DC to Amsterdam to Tanzania

We flew from Washington, DC to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania. We spent the long flights sleeping, watching movies, eating lots of food, and exploring the in-flight computer games. There were numerous Europeans on our flight who were planning to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain on the African continent.

We arrived in Tanzania around 8:00 pm. The slightly smokey air (from the wood burning cooking fires) was a great relief from the plane cabin. The first thing we noticed was how dark everything was. The little light that came from the "terminal" was very dim and flickering from the surges of electricity. At the airport, I exchanged $160 for 176,000 Tsh ($1 = 1,100 Tanzania shillings), and in the middle of this transaction, the flickering electricity went out completely. Judging by the reaction of the locals, the electricity going out is a common occurrence and, as we found out later, the outage can last for a few days. Fortunately, the lights quickly came back on.

After grabbing our bags and going through passport control/customs, we met Abdul (21-year-old and part of the Chaga tribe) and Moki (part of Maasai tribe) who drove us from the airport to Arusha. It was a pleasant drive and Abdul was fun to listen to. We quickly learned that many Tanzanians love Obama! We also learned that tanzanite is mined in Tanzania (which makes sense, but I'd never made the connection before), the popular music playing at the clubs is hip-hop and dance hall, that Swahili has been used to create peace through a common language between the 120 tribes that live in Tanzania, and much more about Tanzania and Arusha.

As we approached Arusha the lights were more frequent and more people were outside. We passed a clock tower which signifies the halfway point between Cario, Egypt in the north and Cape Town, South Africa in the south. We drove through the ONE stop light in Arusha. Abdul mentioned that this ONE stop light has been the cause of numerous accidents. When it was first constructed four months ago (yes, four months ago) people would stop and watch it turn colors and get hit by cars.

We turned onto a bumpy dirt road en route to our hotel and passed a couple of guards (one with a decent sized gun). We check into our place called the Karama Lodge (Karama, n: Swahili -- An honor, privilege, valuable possession, generous behavior, divine gift. A blessing, something to share). The lodge is located on a forested hillside south of Arusha. All the stand-alone cabins are on stilts, with a thatched roof, mosquito netting, a nice bed, a toilet, shower, and views of Mt. Kilimanjaro on clear days. A perfect place for our first two nights!





We got settled and walked over to eat dinner. We had five courses of cous cous, cream of roasted vegetable soup, rolls, trout with the head on, zucchini quiche, and for dessert, banana tart (delicious) and avocado pudding with chocolate sauce (very gross). Adam had a Kilimanjaro beer, which was tasty.

We walked back to our cabin, jumped into bed and listened to the sounds of the night -- dogs barking in the village down the hill and the occasional monkey hoot.