Arusha, Tanzania
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.
-
- Lake Natron
-
- MCC Tanzania office
-
- our “apartment”
-
- supper
-
- our kitchen
-
- breakfast on the patio
-
- hotel gardens
-
- view on our walk to work
-
- documents awaiting us
-
- reading and deciding
-
- scanning documents
-
- the trash pile
-
- finished product awaiting shipment
-
- time for Scrabble
-
- restaurant
-
- picture menu on wall
-
- rice, beans, and accompaniments
-
- beautiful moth
-
- tri-colored flowers
-
- on the street
-
- note house on top of building
-
- market street
-
- shop for motorcycles and bicycles
-
- Uhuru Monument
-
- mural at base of monument
-
- street paintings
-
- “coke” stop
-
- Mt Meru and Hindu temple
-
- public library
-
- Mt Meru