Back to Rwanda

I’ve been back in Rwanda for about three weeks now, and things have more or less gotten back to normal here. I spent the first couple days in Kigali, which was a nice transition to ease me back into Rwanda. My first few days back in Nyagatare, though, were difficult. I just felt like I wasn’t ready to be back yet, and I was particularly unmotivated since I didn’t really have any work to do that week. Fortunately, those feelings have subsided, and I’m pretty much back into the swing of things now.

Since coming back, I’ve been able to see many of my good friends in Nyagatare, which has been wonderful. I brought presents back for several people, as well as some donated items for the primary school, and everyone seems to appreciate them so far. School started last week, and my students and fellow teachers seemed very happy to see me again, which felt really nice. I taught my first few classes last week, and it was great to be teaching again. So, all in all, I think I’ve readjusted to life in Rwanda.

Much like going from Africa to the U.S., I think going the other way also gets easier each time, at least in terms of handling living standards and physical difficulty. I’m back to bucket baths, moto taxis, and plantains, back to boiling my drinking water, hand washing my clothes, and waiting an hour for my e-mail to load. Yet, though sometimes annoying, none of these things really seem like a huge burden at this point.

It’s really hard for me to believe that I was actually in the U.S. just a couple weeks ago. It feels a little bit like the refrigerator, Starbucks drinks, carpet, gym, washing machine, and shopping mall were just a weird dream. On the other hand, while I was in the U.S., it sometimes felt like I’d been there all along and like my life in Rwanda had just been a strange – and vivid – dream.

From Rwanda to Montana

I was able to go home again for Christmas this year, and it was a tremendous blessing. Seeing family, friends, Ryan, and his family was wonderful, and it was especially great to reconnect with some friends I hadn’t seen in over two years.

Compared to when I went home last December, I felt less overwhelmed and was less shocked by the general living standards and the availability and variety of, well, everything. Part of this was definitely because, as the school year ended in late October, I had been away from Nyagatare more in the weeks leading up to my vacation. I’d spent more time than usual with other volunteers, speaking English and relaxing. I’d been in Kigali more, as well as in Gisenyi, and, because of that, had had more Western food than usual. On top of that, a few other general improvements have increased my standards a bit. I got more into cooking for myself last year, and have been eating better and healthier food in general. Internet access in Rwanda has improved over the past year, mainly due to affordable “unlimited” options now offered on modems. Plus, the Peace Corps office now has a hostel for Volunteers to stay at when we’re in Kigali, and it has hot showers. Apart from all that, I think going back and forth between the developing world and the developed one probably just gets a little bit easier each time. So, all in all, the U.S. was less of a shock to me than it was last year.

There were still plenty of things I had missed about the U.S., though, and the lessened shock in no way reduced my excitement. I thoroughly enjoyed every clean load of laundry, trip to the gym, trip to the bookstore, flushing toilet, spinach salad, vegetable pizza, peppermint mocha, glass of wine, glass of tap water, not to mention the consistent electricity, hi-speed Internet, unlimited text messages, and so on.

More than any of that, however, the most glorious part was that people didn’t scrutinize my every move. I wasn’t constantly ridiculed for trying to speak a foreign language. I didn’t get phone calls at midnight, or 3:00am, or 6:00am, and I didn’t get calls from people I don’t know (usually male) claiming they “want to be friends” or “need to discuss something.” People didn’t get mad at me if, heaven forbid, I happened to miss their phone call. Nobody watched to see what time I woke up or left my house in the morning, how much time I spent at home during the day, or what time I locked up for the night. Nobody went anyplace just to look at me, told another person to go anyplace just to look at me, or asked another person if they had gone someplace to look at me. For two weeks, I was able to relax and just…be.

Beach Time

Finally, my last post about the trip to Tanzania, and this one’s about the beach! (Read about Dar es Salaam, mountain trekking, Stone Town, and some day trips.)

During our time at the beach, we stayed in a village called Bwejuu (pronounced way-jhoo) on the east coast of Zanzibar. The ride across the island from Stone Town was very pretty, and lined with palm trees, though the small villages we passed were a world away from Stone Town.

With sand that was literally white and the most beautiful turquoise water I’ve ever seen, not to mention palm trees everywhere you look, arriving in Bwejuu felt like arriving in paradise. The hotel we stayed at, Musthapha’s Place, was just across the street from the beach and was definitely one of the coolest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. Mustapha’s was small, with just seven rooms in total and about as many tables in the open-air restaurant. The rooms surround a small courtyard, complete with a bonfire pit, hammocks, and wooden swings. The ground of the entire courtyard and restaurant area was sand, allowing us to go barefoot (something that’s illegal in Rwanda!). At Mustapha’s, each room is unique, and you can reserve a specific room. We chose the cozy treetop room, which was definitely the coolest option. The “building” was made entirely of tree branches, and was accessed by climbing up some narrow stairs to reach the door. We even had a small patio overlooking the courtyard. Including breakfast for two, the treetop room was $40/night and, like our other hotels in Tanzania, was a great value.

Bwejuu is a small village, the only establishments being a few other hotels similar to Mustapha’s. The calm nature of the village and the relative lack of other travelers gave us a nearly private beach and made staying in Bwejuu very relaxing.

Breakfast at Mustapha’s, like at our other hotels, was excellent. We ate each morning on the sand, feasting on omelets, chapatti, fresh fruit, and a different delicious fruit juice everyday. The only restaurants in Bwejuu were in the hotels, and the menus changed each day, always focusing, of course, on fresh seafood. There were also curries, pizzas, and pasta dishes, as well as desserts like chocolate pancakes and banana fritters, which was basically a delicious caramelized/glazed/sugar-crusted banana. The service at most of the restaurants was pretty slow, even by African standards, but the fantastic setting always made up for it.

On one of our days in Bwejuu, we went snorkeling at a nearby lagoon, and it was the first time snorkeling for both Ryan and me. We had a fun ride out to the lagoon on a very rickety wooden canoe, giving us a spectacular view of the coast. Once we reached the lagoon, snorkeling revealed a whole other world under the water. There was so much more below the surface than I was expecting, including tons of seaweed, coral, and other plants, and of course various colorful fish, the most memorable being the blue tang (ie, Dory from Finding Nemo).

After snorkeling, we headed away from the beach to take a walk through the village. Again, the ground was comprised entirely of sand, and palm trees were everywhere. The houses were mostly of decent standard, nicer than most houses in typical Rwandan villages, and the only other buildings were a few very small shops. The people we encountered were all very friendly, greeting us simply with “Hi, how are you?” and “Jambo!” I don’t think many visitors venture away from the beach at all, as many people assumed we were lost and seemed confused about why we would possibly be there. After explaining that we were just going for a walk and wanted to see the village, the responded with “Welcome” or “Enjoy,” and went about their business. Despite foreigners being a bit of a novelty in Bwejuu, nobody followed us, stared at us, or asked us for anything. It was so wonderful to be able to really enjoy experiencing a new place without being harassed to the extent that it wasn’t even worth being there. Also in contrary to Rwanda, the houses weren’t all walled in, and the greater openness and sense of community was obvious.

The following day, we rented bikes for $5 each and spent the day biking along the coast. It was absolutely beautiful, with palm trees lining the road and nearly deserted beaches every time we stopped. We saw a few other travelers during the ride, but most of the people we saw were locals, either walking, biking, or riding motos. As on mainland Tanzania, we also saw groups of Maasai on the side of the road, hard to miss in their traditional red robes. Once again, though there were few other foreigners to be seen, we were able to enjoy our ride in peace, with no hassle or scene; it was wonderful. We ended our ride in Jambiani, a village to the south of Bwejuu, and then turned back toward Paje, the main town on the east side of the island. We stopped at a really cool low-key resort called Paje By Night, which describes itself as “not only a resort, but also a lifestyle.” The restaurant menu there was full of amazing options – pizzas, pastas, burgers, sandwiches, hummus, smoothies! The neat thing about Paje By Night, though, was how laid-back it was. It was definitely a “no shirt, no shoes, no problem” type of place, with all different kinds of people just relaxing and hanging out, nobody passing judgment on anyone else. After living in a society that is so judgmental volunteers have compared Rwandans to the “plastics” in the movie Mean Girls, experiencing such a laid-back place left a strong impression on me.

Unfortunately, we had to say good-bye to Zanzibar the next day. To get back across the island to Stone Town, we took the local transportation option, a dalla-dalla, which is basically a flatbed truck with seats around the edge, and a makeshift roof. Watching the road out the open back of the truck reminded me a lot of riding a car rapide (only a more upscale version) and made me nostalgic, as I so often am, for Senegal.

After a horrendous seasickness-inducing ferry ride, we arrived back in Dar. We relished our last night in Tanzania exploring the city center again and enjoying more delicious street food. After heading for the Dar airport in the middle of the night for our 5:10am flight, we has a huge delay in Nairobi and a brief stop in Bujumbura, and then it was back to Rwanda for me.

Some Excursions from Stone Town

As I mentioned last time, Ryan and I took a few short trips from Stone Town, the first of which was to go on a spice tour. Famous for its spices, Zanzibar is nicknamed Spice Island, and spice tours are one of the most popular activities for visitors. We drove out of Stone Town into a much more rural area, and eventually found ourselves on a large plantation, full of all different kinds of plants. We saw numerous spices growing on their plants, including turmeric, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, mint, pepper, vanilla, cocoa, and ginger. Turns out, most spices in their natural form bare no resemblance to what we would recognize. Turmeric, for example, looks like a carrot! Some of the smells were also surprising – cinnamon’s scent is extremely strong, and cocoa has no smell at all. We also got to taste several exotic fruits, including soursop, starfruit, and lychee. We also tasted cocoa, which, and I suppose this shouldn’t have been surprising given its scent, had no flavor whatsoever.

Later, we went on a dhow cruise off the coast of Stone Town and had a beautiful dinner on the beach. The boat ride was fun and relaxing, and offered great views of the coast and small nearby islands. We ended our cruise at the open-air restaurant of the Mtoni Marine Center, a hotel next to the Mtoni Palace ruins outside Stone Town. Not only were the food and atmosphere at Mtoni amazing, but, since our dinner was part of a package with the cruise, we were VIPs and the restaurant staff pretty much treated us like royalty. As our boat pulled up on the sand, the manager came out to the beach to meet us, and led us to our table – one that was out in front of the restaurant closer to the water, and had palm leaves surrounding it, holes in the sand with candles on them on each side, and flower petals strewn across it. The meal started with delicious bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, followed by the chef’s special appetizer, seasoned avocado served on a basil leaf. Next were the appetizers. I ordered the most amazing-sounding salad I’ve seen in Africa: “Crispy garden salad of ruccola, lettuce, sweet bell peppers, avocado, tomato, cucumber, spring onions, roasted cashew nuts, coconut chips, croutons and fresh soft herbs with a Caesar dressing, prepared at your table.” The dressing was even better than regular Caesar dressing, and the salad was fabulous. Ryan had fresh spicy prawns, which he thought were great. We could have ended dinner right there, and I would have been completely satisfied. But there was more! For the main course, I had a goat cheese tartlet – a cheese and red onion filling inside a flaky crust. It was amazing. Ryan ordered a lobster and beef combo, and said the beef was the best he’s ever had. Finally, the desserts. Ryan’s was passionfruit crème brûlée, which was delicious, and mine was a triple chocolate combo, consisting of chocolate-brandy mousse, chocolate crème, and chocolate-hazelnut ice cream. While it was far too rich and chocolate-y to come close to finishing, each one was delicious. As a final touch, a taarab group performed around a fire throughout the evening. Mtoni served without a doubt the best food I’ve eaten since leaving the U.S., and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a restaurant with a nicer atmosphere in my life. It was exquisite.

Our last trip was to Nungwi, a beach on the north side of the island, to go parasailing. It was Ryan’s second time parasailing, but my first, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I thought it felt a lot like sitting in a big swing. And it turns out parasails go much, much higher than I would have imagined, which allowed for beautiful views of the island. See here for a much more eloquent description of parasailing at Nungwi from Mambo Magazine. After we had both sailed and ridden back to the coast, we spent some time enjoying the beautiful beach at Nungwi, which had the softest, whitest sand I’ve ever seen. Paradise!

One last post, about our time at the beach, is coming!

Stone Town (is awesome!)

Wow, that was a longer hiatus than intended. Regardless, the adventure continues in Stone Town, the main town on the island of Zanzibar.

After a two-hour ferry ride from Dar, we set foot on Zanzibar. Our hotel was approximately a five-minute walk from the port, but it took us, um, much longer to find it the first time, due to the fact that Stone Town is one of the most confusing and difficult-to-navigate places I have ever been. It’s comprised solely of short, narrow, winding streets, with no street names or numbers, and signs for businesses pointing only vaguely toward their actual location. At one point, as we were standing, confused, at an intersection of a few winding streets, a man asked is he could help. After we told him where we were going, he sent his daughter to lead us there.

Upon reaching the Pyramid Hotel, we were immediately excited about the cool architecture and extremely friendly staff. There aren’t a lot of truly budget options on Zanzibar, but the Pyramid – with its Zanzibari bed, hot shower, fan, free Internet, and toast at breakfast – was definitely worth $35/night for a double room.

By the time we were ready to head out to dinner, it was completely dark. We hadn’t noticed any nearby restaurants on our round-about walk to the hotel, so we had to head to a new part of town. We never did find the restaurant we’d been searching for, but ended up eating at another nice place, where I had my first of several vegetable curries, and Ryan had his first of too many seafood dishes.

We spent the following day exploring Stone Town, which is a really interesting and vibrant place. Like in Dar, there are people of all races and ethnicities, dressed in all different styles of clothes. Most Zanzibari women wear long gowns and headscarves, and a minority also wear veils. Some were in Western clothes, but still kept the headscarf. Many Muslim men there dress in long white robes and caps, but lots of others wear Western clothes. There were also groups of adorable schoolchildren everywhere we looked, young girls in headscarves and little boys in robes and caps.

We visited Stone Town’s main market and perused stalls selling dozens of different kinds of spices (Zanzibar is famous for its spices), and fresh fruits and vegetables. We opted to view the raw meat and seafood section from a distance, however.

While wandering around, we found the Zanzbiar Coffee House, where Ryan tried Zanzibar’s staple spiced coffee. We were also thrilled to see that the menu featured both crepes and samosas filled with SPINACH and FETA! They were both delicious, AND came served on banana leaves.

Courtesy of Ryan’s extremely generous mother, I was also able to indulge in a traditional Zanzibari spa treatment at the Mrembo Spa. The Singo body scrub is a popular beauty ritual on Zanzibar, and women normally go to a spa for one everyday in the week leading up to their wedding. It was basically an aromatherapy massage followed by a vigorous scrub – it felt wonderful and left my skin ridiculously soft!

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon shopping, and opportunities for shopping are plentiful in Stone Town. Shops selling jewelry, art, clothes, accessories, bath products, books, and souvenirs are everywhere. Shop owners, by now more than used to the presence of tourists, hassle passersby a bit, trying to entice them to come in, often “just for looking.” But, a pleasant surprise, it really wasn’t excessive, and most of the vendors were quite friendly. In the smaller shops, they were even willing to bargain the prices a bit, which is always nice.

After reading that the Zanzibar Serena had the best Swahili food in town, we decided to head there for dinner. The food was very good, but the real treat was the atmosphere. We ate on the terrace, with a view of the water and the dhows coming in. That evening, there was also a taraab performance, Zanzibar’s most popular traditional music.

The last thing I have to mention about Stone Town is the outdoor night market at Forodhani Gardens, a dinner hotspot catering largely to tourists but attracting some locals as well. The market consists of a few dozen tables offering kebabs of every type of seafood available, as well as snack foods such as samosas. You pick which sticks of seafood you want, and then the chef grills it in front of you. My mahi-mahi was excellent. Ryan’s octopus and mussels were…not – actually, he described them both as rubbery, the only difference being that the octopus was harder. But, at least he’s adventurous! The other main feature of the market is the Zanzibari pizza, which typically includes not only dough, cheese, vegetables, and ground beef, but also a piece of chapatti, an egg, and a dab of mayonnaise. There are also scrumptious dessert pizzas, made of chapatti, mango, banana, and Nutella.

Stone Town is a really neat place with very friendly people, and it reminded me a lot of all the best aspects of Senegal. Despite being a major travel destination, it was also much less overrun with tourists than I was expecting, which was wonderful.

Stay tuned for the excursions we took from Stone Town – a spice tour, a dhow cruise, the fanciest meal I’ve ever had in my life, and, lastly, parasailing!

Tanzanian Trekking

Day One

Early the following morning, we met up with our guide and walked through Lushoto and into the countryside. We spent the morning walking up and down hills, past rural villages, through valleys, and in and out of the rainforest. During some parts, we had views across sweeping valleys and of the villages and terraced farms on the next hills. Other areas were so thick with tropical plants and shrubs that we couldn’t see anything besides greenery in every direction and the narrow footpath that cut through it. We saw a few colobus monkeys, beautiful butterflies, and several chameleons, some of which were so well-camouflaged I could barely see them after our guide pointed them out – I can’t imagine how he spotted them in the first place! When we stopped in one village, our guide showed us a machine used to make sugar cane into beer. It requires two people to walk around in a circle pushing a big handle, while the middle of the machine squeezes the juice out of the sugar cane. Unfortunately, we didn't get to taste any (maybe that wasn't such a bad thing).

Later, we stopped for lunch, and simply sat down on the side of the path near a small bridge and took out our food. I literally cannot imagine the chaos that would ensue if bazungu did that in Rwanda. Probably, every single person within a half hour’s walking distance would come and encircle you to the point of claustrophobia, each person watching – scrutinizing – your every motion, until you finally became uncomfortable or annoyed and got up and left. But here, in Tanzania, we were able to sit down, relax, take in the fantastic setting, and enjoy simply greeting locals who passed by (and then continued on their way, rather than stopping to watch and ridicule). Our guide pulled out a bag of fresh vegetables and whipped up a delicious guacamole of avocado, onion, tomato, and carrot. We were getting really excited watching him make it, and become downright ecstatic when he pulled out a bag of chapatti. To top it off, he served the meal with flower-shaped chunks of cucumber. Mmm mmm.

After lunch, we continued our hike through the forest, eventually reaching a larger dirt road. By that point, it had become extremely cloudy and we initially thought it was starting to drizzle, until Ryan pointed out, “I don’t think it’s so much that it’s raining, as it is that we’re walking through a cloud.” We got a little wet, but it was pretty cool to be walking up the side of a hill, not able to see anything but the path below our feet and the plants immediately to either side.

Eventually a bus came by, and our guide flagged it down. We hopped on and rode down the curvy, bumpy road for about an hour, out of the rainforest and through the fields on the other side. Hopping off, we walked a few more minutes down into the village where we’d spend the night.

After warming up with some tea at the convent where we’re staying, we set out to explore the village and surrounding area. We walked past a soccer game going on and a group of school buildings (empty, as the schools were on vacation at the time) and into a grove of trees that felt like a very small Montana forest.

Back at the convent, we met a few other travelers from around the world, all with interesting stories – two Israeli girls traveling through Asia and Africa during a gap year between military service and university; a German girl interning at a hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania’s second-largest city; and, a French girl and her French-speaking Belgian boyfriend, who had quit their jobs to travel around the world for a year.

Day Two

We set out early the next morning to continue the trek, planning to make our way to Mtai, essentially the last village on the edge of a large cliff, and then back to Lushoto. We spent the morning hiking through wooded forests, across plantations, between villages, and in and out of the rainforest again. In one village, we visited a local pottery workshop, selling various bowls, jars, saucers, pots, and animal figurines, each piece at $1.30. We purchased a few pieces, and then headed back to the trail. Later, we stopped for lunch in a forested area, where the tall, bare tree trunks made great back rests. Our guide prepared guacamole and chapatti again, so we were thrilled. Shortly after lunch, another guide came and met us with a car to drive to Mtai.

Mtai was a really interesting little village, comprised of one long, narrow path with small buildings on either side and cliffs – and great views – just behind them. On the far edge of Mtai, the path from the interior of the mountains ends at a sharp cliff overlooking a vast, breathtaking view. The pictures I took really don’t do it justice, but we could see an enormous valley, including a couple of Tanzania’s national parks, lakes on the far edge of the valley, and huge mountains on the other side. We spent a few minutes sitting on a rock at the edge of the cliff, just taking it in.

Then, we hopped back in the car and headed back toward Lushoto. Back in the rainforest, we stopped at a waterfall on the way. The water rushed down a series of rocks, forming a large pond at the bottom before flowing into a river, but what really made it an interesting sight was the vegetation surrounding us. We’d hiked down a hill to reach the waterfall, and, standing at the bottom of falls, we were completely surrounded by shrub-covered hills towering over us. It felt like we were deep in the middle of a deserted rainforest, despite not being far from town.

With our hiking done, we headed to our final stop: the cheese- and muesli-producing farm! When we arrived at the farm’s shop, it was closed. But, our wonderful and caring guides tracked down the owners, and we ended up having dinner with them at lodge overlooking a nearby viewpoint. After dinner, they opened up the shop for us, and we (er, I) were ecstatic to purchase cheese, rye bread, muesli, locally-grown tea, and passionfruit jam. All that only cost $10, and it was all delicious! (Well, we’ll never know about the jam, because it was unfortunately confiscated at the airport in Nairobi.)

The guides dropped us back at the White House Annex, only leaving after assuring the reception was open and a room was available, and giving us instructions on how to get back to Dar the following morning. I decided to forego the dangerous shower that night, and we turned in early.

Back to Dar – and on to Zanzibar!

We were sad to leave Lushoto and the mountains the next morning, but we couldn’t wait to get to Zanzibar. Determined to make it back to Dar and onto the ferry that day, we took the only direct bus to Dar, which left at 6:00am. The ride was uneventful, as far as I can remember, but we slept during most of it – waking up mainly for frequent snacks of bread and cheese!

More interesting was our ride from the bus park to the coast, where we could get the ferry to Zanzibar. Dar is full of standard, normal taxis, with association logos, seat belts, and trunk space. The alternative, which I was not particularly expecting to see in Dar, however, was much cooler – motorized rickshaws, all painted bright blue. Given the choice between this and a regular car, of course we had to take the rickshaw. Getting into felt a lot more like getting onto an amusement park ride than a vehicle, but the rickshaw seemed to be a compromise between a car and a motorcycle, in terms of price, safety, and speed.

We reached the ticket office with time to spare before the last ferry, which was great, as it meant we had time to look for Subway. Yes, there is a Subway in Tanzania. Not a Subway, actually – six of them. Now, I don’t particularly eat at Subway at home, but the idea of the most American thing I’d have eaten in months was beyond exciting (as it has been for all the other Rwanda Volunteers who’ve traveled to Tanzania). Wandering around downtown, having given up hope of finding one, a Subway sign suddenly appeared in what seemed to be a sign for a mall (yes, a real live mall). I practically sprinted to the entrance of the building, and then nearly cried when the Subway, for some reason, was closed. We had amazing milkshakes and pizza at another restaurant in the mall, and then, when walking by again, realized that Subway hadn’t actually been closed, it had just looked closed. Ecstatic, I got a veggie sandwich to go – it even came in a real Subway sandwich bag! Ryan didn’t fully understand the joy and excitement of the Subway, but at least he humored me.

Next stop, Stone Town!

Beginning of Tanzania

My boyfriend, Ryan, came to Rwanda again this summer, and, after spending a couple weeks here, we took a trip to Tanzania. We arrived in the capital city of Dar es Salaam (which, at over three million people, dwarfs Kigali), trekked in the Usambara Mountains, and visited Zanzibar. Here, in a few parts, are the stories of our experiences and our observations of the country. Bottom line: Tanzania is great, you should go!

First Impressions of Dar

We got our first impressions of Dar from the window of our Precision Air flight from Nairobi. It was a surprise to say the least. Flying in over one corner of the city, we could see dozens, if not hundreds, of buildings that looked like they had at least five to ten stories. I knew Dar was a big city, but I was expecting decaying urban sprawl, not skyscrapers! (Just a day earlier, Ryan had predicted that Dar would be really nice, and I laughed at him. Oops.)

The night was a little hot and steamy, but comfortable, and we made it through the rather modern airport with relatively little hassle. We were required, though, to have our fingerprints scanned before we were issued our visas. In the calm area outside the airport, one taxi driver approached us politely, and we were on our way. I also have to note that the cab had air-conditioning AND seatbelts – even in the backseat!

During the seven-mile drive from the airport to downtown Dar, it almost felt like we could have been in LA. The city is big and developed, with lots of tall buildings and periodic traffic lights. More surprising, though, were the multiple housing wares mega-stores we passed, all displaying fancy wardrobes, entertainment centers, toilets, and bed frames, as well as the BMW, Toyota, and Ford dealerships. Not to mention a couple big buildings that appeared to be bona fide shopping malls!

At $18/night (including breakfast) for a double room with a fan and hot shower, plus free Internet access in the lobby, the Safari Inn, located in heart of downtown, was a good deal. We dropped off our bags, and set out to see what we could see. Despite it being a Tuesday night, the atmosphere was pretty lively – lots of people out and about, walking around, doing things. On nearly every street were fruit and vegetable vendors and people grilling meat for shawarma. After exploring for a bit and perusing the various dinner options, we decided to go for some street food, and ended up having absolutely delicious chicken shawarma (which, at about $2.30, is not nearly as cheap as street food in some countries, but certainly better than what $2.30 will normally get you in Kigali) and a glass of sugar cane juice (about $0.87).

The diversity of people out and inter-mingling – black, white, Asian, Indian, Arab, in Western dress, in Muslim dress, speaking English, speaking Swahili, speaking Arabic – also struck us. We saw foreigners and locals sitting at the same sidewalk cafés, eating street food together, talking to each other, and it was normal. Seeing the way people co-exist in Dar really highlighted the divide in Kigali, where, for example, there are clear “muzungu restaurants” (which are also frequented by upper-class Rwandans) and “local restaurants” (where bazungu can go, sure, but not without being hassled to death). Along with this, we were also surprised by the general lack of staring and harassment while we walked around. Coming from Rwanda, it was really refreshing and just pleasant (more on this later, maybe).

As this was Ryan’s first time in a country with a sizable Muslim population (35% of Tanzanians are Muslim, compared to 5% of Rwandans), we took note of the many mosques, including one enormous one, all with rows of shoes sitting outside the entrance, and the crowds of women in headscarves and men in robes coming and going. Ryan also got to experience one of my favorite sounds – the call to prayer, which he did not particularly care for. (It’s an acquired appreciation, and I’m sure my fondness for it stems partially from the fact that it reminds me of Senegal.)

Dar is a major metropolitan area, and the prevalence of so many things there, relative to Kigali, is perhaps due more to its size, and status as a major port, than its level of development. Regardless, Kigali is cleaner, sure, but Dar is definitely more vibrant.

Getting to the Mountains

Aiming to make it to Lushoto, the main town in the Usambara Mountains, by mid-afternoon, we left our hotel early and got a taxi to Ubungo, Dar’s main bus terminal. It wasn’t far, but the road between downtown and Ubungo was basically one giant traffic jam. We bought tickets at an office on the edge of the bus park, and then followed the ticket agent through the maze of huge buses to ours. With three seats on each side of the aisle and probably at least 25 rows, our bus was the size of a small airplane. During the five-hour ride to Mombo, the “scruffy junction town” (according to Lonely Planet) where we changed buses, we observed people standing in the aisles giving lengthy sermons and leading prayers, giving sales pitches for the bottles of something (beauty products?) they were selling, hawking snacks and newspapers, and, when the seats were full, simply riding the bus. The landscape during the trip was primarily the savannah that characterizes visions of East Africa, with periodic small towns along the way.

Not really knowing what we were looking for, we’d been keeping a close eye out for anything that said “Mombo.” We started seeing signs mentioning “Mombo” when we were still essentially in the middle of nowhere. A few minutes later, when the bus pulled into the parking lot in front of a large building, and everyone, including the driver, got off, we got off as well. While most of the other passengers went inside to order lunch, we looked around, trying to determine if we were where we needed to be. Eventually, we asked the guard sitting under a tree near where the bus had parked where we could get a bus to Lushoto. “Walk 500 meters there, to Mombo Town,” he said, pointing down the road. We thanked him and set off, but quickly began to wonder how we’d know when we’d reached “town,” as nothing in the visible distance looked like much of a town. We walked about 15 minutes and reached a small cluster of buildings. Was this “town?”

We approached a group of men sitting under a tree and asked them if we would be able to get a bus there. “Walk to Mombo Town, it is 500 meters,” they told us, pointing further down the road. And so we kept walking, still wondering if we’d know “town” when we saw it. About that time, the bus we’d been on drove past us. Oops. A few minutes later, we encountered a guy standing (under a tree, of course) in front of another group of small buildings. We told him where we were trying to go, and he told us Mombo Town was 500 meters down the road. But then, thankfully, he said we could wait for a bus right there. He sent his friend out to the road to watch for a bus, and, when one approached a bit later, he flagged it down and called us over. Five minutes or so down the road, in a bus this time, we approached what was certainly and recognizably “town.” It just happened to not have been 500 meters from the first person who told us that, or the second, or the third. But finally, we were on a Lushoto-bound bus!

It wasn’t far from Mombo to Lushoto, but the road was curvy and the bus stopped every five minutes or so to let people on and off. Finally, we pulled into the small mountain town and headed to the White House Annex, which Lonely Planet described as “arguably the best” of Lushoto’s “no-frills guesthouses.” The rooms were immaculate, and, apart from the potentially deadly configuration of exposed wires that made up the “hot shower,” it was another good deal, at $10/night for a double, including breakfast.

Just down the street was the office of Tayodaya, a small organization that organizes hikes in the area, so we went in to see what the options were. We had initially planned on doing a couple day hikes, returning to Lushoto each evening. When the guides mentioned we could hike during the day and then drive further into the mountains and stay in another village the second night, we opted for that instead. A big draw of one of the day hikes had been that it involved stopping for lunch at Irente Biodiversity Reserve, which produces cheese and muesli. So, because we wouldn’t be hiking there (and because of our, er, my pathetic excitement about the prospect of cheese), the guides offered to drive us to the reserve at the end of our last day of hiking.

After our trekking arrangements were made, we headed to the restaurant in one of the town’s bigger hotels for dinner, in large part because Lonely Planet mentioned the banana milkshakes on their menu. Shortly after ordering the milkshakes and our meals, though, the power went out. That meant no banana milkshakes, and also no pizza for Ryan. So, he opted to take what I thought was the risk and ordered the “pesto” pasta, which the menu described as pasta with peanut sauce. I’m pretty sure the word “pesto” was just for show, but at least the description was honest! His meal was essentially pasta covered spicy, liquidy peanut butter, but he’s a good sport and seemed to enjoy it.

Stay tuned for the story of our trek!