We’ve been in Tanzania about 3 weeks. It has been a busy 3 weeks – climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and going on Safari. We’ve been in the north eastern part of Tanzania. Arusha is a town of about ½ million people and is very focused on tourism since it is the place that Mt. Kili climbs and Safaris originate from. We see other foreigners around town, especially when we go to restaurants that have a good selection of more westernized food and the larger, more modern grocery stores. In Arusha we have been staying in a hotel that might have more Africans staying in it than foreigners and have been charmed by the sweet women – Lucy and Helen – who carefully look out for us and greet us with hugs and help us with our beginner’s Swahili.
Now we’ve left the tourist area and are making our way to an area in Southern Tanzania where we hope to be able to enjoy nature on our own – hike, run on trails and experience a different area of the country.
We are on a 10 hour luxury bus ride to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city of about 5 million people. We’re the only foreigners on the bus (that I’m aware of). It is comfortable and we have our own devices with movies, puzzles, books to keep us occupied. I almost got left behind at the first bathroom stop! Not understanding Swahili, I had no idea what the announcement was and I had to go. I got off and did my business (squatting over the hole and no toilet paper – just a bucket of water nearby) quickly but the bus almost started driving away as I got to it. Apparently I wasn’t fast enough. Mike was ready to yell “Wait!” in Swahili if it had come to that.
Once we get to Dar (as the locals call it), we will visit some museums/cultural centers and work on our arrangements for traveling to Southern Tanzania. We know there is a train that takes about 24 hours and a bus that takes about 11-15 hours. We have to visit the train station and bus station to get more information. Why do you have to go to the stations you might ask. Well, it wasn’t as bad as in 1991 when I was in Zambia and had to walk to the airport to confirm my flight because the entire country’s phone system was kaput. But, if you try to make arrangements with all our modern technology in 2025, I promise you, you will still hit a brick wall and will have to go in person to get questions answered and buy the tickets. And it’s kind of worse now because it seems like the Websites will work and provide you info and online booking, and you get excited. Just to have your hopes dashed when you get an error message and can’t proceed because you don’t know what is wrong or because the dropdown list really isn’t fully supported or …
So far we have only stayed in one AirBnB and the rest of our stays have been in hotels or in the accommodations we had climbing Kili or on Safari. For Kili it was a tent with sleeping pad and sleeping bag. For the Safari it was either a lodge or a permanent tented room with ensuite bathroom. I was thinking we would be staying more in AirBnBs and I would be making our meals but that plan appears to be harder than I might be ready for – at least in Tanzania. The AirBnB had a rudimentary propane camp stove set-up. We heated up left-over pizza on it and it was very hard to control the cooking temperature. No microwave, no oven… Luckily eating meals out is very affordable – usually $15-$20 for both of us.
Here are the list of expectations we have had to modify:
- Warm/hot food – depends on the place we eat, but mostly, the food has been room temperature
- Cold drinks – water, juice, soda is mostly only available at room temperature
- Toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, napkins – these are not luxury items but are often not supplied, especially paper towels or kleenex; air dry your hands, carry emergency toilet paper, snag napkins where you see them for future meals
- Working Wifi, Outlets, Extension cords, electric water kettles – some will work and some won’t; the Wifi speed is so much less than we are used to when it does work
- Intuitive, functioning Websites – usually they seem like they will work and then they fail somehow and you’re back to square one
- Toilets that flush completely; that is why the hole in the ground isn’t such a bad option – just wish I could squat lower
- Hot showers – most of the places we’ve stayed, use solar to heat the water; not efficient solar systems with battery backup; if the day was overcast, the shower will be tepid or barely warm; a hot shower is something to revel in!
- Speaking of showers, in the hotel and AirBnB, the shower is part of the main bathroom without a way to keep the water from splashing all over the bathroom floor; you just have to be careful walking in the bathroom and use a towel on the floor near the sink or toilet until the floor dries
We miss running and workout classes. Trying to run in Arusha would have been crazy! It is hard enough to walk without tripping on the rutted and stony paths next to the road, falling into the drainage holes, hitting your head on a low hanging sign or crossing a street with motorcycles, bajaji (tuk-tuks), local buses, jeeps, cars and large buses chaotically navigating the traffic flow. Yes, the world champion in the Men’s marathon is a Tanzanian – Adolphe Simbu. I would like to know where he lives and trains!
We have had two family Zoom video calls with our kids! Seeing and hearing your loved ones is so pleasurable when you are in such a foreign environment. There is talk of playing an online Catan game sometime – that would be great too.
So to sum up, early on in our African nomadic life, we’re doing well. Haven’t gotten sick, Mike hasn’t suffered from bug bites very much except in the rain forest when we started climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Kate hasn’t had iced tea withdrawals. We have both lost some weight (not too much). We are sleeping pretty well. Lala Salama (good night!)