Tanzania, the people of Arusha

This will be the last post on Tanzania. I am sorry for the delay and gap in the weekly posts. M.E. and I had the opportunity to fly home to Philly for the Thanksgiving week. Once at home it really becomes difficult to carve out some time to put these posts together. Now that we are back in Saudi I have all the time in the world. Sad but true.

Arusha is the third largest city in Tanzania with a population of 420,000 people. It is the gateway to all of the game parks in western Tanzania, serviced by the small airport we flew in and out of. We drove on the out skirts of the city a long a two lane, dusty paved road which often turned into a three lane road as cars and trucks passed by each other. Once off the main road everything turned to dirt, the roads, packing lots and footpaths. Groups of buildings which sort of looking like strip malls were scattered along the road. Most of them had open fronts, selling building materials, auto supplies, with convenience stores and restaurants all mixed in. There were many people along the main road. Folks walked in from their homes and villages on the side dirt roads to get rides on mini buses or on the back of a motor cycles or folks just walk along the sides of the road to get to their destination. There were many men hanging out in small groups sitting on motorcycles just killing time. The pictures below were taken from the car as we drove along.

I’ve added at the bottom of the post several scenery shots of the Serengeti. The landscape is so vast with its sweeping vistas and dramatic natural features. It was wonderful to see the sun rise over the stunning savanna, to see the brilliant morning colors on the grasses and to explore one of the oldest wildlife sanctuaries in the world. It was very interesting to learn firsthand about the natural order of things, the animal food chain and how it fit so perfectly with the beautiful landscape.