A visit with the locals

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Trip Start Jun 11, 2011 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 26, 2011 Next
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  Mto wa Mbu, Arusha, Tanzania
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

This morning we left our hotel in Arusha and drove to our campsite, Twiga, just outside Lake Manyara National Park. Our tents were already set up when we got there so all we had to do was carry our bags into our tents. Then we had a little while to settle in, get changed, etc. before we went on a walking tour of the village Mto wa Mbu, which translates to "river of mosquitos". There are both a river and many mosquitos in the village, so it is appropriately named. More importantly, however, it is home to more than 120 different tribes living together peacefully.

We started our culture walk with a stop at the rice fields. Rice is a major agriculture in Tanzania but is rarely eaten by the locals. It is usually reserved for the most special of guests. It is also closely guarded. They don't rely on scarecrows to keep the birds from eating the rice seeds - instead they hire a man to sit in the field all day long and scare away any birds that may come by. The workers are normally paid a little money and a few kilograms of food, but sometimes can work for money alone.

Our next stop was a tribe from Mozambique. The men all carve wood for a living. Boys end school early to learn the trade. They are incredibly talented and now we know why some of the larger carvings are so expensive - a given carving can take a day, several weeks, or a few months to create depending on its size and complexity. We watched the men at work then perused their work before walking around the village and looking in the houses, school and church.

We walked through a banana farm and learned about the life cycle of a banana then stopped in at an artist colony and watched them paint oils and a knife. It was all very interesting but a hot and humid day in the sun so we were all much relieved when lunchtime came and we sat in the shade enjoying our delicious Tanzanian lunch - which included rice, chili, fresh fruit, beef, potatoes and naan bread.

Our 7-seater pop-up roof jeeps picked us up after lunch to take us on our first game drive!

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Me, some kids and a termite hill   Comments!	Termite hill	Rice fields	Rice field seeding
School room in Mto wa Mbu	Visiting a Mozambique tribe	Carvings for sale	The carvers and their products
A girl outside a mud house	Walking through the farms	View through the church window	Future toilet of a new house
Palms in the village	House and banana trees	Banana flower	Children in the banana farm
More children	A chick in the village	Bright flowers in the village	Coka cola door in a house
Flowers in the village	Artist colony	Artist painting	Bananas
Lunch time!	Happy children

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