From the School Bus Windows

There are several routes that the brightly painted school buses take when they pick up and deliver the students and staff to and from school. Since all buses end up back at the Moshono campus, where I live, I can ride any bus, and in this way, I am seeing many parts of greater Arusha.

The morning ride follows a set route, and let me tell you what I see as we "jump" along. As I have been here longer, I am seeing more details. At first, everything is so new, so different. And there is grand scenery to admire always. Majestic Mt. Meru towers above all, sometimes clear, sometimes with swirling clouds. And there are many foothills and valleys. But if I look just out my window, people are starting their day. The school children are walking to school, or waiting along the road for the school buses to pick them up. Students all wear uniforms. We first pass students in forest green uniforms. On Tuesdays they must have an early start, because they are all running to get to school on time. Then I see students in red uniforms, purple uniforms, lots of variations of blue (like St. Jude's), a snappy orangey-yellowy top with bright green skirt or slacks, and browns and greys. The students at one school have horizontally olive green and white striped knee-high socks. Most uniforms include ties, for both boys and girls. The girls never wear slacks to school. Their uniforms are always skirts or dresses. Some girls were head scarves. The boys wear long or short pants. Boys and girls have short cropped hair. On certain days the students are carrying buckets and brooms made from branches. The buckets are for them to fill with water so they will have water at their schools. The brooms are so they can help clean up. St. Jude's students do not do this, though. We have running water at both campuses! I have not seen anyone carrying a lunch, and I am told that lunch is provided for the students. Like at home, some students go to their neighborhood schools and some travel long distances on the school buses to go to private schools, like St. Jude's. Even the youngest children wait for their school bus on their own, having walked great distances to the road from their homes in some cases. We pass three teacher training colleges on our route to school, and the older students walking in the gates are dressed in blazers and slacks or skirts. I understand that these schools offer one and two year courses.

But back to the sights of Tanzania.

We pass big homes with walls around them that have fancy iron gates, and we pass dirt homes that will certainly not last through the rainy season. Most homes are made of cement or brick. Many homes have porches, and much daily activity occurs outside. Shops and workshops are side by side the homes, and the shops are open early. Some homes are just cement, and some are painted. There is a turquoise that is quite popular, and it reminds me of the house I where I grew up. It was the brightest house in the neighborhood. I don't think the neighbors appreciated it, to be honest. When we gave directions, we just said, "It's the turquoise house," and no one ever missed it. During the past week there has been a daily rain that just lasts for ten or twenty minutes, so there is not as much dust, but during my first weeks here there was dust on everything, kicked up by the cars, buses and trucks driving on the dirt roads. There are a few cyclists, fewer motorcycles, and two-wheeled wooden carts (often heavily laden with bunches of green bananas or cement bricks) which are pulled by a man. There are home made wheelbarrows as well. Women carry heavy loads on their heads. A cluster of green bananas, and a plastic bucket filled with water are both common. And, even those in Western clothes often have a brightly colored kanga wrapped around their waist. Most notably, there are always pedestrians walking along the side of the road. The little buses (dalla-dallas) stop anywhere to let off customers or take on new riders, pulling off the road and onto the shoulder. There are herds of goats, the occasional donkey and cows going down the road. In short, there is activity everywhere. When I compare that with my morning commute at home, I have to say that most days I do not even see a single person walking on the sidewalk. Do you? Sometimes I see joggers (I see them here, too) and I may see someone walking a dog (lots of dogs here, but never being walked), but usually the people at home are all in their cars.

Just now the soil is being readied for planting. Mostly men and women are hoeing small plots, turning over the rich soil. I have seen three tractors, and a few plows, being pulled by men and by animals. The local crops are maize (corn), banana trees, coffee, fruits like mangoes and pineapples and all sorts of delicious vegetables. There are also some plots of wet rice farming. Along the roads, and around the homes are hedges of bougainvilla of every color, and there are many different kinds of trees. This is what the Garden of Eden must have looked like with lush, greenery everywhere, rivers rushing in ravines, and many flowers blooming around the homes and fields. And thinking of flowers, along one afternoon route, we pass by vinyl flower greenhouses where flowers, mostly roses, are grown and shipped on the daily KLM flight to Amsterdam where they are sold in the flower auction. The employees that I see walking home in the afternoons are all women, wearing traditional kangas (sarongs). There is an isolated cement ATM, with a guard, in the middle of nowhere (seemingly) where these employees stop to collect their pay, which has been automatically deposited in their accounts. There are other nurseries, too, for locals. Plants of all sizes are lined up in rows along the berm at the edge of several roads. They are in plastic bags, and ready for purchase.

There is so much to see out the bus windows! I never get tired of the sights, and I can look up and see Mt. Meru, look across at the green groves of banana trees, and look down and see the people going about their daily routines.