Arusha: Wimps Need Not Apply

I’ll be honest, I left Moshi feeling rather defeated. 

I wanted so badly to see Mt. Kilimanjaro, but it just wasn’t meant to be. 

We could have tooled around Moshi for the day, or even driven up to Kilimanjaro National Park.   But, it seemed silly to pay $60 per person in park entrance fees if seeing anything wasn’t really a possibility. 

We didn’t.   We hopped the 11am shuttle to Arusha.  

I left thinking I would be back – I just don’t know when.

But I will.

In Arusha, we stayed with a friend of Dami’s family.   Lola, a Nigerian, and one of the funniest women I’ve met since I arrived in Africa, has more attitude than Wanda Sykes and more strong opinions than Nancy Grace.   I loved her.

Though she vehemently (and vocally) hates Arusha, she has been there for eight years, working as a French-English Interpreter for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.    While I think her job sounds fascinating, it’s clearly just a job to her.  Frustrated with it, she’s looking to transfer elsewhere through the United Nations – possibly to Afghanistan or Sudan.    Imagine how much she must hate Arusha to want to transfer to either one of those places! 

As she says, its not safe, the people aren't very nice, and the medical care is frighteningly poor.  

Her home, meanwhile, was beautiful, and located in very nice part of the city.   All of her neighbors are affiliated with the Tribunal, and the UN provides each employee with two 24-hour security guards, a gate to the driveway, and two 24-hour policemen who patrol the area.   Her house is outfitted with three emergency panic buttons, located in all the high traffic areas.   Lola feels so safe in her house that she sometimes doesn’t even bother to lock her door.    The UN, she said, takes very good care of its people.

She graciously let us spend the night, and took us this morning to the 8am shuttle for Nairobi.  

We boarded the shuttle, and found that we had been assigned the three seats that sat right on top of the back wheels.   While sitting in the seat with the giant hump in the floor was fun on the elementary school bus, it isn’t now that I’m 5’10’. 

Great.

I sat with my knees to my chest for a little over three hours, and then thankfully was able to move when another passenger got off the bus.   

Despite the fact that I my legs were cramping, the bus hit a pothole every .5 seconds, and it was generally really cold, I enjoyed the ride.   I saw more ostriches, impalas, and even about 10-15 baboons!   It was great.   I love the scenery here - it changes faster than the weather does in Washington DC. 

After 7.5 hours on a shaking, jerking, jostling and bouncing bus, we’re back in Nairobi.   

I still feel a little numb. 

But we’re back, and though we’re exhausted, we’re happy to be “home.”