A few weeks into the program, we spent a weekend in Bagamoyo, a major slave port a few hours north along the coast. We also spent three days in Zanzibar, the island paradise of Africa. Unfortunately it rained the entire weekend, but that didn’t prevent us from visiting a seaweed farm, playing soccer with a local village, and strolling through the narrow streets of Stonetown, an Arabian city on the wrong continent.
We concluded the program with two weeks in Arusha, a city twelve hours north of Dar es Salaam. We kicked off the trip seriously with a visit to the UN Tribunal for Rwanda, where we were given the opportunity to sit in on a trial. We listened to Colonel Bagosora testify on Kamera’s behalf. It was overwhelming to listen to one of the main actors of the genocide continuously avoiding answering questions while only a few feet away from us.
The trip lightened up with a visit to the East African Commission where an overly enthusiastic PR representative explained the benefits of the newly implemented free trade agreement between the five member countries. We also were given the opportunity to visit two NGO’s based in Arusha, Maasai Women Education Organization (MWEDO) and an organization dealing with HIV/AID survivors. And of course no trip to East Africa could be complete without a safari. The image and sound of a male lion slurping water out of a hole in a rock just a few dozen feet away from our jeep will forever be ingrained in my mind.
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