Last Day in Arusha, Tanzania

August 12 – On our last day in Arusha, we said good-bye to Keith and headed to learn how to do Tinga-Tinga paintings (http://www.insideafricanart.com/Artists%20Main%20Pages/Tingatinga-main.htm)

I chose a mother and baby elephant to learn to draw and paint. I did the outline of the elephants and thought that was it but then came back after lunch to do the color – the whole experience took me about 3 hours to paint – but I think it is great! After the morning painting, Marianne, Laizer and I said good-bye to Ian, Gwen and Jill.We had lunch and went to the Tourist Market to spend the rest of our Tanzanian shillings! I am getting much better at negotiating prices! Then it was 5pm and time to get the taxi to Kilimanjaro International Airport. I am very glad I had one day to hang out with Laizer and Marianne and enjoy Arusha!

Arusha is a large busy city. And I really noticed this time how many people are here. It looks like most people’s jobs are out on the streets. People are selling everything from furniture to sunglasses to flashlights (torches) to African paintings to corn on the cob to oranges to onions and potatoes – all this is done along the sidewalks and on the roads – people are everywhere!
There seems to be one major road – no highway structures, no traffic lights, no billboards, just a one lane road with lots of speed bumps – and if people are not driving they are just walking along the side of the roads – some have bicycles – but most people are just walking, or sitting along the side of the road.

What an unbelievable, ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ adventure! Hakuna Matata!