Arusha, Tanzania

In the short three and a half months I've been living in Kenya, I have changed a lot as an individual. Before coming to Kenya, I had never traveled by myself before. After just a few weeks in Kenya, I found myself taking a bus for 7 hours, arriving in a foreign town well after dark, just to see a friend who was living in a rural part of Kenya. Just a few weeks after that, I found myself taking a bus 15 hours overnight from Kisumu on the western coast of Kenya on Lake Victoria all the way to Mombasa on the eastern coast of Kenya on the Indian Ocean to visit with some friends for the weekend and to do some sightseeing.

This week I was supposed to be going to Arusha in Tanzania on Thursday to visit some Catholic Relief Services (CRS) programs. In a typical African fashion, I got an email Monday morning asking me if I could go to Arusha on Tuesday instead because some of the offices would be closing for holiday leave. Before I knew it, I had bought my bus ticket, packed and was at the bus stop the next morning at 6am ready to go to Tanzania. My bus was supposed to leave at 6:30am but then again TIA (this is Africa!). It didn't leave until 8am and then we ran into brake problems that had to be fixed at the border. All in all we arrived over 2 hours late and I missed my meeting and wasn't able to do site visits on Tuesday. I felt bad because people waited for me for 3 hours at the office to show me their programs, but it was entirely out of my control.

CRS Arusha graciously arranged for a driver to pick me up at the bus stop in Akamba and in doing so fullfilled one of my lifetime goals to arrive somewhere foreign/unfamiliar and have someone holding a sign with my name. I think being the only white person on the bus might have also made it easier for the driver to find me. I have worked for CRS for two summers in the CRS Midwest office in Chicago. In working with CRS in America, a lot of my work has been educating Americans about the work of CRS overseas. Visiting Arusha allowed me to see first-hand the great work of CRS in the developing world.

The driver brought me back to the CRS Arusha office where I was able to meet with several staff members and here about their work on various projects including Water and Sanitation and Orphans and Vulnerable Children. After meeting with some of the staff, I needed to get to an ATM and arrange for my accommodation. CRS provided the driver to serve as my personal escort around Arusha. They offered to call us a taxi to get to town, but I opted for the public transport for 1/10 the cost. It's always interesting getting money out of an ATM in another country because the amount of money you have always seems so different. In Tanzania, the Tanzanian shilling to US dollar ratio is 1300 to 1.

I ended up staying at the Arusha Backpackers Hotel as recommended by one of the other students in my program. He said it was inexpensive and "basic." I soon learned how people's definitions of "basic" vary. I paid $9 a night and the rooms reflected the price. When I went to my room the first time, I opened the door and ran into the bed. The room resembled a jail cell more than anything else. It had a single bed and about 8 inches of room on the side of the bed to walk - and that was it.

In the morning, a man from the Arusha Archdiocesan Integrated Development and Relief Office (AAIDRO) picked me up at my hotel. He brought me to the Archdiocesan office and I was able to meet the whole AAIDRO staff that works closely with CRS. CRS works through partnerships with local organizations that are already working in communities. With AAIDRO, CRS helps provide funding for programs for HIV/AIDS patients, money for Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), and agro-enterprise programs. One of the main programs CRS and AAIDRO are working on in the rural area outside of Arusha is working with HIV/AIDS groups to help grow drought-resistant crops like pigeon peas. Many people have a significant amount of land, but the land is being under-utilized. CRS and AAIDRO are trying to help people use their land more effectively to grow crops to sustain themselves but also to generate income.

On our way to the rural village, the man from AAIDRO pointed out Mt. Kilimanjaro peaking out of the clouds. We stopped and I was able to get a quick photo of the top of the mountain. That was the only time I was able to see Kilimanjaro my entire time in Arusha - the clouds hide it very well.

I was able to meet with one HIV/AIDS group during one of my visits. I have never received such a warm welcome in my entire life. One elderly woman, came up to me and hugged me and vigorously shook my hand. Throughout our meeting, she kept staring at me with a BIG smile on her face. 19 HIV postive people have come together in the community to form a group to support one another. They meet once a week and have a constitution. During each meeting, each member contributes 200 TSH (15 cents US) in dues. The money is saved up and used to take care of a member if they fall ill. I introduced myself and fielded questions from people through the use of translator because my Swahili is still quite limited.

During the time I was there, some people brought up the issue that the food that CRS/AAIDRO usually provides for them was not enough for the last month. Afterwards, I spoke with the man I was with from AAIDRO and he told me about all of the financial problems they face. The need is so great in these communities but the funding is very limited. He said that in most cases, he can only make it out to these communities once or twice a month to monitor programs because of the cost of fuel and the availability of vehicles. On this day, we brought this group a large bunch of bananas which only temporarily fixes the hunger problem. All 19 members of this group are also on anti-retrovirals which require good nutrition in order to work effectively.

In the afternoon, I attended a meeting between elders of a community about issues the community was facing. Unfortunately the entire meeting was conducted in Swahili and with my still limited knowledge of Swahili I was only able to catch the occasional word like "but" or "because" which doesn't really help. It was interesting however watching and observing the group dynamics and even though I had very little idea of what was going on, I was able to figure out which people were supporting which side of the argument and how people reacted to different people's points.

I really enjoyed my time in Arusha thanks to the warm African hospitality of the people at Catholic Relief Services and AAIDRO