Africa Trip 2024 - Day 2, Second Day in Arusha

[This is post #4 of what will be multiple posts about our 2024 trip to Africa. To go to the first post in the series CLICK HERE.]  

For our second day in Arusha our Africa Dream Safari contact, Joseph, was going to give us an orientation of what to expect for the upcoming 10+ days then give us a tour of Arusha.  Much to our surprise he also came bearing gifts.

For me there was a Maasai beaded bracelet and for the Frog there was a shuka, the Maasai garment known as the "African blanket".   There was also a very nice bag

Gifts from Africa Dream Safari

The “Maasai” are a semi-nomadic people of East Africa.   Although there are more than 100 distinct ethnic groups and tribes in Tanzania, the Maasai are probably the most recognizable to Westerners. They are world renowned for their brightly colored shukas (traditional cloth garments), distinctive beaded jewellery, fearless cohabitation with the Big Five, as well as their ability to jump incredibly high.  All of that is pretty common knowledge from American TV, but I tried to find out a bit more about these particular items.

Maasai bracelet.  Almost all Maasai bead work has symbolism embedded in the colors and shapes.  I could find the meaning of the colors on the web, but I was reluctant to assign any of those meanings to jewelry which was specifically designed for tourists.  Whether it has a specific symbolism or not, it definitely has the "look" of Maasai beaded jewelry done with the tiny beads of brilliant colors.

Maasai shuka.  I normally associate the Maasai with bright red garments or shukas.  We saw many Maasai wearing such garments in different parts of Tanzania including normal day-to-day activities such as tending their cattle.  These are not "costumes" but what they actually wear.

The Frog with our escort back to the room after dinner at Maramboi Tented Lodge.  We had to have escorts at all of the camps after dark because of the real possibility of encountering wild animals.  However, not all of the guards were from the Maasai tribe.  At Mara River Camp the guard carried a bow and arrow instead of a staff and dressed differently.  He was a member of a different tribe.

However, their shukas can have a variety of patterns and colors.  According to this site, the origin of these brightly colored garments is not entirely clear since they traditionally wore animal skins. 

One explanation is that the Maasai cloth was brought in by Scottish missionaries during the colonial era. This sounds like a logical explanation since shuka cloth does often resemble Scottish plaid or tartan patterns.  That certainly seemed true for the Frog's shuka.  

According to the same website, shuka cloth today is usually manufactured elsewhere including China.   Apparently the Frog's gift of a commercially made shuka packaged in plastic is exactly how a modern day member of the Maasai tribe would buy one for himself.  Who knew?

Tour of Arusha.  After getting our gifts and receiving a short orientation about what to do and not to do while on safari, (mostly stay in the vehicle) Joseph drove us through some of the outskirts of the city.  Arusha is a city of over 600,000.  It is known as both an international diplomatic hub and also the jumping off point for safaris in northern Tanzania.  He showed us how people of very different socioeconomic levels lived adjacent to one another in mixed neighborhoods.

Clock Tower.  We then drove to the center of the city to see several of the usual tourist sites.  First was the Clock Tower.

Clock Tower in traffic circle in central Arusha.

The British had originally hoped to build a road from Cairo to Cape Town which would help unify their territories along the east coast of the African continent.  The clock tower is said to represent what would have been the mid-point of that road.  However, the road was not completed before the end of British colonial rule.  Arusha is probably not the midpoint for the road as it was eventually built.  In any case, it is still an iconic landmark in central Arusha.  It was interesting to think about being halfway between Cairo and Cape Town as we are driving around the traffic circle.

Arusha Declaration Monument.  We also passed by another monument,  the Arusha Declaration Monument.  I am not sure I understand all of its significance, but at least from Joseph's brief comments it seems to be a source of national pride.

The Arusha Declaration Monument

Sights on the street.  We continued to wind our way through the streets, which were a mix of cars, motorcycles, pedestrians, and various handcarts loaded with goods.  I originally shot the picture below to show the hand cart that the men were using and the deep drainage ditch at the side of the road.  At least here there was a curb.  In some locations there was no curb, just the deep drop off.

As I was taking the picture through the window of the van, a motorcycle darted by us.  That was not unusual, nor was the fact that he was carrying something large.  It was only after I looked at the picture after returning home that I realized the "large object" was a gas cylinder.  I can't help but think of all the many times I reminded my students to always always make sure there was a cap covering the valve whenever they moved a cylinder.  I didn't want them to accidentally break off the valve and turn it into a giant missile.  Not in my wildest dreams could I have ever envisioned moving a gas cylinder--without a cap no less--on the back of a motorcycle.

Motorcycles were common on the streets, often carrying large loads.  However I was shocked to see him carrying a gas cylinder on the back.

We later commented to our guide that motorcyclists in many parts of the U.S. are required to wear helmets.  He said they are also required to wear them in Tanzania also, but it is not enforced so at least half of the riders (his estimate) don't wear them.

I liked the next picture because I finally got a shot of a woman carrying an item on her head.  We saw them doing it everywhere. We even saw them occasionally carrying suitcases for guests that way at the Coffee Lodge.  It only seemed to be women.  I never saw a man carrying anything on his head.  I was so impressed by how well they could balance heavy loads.  They never seemed to need to steady the load with their hands.  In fact I saw one woman walking along the road with a very large load on her head, which freed her hands so she could talk on her cell phone.  I asked our guide how the women learned to do it.  He said they start very young and it just becomes second nature.

Arusha Central Market.  The real highlight of the morning, at least for me, was a trip to the Central Market.  Although there are smaller markets spread through the city, this is the large market in the center of town.

I had initially been a bit apprehensive about a walking tour through the market based on warnings in some of the guidebooks about potential pickpockets.  However, as Africa Dream Safaris had set it up, I felt completely safe.  We had a special guide just for the market.  He led the way, while Joseph brought up the rear.  Joseph had warned us ahead of time to only take pictures with our cell phones, but that was more than sufficient for this.

Fruits and vegetables.  There were fruits and vegetables of every imaginable kind.

Note the small bananas in the lower right hand corner of the picture below.  I wish we had those here.  We had them multiple times in our box lunches later in the week.  They were more the proportion size I prefer and seemed to taste just like what I think of as a normal banana.

The guide was pointing out a lot of things as we wound through the narrow aisles, but I have either forgotten most of what he said or did not hear the first time.

I was really impressed by the size and quality of the produce.  Both Joseph and the guide said that was due to the very rich volcanic soil of the region.

Wow, they are enormous

There seemed to be every kind of bean you could ever want.

Monkey bread.  Of course I had to ask what were those large things hanging above our head.  The guide explained they are known as monkey bread, the fruit from the baobab tree.  We saw baobab trees much later in our trip while in Tarangire National Park, but those trees were all bare since we were at the end of the dry season.

Monkey bread, the fruit from the baobab tree

Inside the hard skin of the baobab fruit is a white, sweet and sour tasting pulp that can be eaten straight, or drunk as a juice by soaking the pulp in water. A light drink made with sugar and water reportedly tastes like a pear-flavored lemonade.  

This site claims the pulp has six times more vitamin C than an orange, 50 percent more calcium than spinach, and plenty of flavor to add to many recipes.  It can also be easily dried and ground into a powder.  I was surprised to find out that the powder is now being touted in the U.S. and Europe as a super food and is available on Amazon.

I am pretty sure the cream colored chunky pieces in the center bag are the pulp from the monkey bread.

Not just fruits and vegetables.  The market had lots more than just fruits and vegetables.  We saw a huge mound of sardines.

Sardines

I think this woman was sealing sardines into individual plastic packets.  I was intrigued by the fact that she was doing it with a candle.

Sealing small plastic bags of sardines, some of which are piled on her right.  I think the brown things in the foreground are something else.

There was also a butcher shop. I don't know what the meat was, but lamb seemed pretty common at our meals when we were at the camps on safari.

Butcher shop at the market

They were even grilling some of the meat.  We did not buy any of the meat, raw or grilled.

Grilling some of the meat

Nor did we buy any of the many live chickens

Lots pf chickens with roosters that kept crowing

Spices.  However we did buy some spices from one of the vendors who was obviously a friend of the guide.  I don't know his real name, but he was introduced to us as Mr. Spice Man.

Mr. Spice Man

I did not ask where the spices originated, but I assumed Zanzibar.  Known as the "Spice Island", Zanzibar is actually part of Tanzania.  Historically it played a strategic role in the Spice Route, due to both to its geographical location off the coast of east Africa and its spice production.  The island specialized in the cultivation of cloves, becoming the world's largest producer in the 19th century.  According to wiki they are now a distant third to Indonesia, but still produce 7% of the world's cloves. Zanzibar has also been known for cinnamon and nutmeg.  I bought some ground cinnamon and some unground cloves.  I am not sure why I did not get any nutmeg.  For whatever reason it did not come to mind, probably because he was pushing so many other things.  In any case I am thinking I might be able to use the cloves and the cinnamon in pumpkin pie or some other goodies this Thanksgiving or Christmas.

By the way, I asked him if he knew where his shirt came from.  I tried to explain to him that it was from a university in Pennsylvania, a part of the U.S.  He had no idea.  He said he bought it at the second hand store because he liked the lion.  

Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre.  Next stop was the Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre.  It is a privately run art gallery.  Unfortunately it was getting late and we were both getting quite hungry.  We were also worried that we would miss the end of lunch at the Coffee Lodge.  We were also given no indication of what there was to see, so we ended up not staying very long.  Now seeing more info since arriving home, it is clear we barely scratched the surface of what there was to see.

Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arusha_Cultural_Heritage_Centre.jpg)

Tanzanite.  We did see a couple of things.  The owner talked to us about and showed us samples of tanzanite.   Tanzanite is a blue and violet gemstone found only in a tiny area (4.3 miles x 1.2 miles) near Kilimanjaro International Airport.  Interestingly it shows strong trichromism, meaning it appears either blue, violet, or burgundy depending on the orientation of the crystal.  Because of high demand and only one known location in the world where it is found, some predict the supply will be exhausted in a few decades. 

Ebony Carvings. The one thing I did hope to see even before leaving for Africa was some of the carvings from ebony.  Ebony is an extremely dense black hardwood.  It has been used to make intricate carvings for centuries, despite how difficult it is to work with due to its hardness.  Many such carvings are small, but the Cultural Heritage Centre has some of the largest and most intricate in the world.  I did not take many pictures, but some large carvings are in the background behind the musicians below.

Musicians outside the main entrance of the Cultural Heritage Centre.  There are some large sculptures in the background.

We also saw where a craft person had been working on a sculpture.  Unfortunately he was not there at the time  It was still interesting to see the simple tools used to create these beautiful carvings.

Wish we could have seen the sculptor working on this piece.

Of course I loved the large sculpture of the wildebeest crossing the river in the background.  I am still in awe at how sculptors can create something like this out of a piece of wood with just some simple tools.

Wildebeest crossing the river.

It was now nearly mid-afternoon and we were starving.  We returned to the Coffee Lodge to enjoy another buffet lunch in the garden under the shade trees. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in an attempt to shake off the still lingering jet lag, repacking in preparation for the flight to Serengeti National Park, and of course eating dinner.  A major theme of this trip so far had been all of the outstanding food.  

We turned in early.  Joseph promised he would pick us up bright and early the following morning for the trip to nearby Arusha Airport and the beginning of our safari.  That is the topic of the next post.