Tanzania Weekend

Last weekend a group of about a dozen of us went to Arusha, Tanzania for a few days away from Nairobi. We boarded a bus right after class got out on Friday. And thus began the bumpiest, dustiest, dirtiest bus ride of my life. A good portion of the drive was on a road that was not paved, full of potholes, and lacking any sort of road sign whatsoever. The view was really interesting though. We passed through a few small towns with large open air markets and herds of cattle on the streets. As we got closer to the Kenya- Tanzania border, the terrain got more mountainous and the roads even dustier and bumpier.
Then we got to the border and encountered some unexpected drama. We planned to purchase single- entry visas for $50, but when we got to the border we found out it isn’t possible to buy single entry visas for American citizens outside of the US. Instead we had to buy multiple entry visas for $100. For most of the group, this was disappointing but not a huge deal; we decided we’d just have to come back for another weekend soon. Two people, however, decided buying visas was below them, and snuck back on the bus and across the border.
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. As we got closer to Arusha, dusk fell and all we could see were the stars and the Maasai campfires on the mountains in the distance. We got into Arusha around 9 pm, checked into our hostel, and changed to go out for the evening. We went to a local club and danced and hung out for a few hours before heading back to the hostel.
The next day was pretty laid- back. We mostly wandered around Arusha seeing how it was similar or different from Nairobi. Arusha is smaller, cleaner, and friendlier than Nairobi. One girl had lived in Arusha for three months a few summers ago, so she knew the area really well and was friends with a lot of the local people, so we were able to fit right in. We went to an open air market and another Maasai market. The vendors were much less willing to barter, so we didn’t end up buying much of anything. On the street, a woman was selling fried cassava topped with salt and chili powder, which I tried despite multiple warnings that it isn’t exactly wise to buy food from street vendors, who obviously follow no health or safety regulations. But, it was delicious and is officially my favorite Tanzanian food.
Saturday night we went out to a music festival, which was a great time. There were a few live bands, then a short intermission during which some acts from a huge African circus performed, then a DJ played for the rest of the night.
Sunday morning we pretty much just had breakfast and had to pack up and get ready to head out. I sat for a while on the rooftop patio at the hostel, looking out over Mount Meru. The bus ride back was tedious, everybody was tired and ready to be off that road. When we got to the border, the two people that didn’t buy entry visas were interrogated briefly by border security, but we managed to get them through eventually. It was still irritating though.
Overall, the weekend was a great one. We didn’t really do anything that we couldn’t have done in Nairobi, but it was really nice to get out of the big city for a while and see the difference in lifestyle between Kenya and Tanzania. And to breathe some fresh air; the smog and dust in Nairobi really take their toll on a person’s respiratory system. Technically, Kenya would be considered the more “developed” of the two countries, having better infrastructure and more public programs and bigger cities. However, it was obvious just over the course of one weekend that the government corruption and ethnic tensions that are so severe in Kenya were almost nonexistent in Tanzania. People on the streets were friendlier, and as an added bonus, spoke clearer, slower Swahili, so I was able to use less English than I do here in Nairobi.