Take a walk with me...

January 9, 2019

Take a walk with me…

Behind Kundayo, there’s a road that’s off the beaten path. I would say that the road is impassable but the cars and motorbikes obviously don’t.  I first took this walk with John, and then I did it myself to take more pictures. Now, take a walk with me and I’ll show you what I saw.  

We’ll start at the gate to Kundayo.  It’s always closed and sometimes there’s a man there to open and close the gate when cars come.

Just a few steps down the road, there is a wall and a gate…a Diagnostic Center. Yes, I, too, am clueless.

This bridge is apparently new—new from last year.  BUT why are the metal plates dented and bent?  It felt sturdy at any rate.

This little hut on the left, behind the leafy branch, is a barber shop. Notice the Servanthood Christian Church sign.  There are lots of churches here.

This is one of the nice big houses.  I noticed that the roads in front of some of the houses are paved or at least in better shape.

Next to the house is a lane with a lovely mural on the wall.

Between the houses and buildings are small fields of banana trees and corn fields. Bananas grow “upside down,” you know.

Along the way, I saw a man trimming a banana tree. I don’t know how he managed to shimmy up that thing but he was sawing off branches which were falling into the road.  I immediately noticed he had no safety gear and there were no orange cones in the road to warn pedestrians and drivers.  LOL.

I know that you’re wondering where the man is.  I had to snap this picture quickly because he was hanging there, waiting for us to pass.  You can see him about ¾ of the way up the tree, sitting in a little “V” where he just chopped off a branch.  Maybe this close up will be good enough for you to see him.

Farther on there’s a B&B, aka Volunteer Accommodation.  I’m not sure about this but it looks nice.

Like I said, there are a lot of churches here.  This one is the 7^th Day Adventist Church—with the restroom building next door.  Just after taking the picture, a man came out and invited me in to a church service.  “Yes, someday soon,” I said. (OK, don’t get me started….)

I love all the unique, creative, hand-crafted gates.  Some are better than others but I greatly appreciate the craftsmanship.  Instead of boring you with all the gates along the way, I’ll bore you with a quick overview of all of them.  Here they are:

Not everything nice is humanly hand crafted.  Take a look at the lovely flowers growing on this wall.

People here are very friendly and I often get smiles and greetings.  This woman stopped me on the street but didn’t speak English.  My Swahili wasn’t quite up to par (OK, it doesn’t exist) so it was difficult to tell what she was trying to tell me when she kept pointing up the road and inviting me to come.  She was waving a tape measure so I thought she had a little dress-makers shop that she wanted me to visit.  I later discovered that she had a vegetable stand and wanted me to buy fruit and vegetables.

As I walked along, I heard a siren and thought an emergency vehicle was coming through. (Silly me.) It was actually a huge truck driven by a small woman in an orange safety vest.  Men were lounging on top of the cab and in the back of the truck. Siren? Lounging men? What do you think that was all about?  Stay tuned!

Some shops were closed—like the Bungeni Grocery / Beauty Dressing Shop. Go figure.

Eventually, I came to a T in the road and it was time to turn back.  

Next time, maybe we can continue on to the right, where there is an interesting open market.

 Here are two views of that direction.

...or maybe we'll go to the left to see some large and fancy schmancy buildings.  This is the way there.

Notice that the school children are “unaccompanied minors.”  Even the smallest of children walk alone or with siblings.  They take public transportation and generally get where they need to go without fear of danger.

There is new construction in many places in Arusha.  Almost everyone I have seen is engaged in “purposeful movement,” meaning that they are going somewhere or doing something.  I haven’t seen any guys standing on street corners with their hands out or carrying a sign. I have seen a few old women sitting on sidewalks with their hands out.  That seems to be a different story.  Take a look at the masons, then… back to our walk….

   People here use whatever means they have to carry things.

There were also several little fruit/vegetable stands.  Sometimes it’s just a small table or blanket set up on the side of the road.  This one is one of the larger ones.  At first the woman on the left was sleeping on a bench inside her little hut.  Then, her friend came by and teased her for sleeping on the job. In truth, I don’t know what the friend was saying.  It was in Swahili but the woman laughed and they spent quite a bit of time chatting.

In fact, spending time with each other and enjoying good conversation seems to be a national past time. When the day is pleasant, people sit outside and enjoy each other’s company.

Close to Kundayo, just before the nice big house, I came across a new-looking little shop.  Little—bigger than most peoples’ bathrooms but really small.  Inside the store, two women were talking. When I stopped to look in the window of the shop, one of the women came out and greeted me.  I asked her if she had any eggs and she invited me inside. She asked me what kind of eggs I wanted.  Huh? Eggses is eggses, right?  So, I said, “chicken eggs???” Well… she showed me two eggs and asked if I wanted the little white #$%&# eggs or the bigger brown #&%$# eggs. Hmmm. 

What’s the difference? (Besides color, of course.). The 2^nd woman in the shop explained that the little white eggs were from chickens who scratched for food in the yard while the brown eggs came from chickens in cages. Yes, even in Africa.  I bought 4 little-white-cage-free eggs for a very extravagant price of 21 cents apiece.  Really!!! 

That’s almost $3 a dozen which is close to what one can pay in the states. Expensive! (Once I figured out what I’d really paid.) I think it must have been the Wagunzu price.  Anyway, the shop keeper is Lekisa and her friend with the big hat is Martha.  Martha is the pastor of a Church and she goes out and about ministering to heathens and inviting them to her church. She suggested that we get together and hang out.  She’d show me the sights.  Hmmmm…. something to think about.  But there’s that “ministering” thing again.

As I was about to leave the shop, I noticed that the big truck with the lounging men had pulled up just outside.  The men were no longer lounging but were picking up trash and garbage in sacks and bins alongside the road. Not all the garbage was in bags, so if there was a bin or can, they upended it into the bed of the truck.  It seems that when they came down the street the first time, the siren informed people that it was time to put their garbage out.  So, doors opened and bags of garbage were put on the side of the road. Then when the truck came back through a few minutes later, the garbage was picked up. What a great system. I didn’t get a picture of this but you’ve already seen the truck.

Back at Kundayo, I saw Mama Kundayo and her son, Maso, in the courtyard so I went over and introduced myself to her. I’ve been looking forward to meeting this formidable grand dame and I was pleased to finally do so.

And so ends our walk.  I hope you enjoyed it.