Ron and Sally Jo Blog

On the flight from Kampala to Arusha we flew near Lake Natron, a large salt lake on the border of Kenya and Tanzania.  After the green lush vegetation of Uganda, Arusha seems brown, dry and dusty.  However, it is a much smaller and less crowded city than Kampala—and Mt Meru overlooks the city.  Our accommodation is again in a hotel and again we have a small kitchen so that we can fix our suppers.  The hotel area is more open and we can sit outside our room for afternoon tea.  Breakfast is served on a patio of the hotel.

MCC Tanzania office

Our work itself is very much like the past two weeks in Uganda.  There is not nearly the amount of material to go through and it is much better organized and is less dirty.  We filled a large box 3 ft by 2 ft by 2 ft about 2/3 full with documents to shred, burn, or compost.  We have three boxes to send to headquarters.  And we still found time to play games in the evening!

rice, beans, and accompaniments

We found a nice outdoor restaurant across the street from MCC office where we had lunch twice.  We would have had to wait for ugali (the common cornmeal “base”) so ordered rice dishes instead. 

We actually ended our work early and had time to explore the town.  We were here about three years ago but did not see much of the town then.  Forty years ago we passed through the town several times and remembered it as a “one-street” small town.  It has grown, is busy, and we found interesting places as we walked around.  When we were in Kenya in the late 1960s,  TANU’s (and first president Mwalimu Nyerere’s) Policy on Socialism and Self Reliance, referred to as the Arusha Declaration, was known as Tanzania’s most prominent political statement of African Socialism, ‘Ujamaa’, or brotherhood. The Uhuru (freedom) monument in Arusha continues to mark those national beginnings.

After our meetings were over we needed to spend 2 nights in Arusha, Tanzania, waiting for our return flight to Entebbe / Kampala.  Arusha is in a beautiful setting next to Mt Meru.  During our full day there we used an MCC car to visit Arusha National Park.

Just inside the park gate we were soon surrounded by zebra and giraffes, and nearby was a herd of buffalo. We continued down a gravel road in the direction of the extinct volcanic cone of Mt Meru. Near the other side of the park we hired an armed ranger to escort us on a game-viewing hike. We passed another large herd of buffalo and were able to get quite close to several giraffes. Eventually we found our way to a nice waterfall. On our return we spotted a little dikdik under some brush. After our hike we drove to a lake filled with flamingos. On our way out of the park we passed a small group of zebra next to some acacia trees with misty rain in the background.  It was a very enjoyable day!

We recently flew two hours on a 50-seater modern turboprop plane from Entebbe (near Kampala) to Arusha, Tanzania for several days of meetings with other East Africa MCC Representatives. In addition to us from Uganda, there were representatives from Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and South Sudan as well as our “bosses” who represent all of this region.

We stayed in a beautiful mountain lodge and enjoyed the surroundings and amenities such as the pool. We had time for formal and informal conversation, worship, and entertainment.  On our last evening together we were treated to an outdoor barbecue and some traditional dances.