The road to Arusha is paved with...well...asphalt

It’s the weekend here so nothing very interesting has been happening. There’s really nothing to write a post about specifically so I thought I’d discuss the roads here in Arusha.

The best way I can describe is as kind of a parody of a post-apocalyptic wasteland…like it’s making fun of Mad Max in a way. The main road is perfect in almost every way. It’s so smooth. There’s no potholes. There’s no traffic jams. And there are service roads on either side so that the traffic doesn’t get held up (although instead of a traffic island between the main road and parallel service roads, there’s a two meter deep, 1.5 meter wide, uncovered storm water drain that no one every seem to fall into, with only the occasional piece of concrete as a means to get across it…unless you want to jump…). The thing is, if you stray off the main road (aside from the roads that go through the city centre which are also pretty good, albeit dust-covered), you’ll find yourself on the bumpiest, most rocky, unsealed roads you’ve ever seen. It’s like it’s trying to highlight the fact that the roads can’t all be as perfect as the big ones are when no one is maintaining them.

Another weird aspect is that there is a MASSIVE contrast between the city of Arusha (which is actually really small to be honest…it’s smaller than Shepparton for sure, yet I think there are more people living here) and the countryside. Coming here from the airport (which is about an hour east of Arusha), I was amazed at how green and wonderful the countryside was. It was honestly breathtaking for the most part, the only sign of humans being the sets of high voltage powerlines running parallel to the road you could see every few kilometres. Compare that to Arusha? It’s dusty, busy, jam-packed full of people meandering to wherever they’re going (and also there’s armed guards with fully automatic rifles just standing guard at the banks when you pass them, and no one seems alarmed or concerned by it…Michael didn’t understand why it surprised me when I saw them hahaha). It’s so different to the serene countryside.

Now, time to talk about the Dala Dala. I’ve briefly mentioned them before, but I’ll elaborate so you know what I’m talking about when I say they’re really packed. They are all Toyota Hiace minivans. Not the new ones though. I’d say early 2000s, maybe late 90s. They have been modified so that there is no boot space, only seating. The back row has 4 seats across. Keep in mind these are standard width road vehicles…the same width that often feels overcrowded with 3 people sitting side by side. The second row from the back, has 4 seats again. One of them can fold up to the side to allow a small access to the back row. The first and second rows of the Dala Dala have 3 seats each, but that’s only because they are next to the sliding door and step, so you physically can’t mount 4 seats here. There also 2 seats in the front of the van next to the driver’s seat, but I’m unclear as to whether passengers or friends of the driver sit here. (They drive on the left hand side of the road here, but I’ll elaborate on that too) The driver’s assistant sits/stands with half his body hanging out the sliding door window yelling either “Dala Dala Dala Dala Dala” over and over again or the route that the van is taking (for example my one is “Sakina Sakina Sakina Sakina Sakina”). They also squash more people into the nooks and crannies of the can sometimes, although not often. The Dala Dala service, although running along specific routes, has next to no schedule. This is because they often wait at a particular stop for 5-10 minutes, trying to get as many passengers as they can, or until they are full (full being an objective term here, not a subjective one, because I would argue that they were full at about half the number they usually take hahahah…honestly there is no way this would be allowed in Melbourne). It’s a common reason, if you ask someone why they are late, to hear them just say “Dala Dala”. To get off them, you just knock really hard on the roof before your stop. If the driver or assistant don’t hear you then it’s like an unwritten rule that other people will knock and yell with you until they hear, and the van stops. Getting out from the back row usually requires about 3 or 4 other people to get out too…I say usually because some people just squish up against their seat…which really does not work. (A little side that Michael told me. There was a girl who didn’t know that all you were supposed to do was knock, and she, on her first time catching it alone, just yelled the stop name that she wanted to get off at. Apparently everyone in the van just laughed at her and they didn’t even stop, they just kept going. She started crying a lot apparently and just went back home, didn’t even go to the office that morning. Michael got called by the host mother because she couldn’t figure out why the girl was crying so much. He told me that and then said “So lesson of the story, just knock really loud to get off the Dala Dala okay?”) The Dala Dala are also not bland at all. Each and every one of them is decorated with many many stickers. There are usually a bunch of simple design ones, like blue lines or something, but they also range from things like the American Flag, to, and I kid you not, I seriously saw this, a massive picture of Drake on the side of one. They all look pretty unique and different, despite all being the same, white, Hiace van. Also, I’d say about 95% of them (at least) have religious slogans on them, like “Proud to be Muslim” or “Glory to God” or “Jesus loves us”. The country is about a third Christian, a third Muslim, and a third other religions. There are next to no people here who aren’t religious which is really interesting. Apparently, it’s really frowned upon to not go to church weekly.

So, driving on the left side of the road. Sounds like home, right? Well…you could say that (unless you’re on the main roads which are divided by a traffic island between the two directions of traffic) the road rules are treated more like “road suggestions” here. If you want to go around people, you just drive on the wrong side of the road for a while. If there’s potholes, just drive on the wrong side of the road for a while. If there’s motorbikes or pedestrians, just drive on the wrong side of the road. If there’s really any sort of inconvenience to you driving on the correct side of the road, just drive on the wrong side of the road for a while. Additionally, I am yet to see one speed limit sign. So people tend to drive as fast as the speed bumps, pedestrians crossing the roads at random times, and potholes will allow them to.

I was telling Michael a few days ago about how in Melbourne, Australia, you have to get your learner’s license, then drive for 120 hours with a fully licensed driver next to you (unless you’re older than 21). He thought that was ridiculous, in fact everyone I’ve told that to says it’s ridiculous. In Holland for example, I think it’s only 36 hours. Belle asked me “but even if you have a log book, what’s to stop people from just lying and saying they did more when they didn’t?” and I said “Yeah exactly. A lot of people do do that” hahaha. Here in Tanzania, you just go for a couple of driving lessons with a driving school, and once you’re not obviously going to kill yourself or other people, you can drive. I’m not sure whether you need a license or not. Michael said in Kenya, his drivers test was that he had to drive a huge truck with 12 gears without it stalling for a while. Anyway, so yeah that’s interesting. A lot of the driving that people do here seem somewhat impromptu…

I think that’s everything about the roads here. Oh yeah, in addition to the Dala Dala service, there are motorbikes with sign strapped to the riders’ backs everywhere that operate like a kind of taxi service, but for only one person. Yeahhhh…we’re not allowed on those. And rightly so. A lot of them don’t give helmets to the passengers or anything protective, and then ride alone at 80km/h or so.

Otherwise, that’s kind of the whole road experience. I think I said this in a previous post, but I’d say at least 90% of the vehicles here in Arusha are either: Toyota Hiace vans, motorbikes, other Toyota vehicles, and the same massive, blue Isuzu truck I see multiple times per day.

Btw, here’s a picture of the house I’m staying in…it’s really bloody massive. Apparently Jillian’s friends (Jillian is the second oldest kid, she’s 16 and she just got home from boarding school yesterday, and she’ll be back here for 7 weeks before she goes back) call this place “ikuru”, which means the white house. I found it funny since I’m not sure if they are actually comparing it with the white house in America where the orange oompa loompa lives, but yeah. (and yes that is a big 4WD next to the house…that’s how big it is)

I really appreciate VicRoads a bit more now...