Shanga River House

The call to prayer cuts through the air at dawn emanating from a nearby mosque. It’s soothing, not demanding and invites reflection on the practice, a reminder to pray, an opportunity too often missed.

The birds start their calls, unfamiliar to our ears, just ahead of the sun and then fall silent as day breaks. We can’t wait to “see” our surroundings. Throwing open the heavy curtain and stepping onto our verandah we are face to face with a scene from Jurassic Park (without the dinos). We are on the second floor, yet the wide green leaves rooted in the earth reach past our rooftop. Shaped like a bay leaf they are 3-4 feet wide. There’s a faint smell of wood smoke hanging in the air and off in the distance, music. We will learn it is never quiet here. Drums, chanting, instrumental music and song are the soundtrack of Olisiti Lodge.

View From Our Terrace

Our Room

Entrance to Olisiti Lodge

Frank in the Lodge Lobby

Breakfast is served buffet style on the lodge terrace overlooking the pool and a jacaranda tree in full indigo bloom. Our choices include cereal, yogurt, fruit (love the papaya) bacon, potatoes, sausage, crepe-like pancakes and an omelet station.

Omelet Artist

Sweeping the Pool Deck

Jacaranda Tree

After breakfast we meet our group leader: Ombeni Samson (his father’s name) Maka (his father’s last name). He’s a big gregarious guy from the Sukuma (Lake Victoria) tribe, the largest in Tanzania. He is immediately likeable, organized and confident. We’ll be in good hands.

There are 16 of us, a varied group of mostly retired medical professionals, an attorney, a systems analyst, chemists, a college professor and US. We learn that OAT gives 15% of their profits to support schools in Tanzania. We have brought school supplies to donate which are a kind gesture but most likely negligible in the grand scheme.

There are 125 tribes in Tanzania. They each have a tribal language, which is their first language. They learn Swahili as their second language, (and the universal language of Tanzania), and if they are fortunate enough to attend secondary school, they will also learn English. There are 3 challenges to the citizens here: medical care, clean water and food. It is very dry, making food cultivation difficult.

The local currency is the shilling 1,500 shillings = one US dollar. The population is 35% Muslim and 60% Christian.

There is a strong Chinese presence. The law says an outside company must hire 95% of their work force from Tanzania. The Chinese bribe officials and bring Chinese prisoners to do their work.

AND we learn that the Happy Room is the lavatory. Thus prepped, we head to our first outing.

Ombeni cautions us to keep our cameras inside the windows of the van. Thieves are watching and act quickly. They grab and go. If they are caught people on the street will kill them.

The poverty is dramatic, but not unexpected. Structures are primitive. One woman has built her 3-sided shop from crates: 2 wide, 4 high draped with a length of cloth. She sits inside on a stool ready for business; a sawmill operates from a three-sided wooden structure. Sawdust piles up in the dirt and several men run boards through manually. Men use shovels to move huge piles of dirt, one scoop at a time. Mornings are the time to find and fetch water. Women walk with plastic buckets to the drainage ditch that divides the road. The water looks filthy, littered with garbage. It will be used for cooking and drinking.

Arusha Street Scenes

At the Shanga River House, Emmanuel walks us around the adjoining coffee plantation. We learn that a coffee tree lives 60-70 years. The trees have a jasmine like flower and produce red cherries and within each one are two coffee beans. The beans are hand picked in March, usually by women. A good day of picking would yield 2 buckets and the pay would be about $1 a bucket. The crop from this plantation is sold to Starbucks. The yield at harvest is eleven pounds of roasted coffee per plant. Our slick and sophisticated coffee shops do a booming business, but it all comes back to this.

Emmanuel

Coffee Plantation

Blooms

Coffee Berries

Coffee Beans

At the Shanga workshop, disabled people earn a salary weaving, making glass beads, painting plaques and creating jewelry and other artistic pieces. “Kindness is a language which blind people see and deaf people hear” is painted prominently on a wall. A motto that sets the tone for the smiling interactions that follow.

Shanga means beads in Swahili and the trees are hung with beaded lanterns and glass and beadwork wind chimes.  Glass bottles are recycled, smashed by hand and hammer into an almost powder then melted in forges and recreated into colorful shapes. The artists here create fabulous blown glass chandeliers intricate mosaics and many simpler but no less beautiful pieces of art. They work with primitive tools in primitive surroundings. The bead polisher consists of a washing machine motor attached to an old bicycle wheel rim. Collections of empty green glass bottles are hung in formation to create unique partitions. All income from the Shanga workshop and restaurant goes to employing more disabled people.

Glass Forge

Beads From Recycled Glass

Bead Polisher

Smita with the "Ruby" Slipper

Close Up

Wall of Bottles

Lunch is served at the River House Restaurant. The chef, Babu, introduces us to traditional Tanzanian cuisine. 
The menu: 
Makande, (red beans and maize stew), 
Green banana stew with beef broth, 
Pilau, or spiced rice (prepared with 6 different spices, onions, carrots, potatoes, cinnamon, cardamom and garlic), 
Local spinach called mchicha (we’re told it grows wild like grass), 
Ugali,  (polenta made with corn flour),
Cucumber, green pepper, tomato, and onion salad with chilies,
Chicken curry which the chef teasingly tells us is prepared with cat. Cat, or paka in Swahili can also mean painted with spices.
The drinks menu lists diet coke “in tin” which turns out to be the familiar aluminum can containing the accustomed carbonated brew.

Chef Babu

Tanzanian Specialties

Becky Stirs the Ugali

Hand Crafted Decor at the River House Restaurant

We eat at a long table set on an open-air tented deck. A blue monkey performs a floorshow swinging through nearby tree branches and causing a ruckus.

After lunch, orange cake and Tanzanian coffee are served in a green grassy park. The benches are lined with colorful pillows. We hear a presentation on tanzanite in the gift shop where a variety of the precious violet stones is displayed for sale. The shop sells craft items produced in the Shanga House workshop. I’d love one of the glass chandeliers, but they are not for sale and how would it ever travel unscathed? I’d be happy to give it a go however.

Tanzanian Coffee and Orange Cake Served Here

Last stop today is the Cultural Heritage Center in Arusha. It’s almost closing time so, it’s a quick stop. Long enough for one of our group to purchase a stunning tanzanite ring. Ombeni makes a deal with us about shopping. If we ask his opinion about a purchase he cannot give a negative response that would hurt his relationships with the places we visit. So, the code will be: if he says something is good, it’s probably not a great purchase for the price. If he says something is very good, it’s a reasonable purchase.

Outdoor Sculpture at the Cultural Center

Sign on Ladies "Happy Room"

Back at the hotel, power cutting off and on reminds us of the challenges of where we are.

Dinner by candlelight on the lodge terrace and then more jet-lagged sleep.