Weekend Trip to Tanzania

Three weekends ago, a small group of us decided to head south to check out neighboring Tanzania. We took a six hour bus ride to the second-largest city in Tanzania, Arusha, which is located in the Northern region, two hours outside of the Kenyan border. We always joke about how we never have any normal days here in Africa—how something crazy happens every day, and this trip was definitely no exception. While crossing into Tanzania, we came across a little problem at the border control. Before leaving, we had all asked around to make sure that there were no visa fees to enter Tanzania. Everyone we spoke to told us that since we are residents of Kenya and thus residents of the East African Community, we should not have to pay a visa fee—they were quite wrong. To our great surprise, we found out that a new law was passed in September, requiring all U.S. citizens to pay a fee of $100 to enter Tanzania. What is quite interesting, however, is the fact that America is in a group of its own, for the fee for citizens of all other non-African countries is $50. Considering the fact that none of us had any American dollars on us, we had a lot of negotiating to do. We were traveling with the US ambassador’s son, who called his dad from the border to make sure that we weren’t just being ripped off and that the fee was indeed $100. Once we found out that it was true, we knew we were in for some trouble. Since there were 6 of us, we were supposed to rally up $600. The fact that they do not accept credit or debit cards of any kind, nor do they have any ATM machines, made the situation quite tricky. After several minutes of serious negotiating with the border control, we were able to come to agreement in which we would pay the equivalent of $300 in Kenyan schillings on the way out and then would have to pay the remaining $300 on the way back through. Although it was a bit unnerving at the time, we all get a good laugh out of the whole situation. Only in Africa is entering one’s country up negotiation.

The drive through Tanzania was quite beautiful, as the country is quite mountainous. We got to see Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa from afar. Arusha turned out to be a pretty nice city, although much smaller than Nairobi. The people there were extremely friendly and spoke a clear Kiswahili. While there, we spent some time walking around and talking to the people, in addition to doing some shopping. The main reason we went there, however, was to visit a particular Boy’s Home that one of my friend’s older sister worked at for over a year. There are about 60 kids at the home, ranging from 4 years old to 23. The kids seemed to be treated well, although my friend says that there are problems of corruption and misallocation of resources throughout the management. It was obvious, however, that the boys do not get many visitors, and they were so happy to spend time and play with us, even though we were only able to be there for a few hours. Overall, the trip was pretty relaxing and was a nice opportunity to see another country.