Memoirs of An Introvert In Accra: A Trip to Arusha, Tanzania

In October 2009, I won a travel grant (funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates’ Foundation) to attend a Keystone Meeting in Arusha, Tanzania. In the beginning, I dreaded the whole journey because the mere thought of transiting through Abidjan, Lagos, Addis Ababa and Nairobi before finally arriving at my destination made me nervous. Above all, I had this premonition that I was going to lose my baggage in transit and arrive without any item of clothing! I however, ended up enjoying almost every aspect of the journey; I say “almost” because I neither enjoyed the extensive search the flight attendants conducted on passengers before allowing us to board the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Abidjan to Lagos nor the five-hour wait in Addis Ababa to catch the connecting flight. I must also admit that I really got tired of the chicken lasagne which was served on the Ethiopian Airlines flights.

It was my first time in Eastern Africa and I loved everything about the landscape and the people. I was fascinated by the fact that men from the Maasai tribe could actually braid hair and did that on commercial basis too (I learnt the Maasai tribesmen often sought employment during periods of severe droughts). Coming from an African country where English is almost a compulsory language, I found it interesting that Swahili and Amharic were official languages in Tanzania and Ethiopia respectively. I remember flipping through TV channels for stations which transmitted in English. I was under the impression I was the only foreigner who was having problems with the language until someone else approached me at the Kilimanjaro International Airport to ask if I understood the announcement which was being made. Well, my Swahili really sucked so obviously, I couldn’t be of much help. But I did buy a Swahili book so I at least made an effort to learn the language! Whilst in Arusha, I stayed at the beautiful Naura Springs Hotel where the customer service was truly amazing!

The conference I attended was on “overcoming the crisis of TB and AIDS” and I must say there were very interesting presentations on efforts to develop vaccines for these major diseases of public health importance. I just thought it was unfortunate that only a few of the presentations were given by African delegates. On the side, I made friends, established contacts, enjoyed the Tanzanian/East African cuisine and visited some few places such as the beautiful Kinukamori waterfalls in Marangu (which is about 100km from Arusha) and watched the Kilimanjaro at sunset from a town called Moshi. But I think the greatest attraction of all was the sighting of the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro before landing at the Kilimanjaro International Airport. I realized most things in that district were called Kilimanjaro: there were the Kilimanjaro Region; Kilimanjaro District; the Kilimanjaro Co-operative Bank; and even the label for the local mineral water was Kilimanjaro.

One thing which struck me during my tour of Northern Tanzania was the way waste was being successfully managed. Even the lorry stations looked clean, something which is really rare in Accra. I however, realized that not many people liked themselves to be photographed by foreigners/tourists. I tried taking a picture of a sign board in Marangu which read: “Ancient Cave 1.85 km”. Unfortunately, two women who were selling banana under the sign board thought I was going to take pictures of them. Anyway, their reaction truly amazed me; they simply took to their heels! That was something I wasn’t used to but I guess they had a good reason for reacting the way they did.

I will draw the curtain on this subject for now but I will definitely have more to say about Tanzania because i will be going back to climb the Kilimanjaro.