19th February 2009 - Some answers

It's good that you readers are asking some questions because some things are just so second nature that I forget to explain them. Keep them up, please.

I arrived at Kilimanjaro airport, which is about halfway between two towns/cities: Arusha and Moshi. Moshi is the smaller town, and at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is from there that expeditions leave to climb the mountain, and it's a nice little place, with lots of banana trees. Arusha is larger and the launching place for most folks who want to do the National Park circuit: Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti. According to the 2002 census Arusha has a population of under 250,000 but it's hard for me to believe that those numbers still hold. That might be true of the municipality of Arusha, but there are outskirts on all sides that look like they belong, so the population seems like much more. There is a downtown area, with shops and offices, some hotels, and then there are the outskirts where most of the people live. Those who live in the downtown areas are mostly shop owners, many of them originally from India, who live above the shops.

One area rather on the outskirts of the municipality is call Ole Siti, and that's where I'm at right now. About 10 years ago the Maryknoll Sisters decided to buy a plot of land and to build a house, one which could be used for the Sisters who work in Arusha (we were renting before) and one that was big enough for Maryknoll Sister guests travelling between Nairobi and Dar es Salaam or wherever. The plot was large enough to divide it with Emusoi Centre, the education centre for Maasai girls. (Check their website: www.emusoicentre.co.tz) And so that's where I've set down for the interim until I settle into where I'll actually live and work. There are three Maryknoll Sisters living here at the moment, together with one Maryknoll Sister Candidate (we expect that she will travel to New York in the summer to begin her orientation period as she becomes a Mk. Sr). And so that's where I am for the time being.

Arusha is probably the second largest city in Tanzania and has a very good climate. Mt. Meru is very near and we see it out the living room window every morning. Most of those tourists who filled the plane came here to Arusha to depart for their safaris, although some of the younger ones may have gone to Moshi to get ready for a climb of Kilimanjaro. The area right around Arusha usually gets suffiicient rainfall and the soil is pretty good, so a lot of vegetables are grown close by. Flower growing for export to Europe has also grown in the past few years but now there is the complaint that because of the economy in Europe and the US, that market is diminishing.

For those who have been wondering: Habari means NEWS, so that's what I've called this blog. And yes, I do have a camera and will post pictures sometime. I need to learn how to do that first .... I'm into learning these days (actually it's something I always like to do) so I think I'll manage before too long!