“If I like you, I will wait for you to be alone, maybe when you are herding the cattle. I will come for you, I will pick you up on my shoulders and take you with me, so you will marry me!” This was the answer from our Datoga guide to my question on how do the Datoga arrange a marriage. I think I must have frozen for a few seconds, terrified with the idea! It sounds like… well like kidnapping to me! However, it is a normal practice among this tribe in the north of Tanzania. Once I picked up my chin from the floor, I continue with my…
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Culture Shock – Driving in Africa Advice
CULTURE SHOCK I never knew exactly what was it. I thought it would only happen to people who aren’t open-minded or don’t like travelling to remote areas. When I travel, it is the different ways of thinking and the unusual ways of living that excites me. But this one late evening, 3 weeks into my time in Tanzania, I found myself speechless, with my stomach turning when I found out that our other guide and driver hit a pedestrian and ran away. Our guide said he had to do it, “everybody does it”. I knew he wasn’t a bad guy but at first I couldn’t understand why this crimewas okay…
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9 Things to do in Stone Town
Stone Town is the port of entry to the paradisiac island of Zanzibar, perhaps overshadowed by the idyllic palm trees on the beach of the east and north coast, most people tends to avoid it. However, with so many things to do in Stone Town, I would say stop here for a spoonful of cultural history embedded in spices, better appreciated sitting barefoot on a pillow of a rooftop with a sunset view. You certainly won’t regret it. You will want to spend at least one to two days exploring this charming old town, eat your way around and sail to a nearby island to feed giant turtles. ~ TO…
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Watching the World go by…
In the early warm hours of the day, the call-to-prayer wakes up the whole town. Once the so said prayers are over, the population of Stone Town occupy the labyrinth alleyways and carry on with their daily tasks: to sell, to buy, to sit chatting with the neighbours, to stand on the streets greeting tourists, to stand on the streets watching the world go by… A few times I wondered what these last ones were thinking. On one of my wandering hours, I noticed this old man was doing just that. Seated barefoot on
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A Dance with a Maasai Tribe
The Dance They knew we were coming. On our arrival, they rushed to make us feel welcomed by placing a Shuka cloth over our shoulders and a flat large beaded necklace on our necks. They live waiting, existing underneath a tree or in the shadow of their mud house. If we didn’t come, probably someone else would, if not today, tomorrow or after. This is what the Maasai tribe in this village does; they open themselves to the tourism, allowing visitors to enter their houses and share their way of living in exchange, of course, for money. It is their business after all. The men were the first stepping out…
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Bananas’ Town
8 hours on African roads and I was lightly swaying in and out of sleep when the frenetic rush at the back door of the truck made me turn around on my seat. We had stopped at the side of the road. Women were fighting their way to the truck, holding their goods high up in their hands, as if selling them to God. Sam, our guide stood firmly at the half-open door inside the truck, gesturing numbers to the women. They were really insistent. Still half dreaming, I didn’t quite understand straight away what was going on. I thought the women were going to get the best out of…
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SAFARI, IS IT SAFE? – Part 2
1 – How safe is it to camp without fence protection on a Safari? I am not going to lie, I was nervous. In a I’m-about-to-sleep-in-the-middle-of-lions kind of nervous. You know? As it turns out, I slept like a rock. In fact on my first night camping, I fell asleep to the sound of giggling hyenas, happily scrutinizing through our dinner’s left overs. I entered dreamland completely oblivious that about an hour later, lion’s roars were heard nearby the campsite. Probably trying to shush the hyenas away and claim back territory. But, no seriously, it is VERY SAFE! On my first day I bombed my guide with questions, questions, questions.…
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SAFARI, HOW TO PLAY THE GAME – Part 1
Lions, 3 o’clock!!! It’s not a date. But orientation coordinates. The hunt has started and I don’t mean the predators kind of hunt. But us, a bunch of curious eyes, standing at the back of the jeep, feet on top of the seats, heads popping out of the lifted roof, camera in one hand, binoculars in the other, looking for wildlife in it’s purest forms, in Africa. During the 3 months I spent in Africa, I was lucky to go on different types of Safaris. My first one was
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A Banana Beer Nip, A Coffee Sip and a Waterfall Dip
A Coffe Tour in Tanzania This is probably the strangest title I have ever used on a travel article. The strangest combination and yet, this trio made for a perfect day out exploring the countryside in the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, a village called Materuni, where banana and coffee beans grow as neighbors to each other. I was on a coffee tour in Tanzania. BANANA BEER NIP Banana beer? Our guide asked, outstretching his arm to me with a 1 liter plastic green cup in his hand, shared by everyone. I don’t like beer but I like banana. Though I don’t need to please my taste buds to try…
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Why did I visit a Tanzanian Prison?
“Your passport”. We looked at each other – we didn’t know we were supposed to bring it. We left it in our bags back at the school, together with our phones and cameras. None of it was allowed on a visit to a prison in Tanzania. I was volunteering at Magereza Nursery School, in Moshi. The school is located inside the Magereza prison quarters and it offers free classes to the children of guards and prisoners, as well as to the children that live in the village in front of the prison. One of the boys in my class, Joshua, lives with his jailed mum since he was born. In…
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YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS BEFORE YOU VOLUNTEER IN A SCHOOL IN AFRICA
Chaos. 49 children, between 2 to 4 years old in one classroom. Only 6 are sitting down, the other 43 let their inner wild animal out. 4 are getting under the carpet while 2 are jumping on top of it. 3 are hanging out the windows; 1 of them is throwing chalk out to the garden. 5 are taking turns climbing the tables and jumping to the floor. One landed on a girl that started crying. 4 boys are moving the furniture against the wall, while 3 boys are fighting for a tennis ball. 2 boys are drawing lines across the board; another 2 are erasing what I had written.…
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MOSHI TRAIN STATION – Where Time Stopped
“Moshi has a train station?! But there are no trains here!” 2 weeks into my time in Moshi, a town in the north of Tanzania, I found out about the existence of a train station. And as it has turned out, it became my favorite place in Moshi. With the sumptuous Kilimanjaro as a backdrop, it is a place to sit in peace, a place where time stopped and where
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A Tanzanian Town and the Tanzanian People – from a Mzungo’s perspective
“Mambo” “Poa” “Hujambo” “Sijambo” “Habari” “Mzuri” “Karibu” “Asante” This was the daily introduction conversation exchanged with strangers on the streets of Tanzania. For the first two weeks living here, my brain couldn’t think quick enough and countless times I ended up answering the wrong thing. The locals would laugh at my clumsiness trying to correct myself with another wrong answer! At times it felt like the locals were testing how much Swahili did I speak, which was pretty much just about it. Tanzanian people are super friendly, curious and always happy to
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Meet my camel… Kammy!
For those of you who are thinking that I got a deal and swapped my boyfriend for a camel, the answer is no. Hahah But Kammy is very charming! Every time he gets up I fear I’m going to land on my face, so I have to lean back firmly because when he stands up with the back legs first, he throws me forward before I am thrown up in the air. And he is pretty tall! 20km from the Algerian border, in the Erg Chebbi Dunes in Sahara desert, our berber guide ties the camels to each other in a line and guides the first camel with the others following him. We are…
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Camels on the road!!!!
As morning broke my sleepy eyes were greeted with a surprise as I looked out of our window, our Riad was located next to the massive wall of a mountain. When we arrived last night it was pitch black and we couldn’t see much beyond the Riad, so I was shocked to see such an impressive sight in the daylight. Oh it is time! Ibrahim welcome us with a big smile! Quickly we get back on the road, today is the second day of our road trip to the desert! After a brief stop at the monkey finger’s mountain and looking over the big city of Tinghir, we approach the Todra Gorge. It is…
