Arriving in Arusha

The first thing I noticed was the heat; the second, the dark.

I disembarked the plane in Kilimanjaro at 9:30pm, and a thickness had engulfed the city. Midnight Blue doesn’t even begin to describe the color of what I saw as I walked with the group towards Passport Control— Crayola doesn’t have a color for this kind of thing.

Gaining clearance to enter Tanzania was awkwardly easy. A few papers were exchanged here and there and the only inconvenience was the heat, which was increased by two factors: crowds and the lack of air conditioning. Adjusting to these conditions is more productive than complaining.

I had met up with 10 other students in the program in Amsterdam, so once we had all shuffled through to get our luggage, we were on our way to our new home. I have come to the conclusion that there’s no better way to get to know someone than by interacting with them after 26 hours of travel combined with jet lag, spatial/time confusion, and a very cozy bus seat. Small talk is impossible at this stage in the game, so I spent most of my time staring out of the window, interjecting here and there.

There wasn’t much to see out of the window. The only lights on the road are our headlights, and the occasional blare from another car. The darkness serves a foreboding purpose in Arusha; it entrances but it also conceals. More on that later.

Despite the fact that Tanzanians drive on the left side of the rode and our bus was passing cars on the right side 50% of the time, we survived the ride and safely concluded on travel saga at the Arusha Resort Centre…(I use the term resort lightly). We were greeted with Karibus and Jambos, then seated at a table for dinner around 11:00pm. At this point, my body was so confused by the time change that I just had to go with the flow. The *chicken we ate was ten times more satisfying that the airplane meals.

*It may or may not have been chicken…

With two backpacks and a duffle bag in hand, I struggled to D4, the apartment that was assigned to Hannah, Elise, and myself. Although I wouldn’t classify our accommodations under ‘Resort,’ we were all pleasantly surprised by our new homes! The three of us have two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a sizeable living room (complete with a TV that doesn’t turn on!). Overall, D4 is significantly more luxurious than the meager picture of a cot and a mosquito net that I had seen on the program’s website.

It was well past midnight by the time we got our luggage into the apartment. Around 2:30am, we tucked in our mosquito nets and said good night (even though our bodies were saying ‘good afternoon’…).

At 4am I woke up drenched in sweat. I don’t blame my body for reacting this way... after all, I had thrust it from mid-Winter to mid-Summer in less than 24 hours. Since there’s no air conditioning, I would’ve loved to open the window to get some fresh air, but that would’ve provided the mosquitoes with a free ticket to an all-you-can-drink buffet. So I accepted the situation I was in and tried to cool myself down. Even though I probably needed the sleep, I’m glad I was awake! At 5am I heard a curious song/chant that seemed to be coming for a speaker in a different language. Upon closer listen (and further inquiry the next morning) I discovered that it was a man calling the daily prayer for Muslims in Arusha. So yes, I only got 2 hours of sleep, but that’s not something you hear every day!

That concludes my first impression of Arusha... I'll try to post my next few entries soon! I'm having some trouble connecting internet, so I apologize for delayed entries! I have so much more to say, so little time to write it all down, and so little internet with which to post! Nonetheless, I'll try. Send me an e-mail or a message! I'd love to hear from everyone!