My first full day on the African continent!
My first day in Tanzania was a pre-itinerary day which would launch my two-week AGC (Adventures in Good Company) tour. If you’re interested in an overview of our trip, click here.
After arriving at our first abode, Chanya Lodge, late the night before, after a grueling 32 hours and four flights…let’s say I wasn’t exactly well rested. I had hoped the exhaustion would mean sleeping like the dead, but that didn’t happen. I spent most of the night staring at the ceiling and praying for sleep until I simply gave up. After pre-dawn coffee and some journaling in the beautiful gardens of Chanya Lodge, some members of our 12-woman tour group met for the optional Rau Forrest walk and Moshi market tour.
In my head “Africa” is dry, hot, dusty, barren, and filled with elephants and lions. I mean, that’s how it’s depicted on TV, right? Well, at least in the areas around Moshi and Arusha, there’s a lot more lushness and an almost tropical feel to the forrests.
We had a beautiful walk in the Rau Forrest which was nice and relatively uneventful, with the exception of rivers of fire ants and Black and White Colobus Monkeys swinging in the trees over our heads. My first animal sightings!
The “eventful” part came after our walk and just before lunch when the dubious airplane food came a-calling. Thankfully they had a bathroom…but it was “rustic”. It was a small cinderblock building, just big enough for two small “stalls” with creaking metal doors. Just outside were some local men relaxing with beers in the shade. I went inside to find the “stall” was all cinderblock with a porcelain squat toilet and, like most squat toilets I’ve seen, wet, slippery and a little muddy (I’m hoping it was mud). It’s a place where you feel yucky going in even with shoes on and you say a little prayer that you don’t slip while in full squat position with your pants ever-so-carefully gathered around your knees.
The room wasn’t exactly soundproof and the men outside were close enough to hear all my ass related fireworks. It was quite a show and I had no ability to hold it back. Thank God for the little travel tissue packs that, having been to places like this before, I had wisely brought with me. Upon exit, I endured the walk of shame past these men, making sure to avoid eye contact. The soft giggling I heard as I walked away was clear evidence that my audience had enjoyed the performance. Maybe I should have curtsied?
At least I felt better afterwards and was able to enjoy the lunch prepared by local women. My first taste of Tanzanian food…delicious! I was especially happy to find that traditional Tanzanian food is heavy in vegetables and strongly influenced by nearby India. Some of the newly discovered but very common Tanzanian dishes we enjoyed at lunch were: Ugali (Tanzanian version of grits or polenta), Sukuma Wiki (think greens and usually just called “spinach” when locals tell you what it is), Mchuzi wa Biringani (a dish with stewed eggplant, ours also had okra), and aromatic “Zanzibar Rice” (Pilau) which we were told is prepared mostly for special occasions (for us it was served with almost every meal). We also had some raw salads, veggies, and fruit…but those who know me know I have to be extremely careful (ridiculously so) with what I eat to avoid ending up back in the hospital like last summer. You can read about that here.
