equivalent to 75 cents.

My little Suzuki Escudo

I have found my truck! It's a little Suzuki Escudo, like the same thing as a Samurai in the US. It's automatic and has a stick in case you get stuck. I test drove it around Arusha last week and it was WAY easier than I thought it would be! The wheel is on the right and you drive on the left, but the pedals are the same so it really wasn't too confusing. The blinker is on the opposite side of the wheel, so I kept putting the windshield wipers on! It already has a cd player in it, so I'm pumped. It also has brand new off-road tires, so Kikoti says its a good deal. Now I just have to battle with Bank of America and the Barclays here to get my money! It's really difficult to take out large amounts of money here, because the exchange is so high; $1 = 1,335 Shillings (Tsh) so...my truck will cost over 10million Tsh!!!
awwww, Kidogo Escuso! (little Escudo!)

I'll be geting an spare tire for the back too, so he will be much tougher looking then!

Kinyonga; My bestest animal friend in the world ♥

I think I can die happy now....I hung out with a real, live, wild chameleon (kinyonga) the other day!! He was so aweome with his little sticky mitten feet and crazy googly eyeballs lookin all over the place! He was changing colors from brown to green to blue while he walked all over my arms & purse & jeans..He was opening his mouth at me like he was so tough and they puff themselves out to look bigger and intimidating!! He was just a little tiny guy, maybe 4" inches? I looked like SUCH a weirdy jumping into the bush to grab a chameleon off a branch. People here regard chameleons like pests, they're like giant spiders! Women were walking by me and jumping back when they saw I was holding one! I was sitting on the outside the gate of the AWF, giggling and talking to him all by myself..after a minute I went back inside to sit on the lawn where I could be a total weirdy in private. I try to explain that we don't have chameleons in Massachusetts, but it's pointless, I am a very strange and over excited foreigner.. I don't care! He is my besty friend...

He is kujificha/kujfananisha na mazingira (camoflauge / blends with his environment)!!!

mimea na maua/plants & flowers...and banana sluuugss!!!

coolest thing I have EVER SEEN!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, this is maybe the most exciting moment of my freaking life! For those of you that know me, you can understand how much I was FLIPPING OUT about this, for those of you who do not, I'm sure this says a lot about me...that I am a major dork and I have problems...

I'm sitting outside in the cafe at my little hotel, eating pizza and thinking about how totally American-ized parts of Tanzanian culture is. A week ago I thought I'd be saying good-bye to cheese for 10 months, but now I eating pineapple pizza in Arusha. I'm hanging out all by myself, because I cannot speak Swahili yet, so I have no friends. I am still a tourist...then I look up...there's a little creature walking across the wire that is connected to 2 small trees..I get up to see what kind of massive bug it is, BUT NO!! IT'S A FREAKING CHAMELEON!!!!!!!!! I am in the middle of this cafe at lunch time, it's not very busy, luckily because I was WAY too excited about this little 5" Chameleon!! I probably made some weird noise when I found it, cause the table of 6 next to me were staring as I ran back to my table to get my little camera & drag a chair over to him to take a picture. He was so close, but yet so far away...I wish SO BADLY that I could have reached him, cause I would not be writing this blog right now...I'd be hanging out with my new little Chameleon best friend! ♥ ♥ ♥
ohgod ilovehimsomuch!


Here's some pictures of today while I was wandering..

Arusha Coffee Lodge!

Today Kikoti & I went out for fancy lunch at the Arusha Coffee Lodge. It's basically a tourist spot, but it's not busy now. Of course, the coffee is fantastic...

I made it!!!

I'm here! I made it, finalllyyy! I flew out Tuesday evening, spent 18 glorious hours in transit and I arrived in Arusha around 9pm local time on Wednesday. It's crazy loosing 8 hours. It's like the twilight zone...with awful plane food....and crying babies...

Originally I was supposed to be staying at my host, Kikoti's house in Arusha, but he was trying to do some renovations and of course they are not done. So, I am staying at a little hotel, right behind the African Wildlife Foundation offices, where Kikoti works. It's a tiny little place called the Pepe One Hotel with just 5 rooms and a restaurant. "It's nothing fancy, it's very modest." is what Kikoti said..yea..any hotel like this in the states would cost you well over $100 night. I think I am paying around $25 (the exchange is still a little confusing to me) It's landscaped all over the place with tropical plants and exotic flowers, decorated with typical African looking art, carved wooden animals and thatched roofs. There's a little courtyard with patio tables and huge umbrellas under enormous trees full of all sorts of birds. I was absolutely exhausted when I got in on Wednesday night, but I woke up around 6:30am the next morning, I was so excited.

It is the middle of the green season. Right now there is a little break between the short rains, typically from Nov.-Dec. and the long rains from late March through April. It's humid, but not too hot. It rained lightly all night (which is fantastic when sleeping with the windows open) so it is cooler today and a little overcast. It's probably in the low 70s. I'm sorry, Massachusetts.

So the first day I ran around with Kikoti looking at different vehicles and doing errands. I bought a little cell phone for local calls and went in checked with the TAWIRI office about my permit. Here comes the rant; Tawiri still has not reviewed my permit. I cannot get my Costech until I have my Tawiri. I cannot get a Residency permit until I have Costech. OY! So it might be a few months before I actually get all my permits in order, but there is plenty for me to do in the meantime.

Like learn Swahili and drive on the other side of the car and the road! Today, (day2) I went out driving around Arusha!!!! eeeek! It actually wasn't that bad. Kikoti's friend has an automatic 4WD Honda, so I don't have to learn stick. (WHEW!) The wheel is on the right, but the pedals are just like they are at home, so the only thing I really have to learn is driving on the left and their crazy traffic rules. Drivers are much more polite here, big surprise! If you are turning out onto the road, you can just put you hand out and someone will stop to let you go and you flash your high beams at night just to say hello!

Tangent time: SUPER EXCITING NEWS!!! A few weeks ago, I emailed Cynthia Moss through her blog; http://elephanttrust.org/blog/15 I just wanted to ask about the elephants that migrate into Tanzania from Amboseli and how I would be able to identify them as "Amboseli Elephants". I didn't really expect to reply, I mean, she's not a big time celebrity or anything, but I would say about as famous as Jane Goodall. Well, 2 days before I left, she replied, inviting me to come take an Elephant Identification training course at the Amboseli Research Facility!!!!!! eeeee!!!! So, while I am waiting for my Tawiri & Costech permits, I will go to Amboseli and learn how to age, sex and i.d. elephants!! Hopefully I will be able to see some of the elephants that I've been reading about in Cynthia Moss's book Elephant Memories. Now all those elephants will be all grown up! So exciting, I can't wait!!!

So for now, I'm just hanging around Arusha, trying to learn Swahili and getting used to the awesome slow pace of African life. And eating a lot of amazing organic fruit!
Room with a view; my hotel room and the courtyard at 6am

Courtyard at the hotel

My complimentary breakfast, before the eggs, toast, sausage & juice!

AWF Offices, where I'm hanging out writing this blog!!