Sahani

While living abroad, I've missed a lot of pieces of home. Some of them, like friends and family, I simply won't be able to be around until I return; however, others, such as hobbies and passions, tend to follow their possessor. As a guitar player, for example, I was overjoyed to encounter a guitar whose owner has kindly lent it to me until I depart in December.

"Sahani" means "plate" in Swahili, like the kind you eat off of. This may seem like a rather abrupt transition, but the plate is relevant here because it's one of the better ways to translate disc, the gamepiece of ultimate frisbee. So, to "play frisbee" can become "kucheza sahani." Ultimate is another part of campus I miss, so I was sure to search for a group playing even before I arrived in Arusha. I wasn't sure what I'd find, but it turns out there's a group of people scattered around Arusha who love to play frisbee. It took some nudging to get everyone to meet again on a regular basis, mostly because there was an issue with field space. But not long after I arrived, I was playing my favorite sport with a group of new friends.

Every Saturday we meet to toss together, warm up, and scrimmage. I really look forward to this part of the week, because it's the only time I'll get to play ultimate with a bunch of other people. I can throw with a friend or two during the week, but full game play always awaits on the weekend.

This coming weekend is particularly exciting. On Sunday, Arusha Ultimate Frisbee is traveling about two hours to Moshi to have a friendly match with the players there. I'm excited about this event, because it's a big step for the development of my favorite sport in northern Tanzania. The Arusha players can learn a lot from Moshi, and this game can be the beginning of a series of town scrimmages to come. I'll be sure to post about this next week!

The last thing I'll say about sahani is that it's so cool to watch it grow in East Africa. When I traveled to Uganda, I met many members of this East African ultimate community who will continue to organize events and start new teams. On the bus to Uganda, I met a husband and wife who run a school in Morombo, an area in the south of Arusha. They asked why I was traveling, and my answer involved an explanation of this great sport called "sahani." The couple was captivated and asked me to come play with the children at their school on one of their sports days every weekend. My Tanzanian friend and I recently began going to the school on Saturdays and teaching the kids to play. This weekend will be just our second trip, but I'm excited that we can introduce a fun and spirited sport to Arusha youth.

Being abroad, I've been able to bring my favorite parts of Boston--especially ultimate--back into my life. Now I have a good amount on my sahani!

These Are a Few of my Favorite Things

A while ago I wrote about visiting Uganda and eating a bunch of tasty vyakula (foods) there, and now I'm thinking it's odd that I haven't written much about vyakula vya Tanzania. In fact, there are a lot of "little things" about life here that never fail to bring a smile to my face, yet that I haven't shared. Sense by sense, here is list of my favorite things in Arusha.

SIGHT

- view of Mount Meru

- kanga, kitenge, and the other varieties of colorful fabric: I wore kanga to work today!

- chickens bobbing heads and digging in the dirt for their food
- the "lane of peace": The bus park in the morning can be hectic. Kondas (conductors) might shout destinations at you or grab your wrist to try to bring you to their bus. Finding what I call the "lane of peace," where one can walk in open space without konda bugging, is a morning highlight.

- jacaranda trees in bloom: Here some flowers from a huge jacaranda tree have fallen to the sidewalk. I love seeing the bright purple above my head, contrasting typical shades of green and brown.

- superb starling: I've probably mentioned this bird before. He's so beautiful and shiny.

HEARING

- African music: Tanzanian music is called "bongo flava" and it's really fun to dance to. In Tanzania, other African songs are popular, many of them coming from Nigeria. I mention this because I think most of my favorite songs here are Nigerian. To get an idea of the music I'm listening to, you can check out this playlist I'm making on Spotify
- birds chirping
- spoken Swahili: Soon I plan to post a video of myself speaking Swahili for anyone interested in my progress (i.e. my mom). Stay tuned! (Mom.)

TOUCH

- Maasai blanket: This article of fabric is a genuine phenomenon in Tanzania. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I truly believe my life has improved with the Maasai shuka in my life. It's a very portable, fairly thin, and surprisingly warm blanket coming in many patterns, almost all of them checkered. Maasai shuka have many applications, including a bedsheet, and shawl, a table cloth, a wall hanging, a skirt--the possibilities are endless and I can't rave enough. I currently own two shuka, but I'm sure that number will multiply before I leave Tanzania. Unfortunately, the best way I can describe my happiness in a shuka is with this silly selfie.

- front seat of the daladala: This feels amazing only relative to the crammed back seat. Without this comparison, the front seat feels like any reasonable car seating situation.
- cow's noses

- paka! They're so small and cute here. When people have them as pets, I tend to temporarily abduct them for snuggles.

SMELL

Hmmm...
It's possible that unpleasant smells greatly outnumber pleasant smells in Arusha--if you don't count anything that's edible. I haven't included anything edible here because stuff that you can eat that smells good also tastes good, which brings us to...

TASTE

As promised, vyakula vya Tanzania!
- sambusa: I don't eat a lot of meat, but this East African-style samosa (delightfully spiced meat stuffed inside a puffy yet crunchy wrapping) has me hooked. It's often served with a spicy sauce called pilipili, made from tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, hot peppers, and some other good stuff. On average I'd estimate I consume around 15 sambusa a week. Sanae and I learned how to make it from a wonderful woman at work. Here's the result of our lesson!

- chapati: This is like a tortilla, but thicker and much more oily. It has Indian origins but is now a staple of life in Arusha. I often eat chapati as breakfast or with lunch.

- chai ya maziwa: Translating directly to "tea of milk," chai ya maziwa is savory, gingery, cinnamonny and sweet all at once. I drink this with my chapati every morning in the restaurant next to work.
- kahawa: Coffee here is amazing. In fact, many plants in the area export to Starbucks and the like. There's also a pretty good instant coffee called Africafe. Below is coffee at Burka, a huge coffee plant near work. The raw beans might be exported or are there roasted to different degrees and sold.

- street corn + pili/lime powder: Many women grill and sell corn on the streets. Some of them, if requested, will rub the cob in a powdery/flakey pepper using a freshly cut lime half as a rubbing tool.
- fresh fruit juice: It's common to find juice from passion fruit, tamarind, mango, and even avocado.
- Stoney Tangawizi: This is a ginger soda ("tangawizi" means "ginger"), but it's much more flavorful and tangy than something like ginger ale. I've never seen this in the U.S., but if anyone knows where I can get it in Boston, please inform me immediately so I can avoid accidentally breaking any import laws by stuffing a bunch into my suitcase.

- nyama ya kusaga: Again, I don't like meat, but this spiced, minced beef is delicious.

With all these nice gems in Arusha, it will be hard coming back to Boston. So far, Tanzania is winning my heart.

Kipepeo

Look at how big this butterfly is! It's the biggest one I've seen in my life. I don't have many words.

Today this guy was spotted at work. He was having trouble flying and attached himself to Sanae's pants for a little while.

A coworker educated me on the word "kipepeo," which is Swahili for "butterfly." I think it's cool that it literally translates to something like "that which flaps." ("Kupepea" is the verb meaning "to flap" or "to fan.")

This butterfly's visit illustrates one of my favorite things about Sikubora's location out of town near Kisongo--the fauna of the area. A few species of birds like to chirp around in the trees by the office. Even chickens poke their heads around looking for food. There are also multiple trains of livestock herded across the storefront daily, and these include mostly cows, goats, and sheep. It's fun to be able to look outside the office window every now and then to watch the animals going about their daily business as we go about our own.

Mlima Kilimanjaro

Fewer than 80 kilometers from our home in Arusha resides the highest point in Africa, Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak. Before I tell you about climbing to it, here are some fast facts.

- Uhuru peak is 5,895 m (19,431 ft) tall.
- Uhuru is the Swahili word for "independence."
- Kilimanjaro is the world's tallest free-standing mountain, since it rises about 4,900 m from base to peak.

The Tanzanian government doesn't allow you to climb Kilimanjaro without a certified guide and crew, so you can't just walk up the mountain. It's actually quite an investment. Park fees are pretty high for foreigners, and some companies charge much more than necessary--tourism is quite the industry in Tanzania. Our group worked with a friend who organized our crew and took great care of us at a very fair price. We had three guides, a cook, and a set of eight porters. Our guides were Salim (our organizing friend), Rafa, and John. I referred to our cook as "mungu wa chakula" or "god of food" because he prepared scrumptious and nutritious meals over the week in order to keep us strong throughout our journey. The porters also did great work. I was so impressed by the ability to balance many kilograms of ungainly weight on one's head while jogging down a rocky, uneven trail.

There are a handful of routes to the summit, and we chose to trek the Lemosho route. The round trip was planned for six to eight days, depending on how we were doing with all the walking and the altitude. We ended up taking six days, five to hike to the summit and just one to get down. I liked the Lemosho route because it wasn't too crowded and we hiked through many different vegetation zones, getting a thorough sense of Kilimanjaro's landscapes. There was lush tropical forest, alpine desert, and moorland, among others. We stayed in tents each night at a series of camps along the route to the summit.

For many parts of this journey, I feel that pictures speak better than words.

There was a lot of cool wildlife even at higher altitudes of the mountain to my surprise. We saw many a small rodent that looked like a cross between a mouse and a chipmunk. We also saw doves, tiny cute brown birds, and spiders. This probably encompasses a lot of the wildlife at high altitudes. One I can't forget is the white-necked raven. They are giant (maybe rising to half my shin height) and somehow everywhere along the route (except near the summit). This bird was my favorite.

One major challenge in hiking to 5,895 meters is the sheer altitude of the feat. It's common for climbers to bring anti-altitude sickness medicine, since there's a big risk climbing Kilimanjaro. Without the medicine, I was fortunate to not have too many problems for most of the journey. I started having breathing difficulties on our day hiking to the summit, and I even passed out at one point. I was with my guide John at the time, and he was quite knowledgeable and knew what to do. He cracked my back, gave me tea, and continually checked in on me during the summit journey. I ended up taking the medicine around 5,000 m and once it set in, breathing was much easier and I was able to hike more comfortably.

On summit day, we woke up at 11pm and embarked at midnight. We hiked by headlamp light for seven hours, very slowly and up a seemingly endless series of steep switchbacks, on our final stretch to Uhuru. My friend commented that it "must be what purgatory is like." It's a pretty tough walk until you get to Stella Peak, but from there it's a relative breeze--a more steady and flatter journey to the summit. Upon finally arriving, we witnessed the congratulatory sign and stood among many other summitters. There was even one group paragliding off the mountain (and you can see one in a picture below). My favorite part of the top of Kilimanjaro is seeing Mt. Meru in the distance. Meru is important to me because I admire it every day rising above Arusha, and I appreciated this new perspective from Kilimanjaro above the clouds. Some summit views are below.

Due to the dangerously high altitude, you can't stay at the summit longer than around a half hour at most, which conveniently relieves the queue of many people looking to be photographed with the summit post. After taking pictures and spending our time on the "Roof of Africa," we began the journey back down to the base and eventually to our routine daily lives.

If you Google "Kilimanjaro name" and read the top few results, they'll tell you completely different theories of why the mountain is called Kilimanjaro. I was told by my friends and guides that "Kilimanjaro" is derived from the Chaga tribe language and means something along the lines of "a mountain difficult to climb." It's true that the journey can be difficult, but I'm so thankful to have had this rewarding experience.

Panda!

A panda is indeed a black and white animal that is commonly pictured eating bamboo, but that's not relevant here. Rather, "Panda!" means "Climb!" (and a bunch of other things) in Swahili, and that's just what we did this weekend. Over six days, I trekked to Uhuru Peak, Kilimanjaro's highest point at 5,985 m or 19,341 ft, and back down to the park gate along with some great friends and a crew of guides, porters, and a splendid cook.

Here is a subset of the group at the summit.

The short story is that I took a lot of pictures, I ate a lot of good food, and I experienced some degree of altitude sickness. You can probably imagine that I'm pretty tired, so I'll rest now and post more details and pictures next week. In the meantime, as a brief introduction to the Kilimanjaro experience, I'll leave you with some critical key words.

polepole = slowly
maji = water
(those two were the most important)
baridi = cold
kupumua = to breathe
vigumu = difficult
barafu = ice (Barafu Camp was the last place we slept before summit)
(and, of course,) kupanda = to climb

Until next week!