Last updated on March 28, 2022
The next country on our world trip is Tanzania. Tanzania is one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas on Earth with fossil remains of humans and hominids from 1.9 million years ago found in Olduvai Gorge. The name “Tanzania” was created as a combination of the names of the two states that unified to create the country: Tanganyika and the Zanzibar Archipelago. Following their respective independence in 1961 and 1963, the two entities merged in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. The name “Tanganyika” is derived from the Swahili words tanga (“sail”) and nyika (“uninhabited plain”, “wilderness”), creating the phrase “sail in the wilderness”. It is in East Africa and borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania and dominates the landscape here. We flew from Colombo, Sri Lanka through Doha, Qatar to Kilimanjaro International Airport which serves Arusha, the safari capital of the world.
At 947,303 square kilometers Tanzania is the 13th largest country in Africa and the 31st largest in the world, ranked between the larger Egypt and smaller Nigeria. While it looks like Wisconsin, it is 1.4 times the size of Texas and has over 61 million people. The population is composed of about 120 ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. Christianity is the largest religion in Tanzania, but there are also substantial Muslim and Animist minorities. Over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa. The national language is Swahili. Its official capital city is Dodoma, but Dar es Salaam, the former capital, retains most government offices and is the country’s largest city, principal port, and leading commercial center. Tanzania is mountainous and densely forested in the northeast, where Mount Kilimanjaro is located. Three of Africa’s Great Lakes are partly within Tanzania; Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, Lake Tanganyika, the continent’s deepest lake, and Lake Malawi. Central Tanzania is a large plateau, with plains and arable land. The eastern shore is hot and humid, with the Zanzibar Archipelago just offshore. The Great Rift Valley is a series of contigous geographic trenches, approximately 4,300 miles in total length, that runs through Tanzania and is the location of many of its national parks.
We arrived in Kilimanjaro at 7 AM and spent the next 2 hours in line for visas, health processing and payment. We did try to get the paperwork done ahead of time on-line, but were unable to get the forms to process. Marin was feeling very sluggish and spent the 2 hours alternating between sleeping in a chair and wrestling and jumping around with the boys. The credit card machine was down so Trey went out of the airport to the ATM to get cash (Tanzanian shillings/US dollars:TSh2000/$1). Our ATM cards were not working as we removed our limit the prior day for tips in Sri Lanka, but fortunately Trey spotted Becky and Salim waiting for us and they fronted us the cash for the visas.
We drove to our first hotel to drop our things off and regroup. We visited Salim’s office and met his lovely staff (Faith, Edison and Justin) who made us feel so welcome and gave us delicious juice and samosas which were devoured by Sy and Griffin. We were also outfitted with great safari hats, water bottles and mugs with the Off The Beaten Path safari logo and our names. Such a nice surprise! We went to Salim’s house where we met his cousin…Salim…who lives with him and cares for his dogs and house when he is away on safaris. Salim’s yard has mango trees, sugarcane, bananas and passionfruit vines (did you know that these grow on a vine?). We tried the sugar cane after it was chopped down with a machete (very entertaining for the kids) and ate passionfruit right off the vine.
The most exciting part of the first day was Becky and Salim’s wedding! We were 1 day late for the Muslim ceremony and feast, but attended the government service and lunch. We were so happy to be a part of the celebration and I got to be Becky’s official witness. We enjoyed a delicious lunch outside and got to meet Salim’s parents and good friends. Becky’s beautiful ring is made of Tanzanite which is a precious gem that is only found in one place in the world, near Kilimanjaro in a very small mining area (approximately 7 km long by 2 km wide). Tanzanite is noted for its remarkably strong trichroism, appearing alternately blue, violet and burgundy depending on crystal orientation. The gemstone was given the name ‘tanzanite’ by Tiffany & Co., who introduced it to the market in 1968. In 2002, the American Gem Trade Association chose tanzanite as a December birthstone, the first change to their birthstone list since 1912.
The kids enjoy riding in the safari vehicle because the roof opens up completely so you can stand on the seats (no shoes) and stick your head out the top. The side windows are also huge so you can get a good view of the passing sights. We did a trip to the slopes of Kilimanjaro where a local guide from the Chagga tribe named Oscar introduced us to his family. They showed us how they process coffee beans…there are about 15 steps! We all got to pound the beans, sift out the shells, roast the beans, and pound them into powder. Everyone (even Sy and Griffin) tried a cup of coffee with lots of milk and sugar.
After the coffee visit, we hiked about 3 miles up and back to Materuni Falls, a beautiful, 90 meter tall waterfall on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano and the highest mountain in Africa. It is also the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: 5,895 metres (19,341 ft). Apparently, Mount Everest isn’t free-standing. Because of its shrinking glaciers and ice fields, which are projected to disappear between 2025 and 2035, Mount Kilimanjaro has been the subject of many scientific studies.
Along the way, we found 2 chameleons, 1 male with a horn and 1 female. They were super cute and everyone held them gently. We saw a trail of safari ants running across the path which we carefully avoided as they have a nasty bite. There were several small fruit stands…basically 1 or 2 people sitting on a log with a small display of their fruits including banana, mango, passionfruit, avocado, and African tomato. We tried all of them. Trey met a very nice girl named Happiness. We stopped back at the family’s house for a homemade, casual lunch which included 2 kinds of rice, beef with a delicious sauce, beans, cooked bananas that tasted like potatoes (did you know there are 1000 types of bananas in the world?) and a green vegetable like spinach, but not. Sy and Griffin had several helpings and we all really enjoyed it. On the way home we tried banana beer, a local spirit made by the tribe, and it was…interesting (to be polite), but not going to supplant cider any time soon. The texture is somewhat thick with floating bits in it.
The kids here are either super friendly, especially when we are driving by in the car…rushing the roadside, waving and yelling “hello”, or very shy and quiet as if they don’t often see mzungu in their everyday lives. The term mzungu is currently used in predominantly Swahili speaking nations to refer to white people. It can be used in an affectionate or insulting way, but it never felt insulting to me when I heard it used. In one interaction, Trey tried to give a little kid a pack of crayons and she screamed and ran to her dad and hid her face. The kids are very responsible and trusted with serious tasks at a much younger age than we allow in the United States. We passed a tiny kid (see photo with Griffin for scale), walking alone along the trail down from the waterfall with no adults or older kids in site. He was on a mission and knew where he was going. We also routinely saw children as young as 5 years old managing an entire herd of cows, goats and sheep by themselves.
The next day we visited The Head Start Academy, a school that Salim’s Mama started in a nearby town called Moshi. She has done an amazing job here creating opportunities for children that would otherwise not have them. The school is part of the house where Salim grew up and his parents have converted their grown children’s rooms into 3 school classrooms. They have a small kitchen, toilets, a chicken coop and a small courtyard with playground equipment that Becky fundraised for last year. The children are from 3-6 years old and all walk from the local community. We spent some time in each classroom enjoying their singing in English and playing catch with some tennis balls we brought for them. Griffin was a little shy and not sure how to interact with the children, but warmed up and was playing ball with them by the end. Sy was engulfed by 3, and 4 year olds who would not let go of his hand. I think he really enjoyed his time there. I have not seen the smile he had on his face before. It was a bit embarrassed and a little thrilled. Mama made us an amazing lunch which we enjoyed in the courtyard.
They have some short term goals for this school including a new roof, desks for the third classroom and paving the courtyard to make it a smooth surface. Long term goals include purchasing the property next door and opening up the courtyard to make a much larger space to expand the number of classrooms. They would like to provide school for the next age group so these current students can stay on through the end of their official schooling, at age 12. We were really inspired by the work Mama is doing at her school. She is such a kind soul and the smiles on those little faces are really impactful. Becky and I intend to start a fundraiser to help them get started on the goals. The only thing holding them up currently is finances and I think we can make a difference here. Another cool thing about Tanzania is that you can get stuff done quickly. There is no backlog of contractors and projects waiting 6-12 months to get done. They have a school break in June and if we can organize funding before that, the first projects will get done as soon as they hire the people to do it.
We spent the next 2 days at a lovely hotel owned by an Italian couple called the Pink Flamingo Boutique Hotel in Moshi. It was an oasis at the end of a long, dusty road. It was very peaceful with a great view of Mount Kilimanjaro and overlooked a valley of green. We swam a lot and ate great food. We explored the town of Moshi a bit and saw the fruit and vegetable markets. It was like an outdoor Reading Terminal. Dinner was at a local place in town where we had yummy barbecued chicken, french fries, mango juice and ginger beer.
The next day we went to Tarangire National Park for our first game drive. We saw the Great Rift Valley that runs from Egypt through Tanzania to Mozambique. We took the new open air vehicle that Salim’s company had custom built and was completed just prior to our arrival. We were the first ones to ride in it on safari and it is awesome with amazing views and cool breezes from all directions. We felt pretty lucky when we saw the other people with their faces pressed up against the windows of their jeeps! We saw elephants, so many birds, giraffes and blue-balled monkeys (Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently the bluer the balls, the more attractive the male is!). We had lunch at a picnic area surrounded by cheeky monkeys that poached some pineapple right in front of Becky!
We successfully made it across a river without being swept away, continued our game drive and ended up at Sangaiwe Tented Lodge in the park. The view from our glamping tent was gorgeous. We did need a guide after 7PM to walk us back and forth from dinner due to the fact that there are dangerous animals around.
We did additional game drives in Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Park. We saw waterbuck, impala, giraffe, elephant, ostrich, and cape buffalo. We learned that elephants eat on average 300 lbs per day, poop a little more than half that (about 165 lbs per day) and urinate about 15 gallons a day. By looking at elephant excrement you can tell if it was supplied by a male or female elephant by the way the urine and feces are located on the ground. Females poop and pee in the same place. We had a lovely breakast near a beautiful baobab tree. I don’t know how Salim’s staff unpacks a table, chairs, table cloth, and all kinds of food, coffee, and drinks in 5 minutes.
In the morning we passed a large moving truck that was stuck in the deep, wet mud. It was owned by a friend of Salim’s who has a traveling tent lodge and was moving to a new site. There are roads in the national parks, they just aren’t very obvious. We took a slightly different route through the mud and past the stuck truck and made it out. The truck was still there when we left the next day.
So remember when Marin was feeling sluggish on arrival to Tanzania? Well…she basically was sick from the day that we arrived in Tanzania with GI signs, waxing and waning fevers and lethargy. If anyone knows Marin, she Is a chatty, dynamic girl and we had a sad lump who was sleeping all of the time. She missed visiting Mama’s school and slept through the day. We started some medication that the travel medicine team at Penn Radnor had given us and were treating the fever with ibuprofen and Tylenol. We were just about to go further into the deep bush and this was day six of symptoms so we and Salim decided to drop everything and take her to a clinic in Arusha. The clinic that Salim uses is called FAME, the Foundation for African Medicine and Education. We took her in for IV fluids, diagnostic tests, help with tropical diagnoses and possible antibiotics. Salim was a super star. He rescheduled our safari arrangements and drove us at pace to the clinic.
Small tangent…last fall, I saw a doctor at Penn Radnor who had photos on her walls from what looked like a safari. I asked about them and she told me that she goes to Tanzania several times a year to volunteer at a medical clinic that was started by a couple from California, an anesthesiologist and an educational psychologist. I had already asked Salim to arrange a visit for us as I used up my stipend from work (Thanks BluePearl!) to buy 4 new, nice stethoscopes which we planned to donate. The clinic that she volunteers at…the same FAME clinic that Salim took Marin to be treated. Small world! Trey spoke with Dr. Frank, the founder of the clinic, on the phone and was immediately put at ease. We got a little concerned when the directions to the clinic involved making a turn from one dirt road to another and then passing dusty store fronts for miles, but when we arrived at FAME it was like an oasis. It is big and clean and they have a full lab, CT scanner (donated from GE), OR, inpatient wards, ER and a new restaurant for families who are waiting. We met Dr. Frank and had a fantastic experience. He is such a character. Dr. Anna stayed late to treat Marin, ran lab work and gave her a few liters of IV fluids. It just so happens that there was a visiting infectious disease specialist named Shama who was volunteering on the inpatient ward. She is on the Covid task force in the United States and was very nice. She consulted on Marin for us and we threw around diagnoses like typhoid, travelers illnesses, leptospirosis, Japanese encephalitis, malaria, UTI/sepsis, giardia. etc. Eventually, since her symptoms didn’t fit anything scary and Marin was looking better with fluids, we settled on treating her for giardia and finishing the Azithromycin to complete her treatment for travelers illness. She was essentially better from that point on.
Coincidentally, they had just received a critical pediatric patient and when they heard that Trey was a pediatrician, he was taken to the inpatient ward to consult and offer any help he could. This hospital runs on 20% patient pay and 80% donations. They have about 160 Tanzanian employees including 17 full time Tanzanian doctors. They rely on specialist doctors volunteering and visiting from other countries to help train their doctors in areas like infectious disease, neurology, ER, surgery, pediatrics, ophthalmology, etc. Their strategic plan includes expanding their ER, pediatrics and general surgery departments. Trey left with business cards and ideas of possibly volunteering in the future. If you feel inclined, this is a worthy charity and I encourage you to check out their website and donate or volunteer your time if you can! www.FAMEafrica.org
Lake Manyara National Park is home to tree climbing lions. Unfortunately, we did not see any, but we did get our first look at baboons and blue monkeys. This park is much wetter than the previous one and the lions do not like their pads to be wet so they sleep in the trees a lot. We saw a big troop of baboons with a lot of tiny babies being carried around. We saw a blue monkey, more elephants. Cape buffalo, our first zebras, and termite mounds (one with a monitor lizard sticking out the top). We really enjoyed the different landscape here.
Our next stop was to the town of Mto Wa Mbu. We went to the African Galleria, an art gallery that deals in paintings, antiques, tribal art, gems, clothing, jewelry, and carvings. This place was massive and had art from every medium. There were traditional painters, wood workers, bronze workers, jewelry makers, clothing, furniture, etc…it basically has everything and was an overwhelming place. There were some intricate wood pieces that were being carved directly from large ebony trees that they had been working on for over three years. Reportedly, these sell for several hundred thousand dollars to large hotels. The kids got to try to hammer into ebony wood (hard as a rock!) and watch craftsman and artists at work. As usual, Marin and Sy found some chessboards and played a few games. We saw a short video on mining Tanzanite and how they process the stones to create the beautiful blue gemstones.
Our next hotel was the Escarpment Luxury Lodge overlooking Lake Manyara. It had a gorgeous view from the deck and pool area. Trey took some time to run a few miles into the surrounding village. He made friends with all of the kids along the way. We swam some laps and the kids made friends with Mia, a little girl from Spain who now lives with her family in Arusha. Marin tried to practice her Spanish with her, but her parents said her English is now better than her Spanish. She also speaks Swahili which she learned on the playground at school! At sunset, there was a Maasai performance of singing and dancing which was very interesting. Marin, Becky and Sy participated in the dancing. The Maasai are an ethnic group found throughout East Africa, most notably in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are probably the most well known tribe internationally due to their residence near many of the game parks in Tanzania, and their distinctive customs and dress. The Maasai population is likely over 1 million. Many Maasai tribes work for the local tourist industries like hotels and lodges and they welcome visits to their villages to experience their culture, traditions, and lifestyle.
We learned about the weaver birds who create these cool basket nests with the opening on the bottom (why don’t the baby birds fall out…who knows?). They seem to all make their nests in the same tree so there will often be 20 nests and shouting birds coming back and forth to feed their babies. Becky told us the male makes the nest and if the female does not like it she will rip it down and throw it on the ground. Under the tree we did see a few rejected nests!
After this we made our way to the Lake Eyasi region and our hotel, the Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge. It was in a hotter area with lots of sun and breezes. We enjoyed the pool and the meals. The concierge told us to be careful walking to our rooms at night on the paths as this area has a lot of spiders and scorpions. After my first shower, I picked up a towel to dry off and fortunately unfolded it before using it. I found 2 scorpions hanging onto it! Now, if you know me, you know I don’t do bugs in the house. Outside, no big deal. Inside is NOT okay. I remained calm, dropped the towel on the floor, called the kids to come see the “cool scorpions” and then got dressed. I went to find Trey who was trying to get the blog going on the wifi in the main building and asked him to remove them. Meanwhile, the hotel staff went to the room to check for more and to spray (way too much) bug spray all over the rooms.
While in the Lake Eyasi region we visited two tribes, the Datoga and the Hadzabe. These are two smaller tribes who migrated from the Ngorongoro crater after a battle with the Maasai in the 18th century. The Datoga are known for their blacksmith skills with arrows and spears and ornate jewelry. They live off the land and keep herds of cows, sheep and goats. Their homes are made of sticks, trees and mud plastered into the gaps. The roofs have dirt and grass and aloe plants on top which somehow keeps the house cool in the face of the beating sun. The floors are dirt. The beds are made of sticks with a thin leather animal skin covering. We had a very informative meet and great with the women of the family who asked us questions like, “does your husband beat you if you don’t have the house cleaned when he gets home” (you can imagine my internal response), “how many cows was your bride price”, and “what did your husband give you for giving him 3 children”, etc. It was a very cool experience.
They have a polygamous culture so this family had 3 wives and numerous kids living in the boma. In their culture the first wife gets to choose who the man takes on to be his next wife. Interesting concept. We tried to grind corn with stones as they do to make polenta. Sy and Griffin went out of the house to play ball with some of the kids and Marin watched their 1 year old and fanned flies off the baby’s face as she ate dirt and tried to get back inside to her mother. I had my face painted in the traditional festive style of this tribe. I think it was charcoal mixed with some kind of animal fat or liquid (it didn’t smell great, but it was fun and washed off easily). Apparently tobacco is very popular with the women and they have large holes in the ear lobes that they told us was to carry a small container of tobacco. We also saw how they use scrap metal to melt down into bracelets and arrows and spears to trade with other tribes. We saw their animal boma where they keep all of their cows, goats, and sheep, and where the men and boys sleep. Trey played soccer with some of the boys and handed out some candy and water before we left just after sunset. What an experience!
The next morning, we visited the Hadzabe tribe who are bow and arrow hunters and gatherers. They speak in a click language. They have stick and grass huts with dirt floors. They keep no livestock and do not cultivate plants although they do smoke weed and tobacco which they must get from somewhere. We saw them shoot a tiny bird out of a nearby tree with a bow and blunt arrow, cook it on the open fire and eat it. We then went out on an hour hike with the hunters to watch them try to kill their food. We followed one main guy who didn’t find much to hunt with our three crazy kids in tow, but he did find a bee hive in a hollowed out tree, make a fire with a stick, smoke the bees into a relaxed state, axe the tree open, and remove and eat all of the honeycomb. We got to help make the fire. He made it look much easier than it was. When we got back to their houses, we got to try out their bows and arrows and try to hit a target log. We all had some success in making it fly (Laura has a real knack for archery), but style points go to the 3 year old boy of their tribe who was on point! They ended our stay by showing us a traditional dance and song of their tribe that we participated in.
Tomorrow we are heading to the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation area, one of the most pristine wildlife refuges in the world and home to 30,000 protected animals.
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