H akuna matatA HNU
tan zan ia excursion
10 moments by daniel keppler
2011
10 moments by daniel keppler
In the fall of 2011 twenty lucky students from the University of Applied Science Neu-Ulm had the opportunity to take part in an excursion to Tanzania. From 12th to 23th of November the group travelled to East Africa to experience a total different culture, to learn from African students and to widen every ones personal horizon. Daniel Keppler presents the 10 most impressive moments of the excursion.
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Arrival............................................................................. 5 Buddies.......................................................................... 6 Campus.......................................................................... 9 Friends.........................................................................11 Safari............................................................................13 On the road..................................................................14 Zanzibar.......................................................................16 Kiswahili course..........................................................18 Spice Tour....................................................................21 The beach....................................................................22
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On our way to Morogoro. In Tanzania you see at least five times as many bicycles as cars.
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Arrival. My journey to Tanzania began in Berlin. By train I arrived at the Frankfurt Airport right in time to meet the other students and to check in. Our flight departure at half past two and our flight route foresaw a stopover in Doha. After almost a twenty hours flight, we arrived at Dar es Salaam International Airport. Exhausted, tired and hungry we were greeted by the hot humid weather in East Africa and within seconds the cold, wet fall in Germany was forgotten. Against all expectations, there were no problems with the luggage or the entry visa at the airport. To all our surprise, the twenty African buddies from Mzumbe University waited outside of the airport for our arrival and
they welcomed us warmly. Every student had the chance to find his or her buddy student to greet each other. Lots of questions were asked and answered right away at the station and the lively conversation continued on the bus. After a while, it became really quiet on our way to Morogoro, because many students were still very tired from the long flight. Instead of sleeping I took the time to become better acquainted with my buddy Amon and to admire the landscape. Right from the beginning I was deeply impressed by the contrasts in Tanzania. The beautiful landscape and all the smiling people you see everywhere on one hand and on the other hand, the ubiquitous poverty.
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Buddies. We spend the first four days of the excursion mainly on the campus of the Mzumbe University in Morogoro. Each of the German students had an African “Buddy� with whom they could spend time during those days. My Buddy, Amon, was the class representative of the African students and a really remarkable person. Not only was he wearing extraordinary clothing every day, more so there was no question I could ask him, which he could not answer. He was like a moving glossary and after two days with him I knew more about Tanzania, than about any other country I have visited so far. Amon told me everything worth knowing about his country. He explained the school system, the hospital
system and the political system in Tanzania. Moreover, he described the daily life, named countless typical food specialties and gave me information on all cultural and geographical features in East Africa. To be honest, he told me so much that I have forgotten most of it already. Rarely have I met a man who is as inquisitive and ambitious as Amon. His big dream is to study in Germany and then become a famous scientist or politicians. Without him, my stay in Tanzania would have been only half as exciting and thrilling. I can never forget the suit he was wearing at the closing ceremony and I will never forget his dance style. Thanks for everything, Amon.
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My buddy Amon. An awesome man with a great future ahead (hopefully).
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The “cafeteria� at Mzumbe Univesity, Morogoro. One meal for 60 cent.
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Campus. As a German student, you may have different ideas about how a university campus looks like. Although I‘ve studied on Bali and thus was able to experience other universities, I was amazed at how Universities look like in Africa. The first major difference that I noticed was that the campus of the Mzumbe University is more like a small village outside of the city, than one big complex within a city like in Germany. The hotel where we were staying was the largest building on the site. The lecture rooms, the library and student apartments are separate houses and spread over the entire property. Perhaps the biggest differences I have
noticed between German- and African Universities are the Cafeterias. Not every German student may be satisfied with the quality of the cafeteria in Germany, but compared to African conditions our canteens are five star restaurants. But since food plays an important role for me to get to know a foreign culture, I did not hesitate to try out the local cafeteria with my buddy. The deep-fried potatoes and eggs were delicious, but after the third meal I realized that European stomachs do not stand this food well. Nevertheless, it was a great experience and I would do it again at any time.
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Some of the friends we made during our trip.
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Friends. Amon, Lucy, Rehema, and many other students I met during the excursion impressed me very much. To see how hard they work for their degree reminded me of how lucky we are in Germany. In Tanzania student fees are very high and it is by far not possible for every young adult to join University. But even those students, whose parents have a lot of money, have to hurry and they cannot waste time during the semester. Under these circumstances it was even more impressive that they have taken time for us during our stay and showed us around. My buddy Amon spent almost the whole four days at my side and we went together to the cafeteria, we visited the city and we even danced together. The moment in which I realized that I have found a real friend was, when I and my friend Julia had to go to the police station in Morogoro. We were accused
of photographing a mosque, which is forbidden in some Muslim countries. To be honest, Julia actually took a photo of the mosque, but since it was not a particularly great one, she deleted the shot right away. While we were standing on the opposite side of the road in front of the mosque waiting for a friend, a Muslim man approached us and started a intense discussion with our buddies. The end of the story was, that we had to go to the police station and the officers check all pictures on my and Julias camera. I do not want to think about would have happened if our friends would not have been there, but thanks to our buddies we left the station after half an hour. Lesson: Never take pictures of holy sites (if you want to, you have to be fast, or clever, or brave) and if you are at a police station in Africa it is best to have a friend with you.
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This pictures shows everything you have in mind when you here “Africa” and “Safari”. Mikumi National Park.
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Safari. My personal highlight of the trip and the main reason why I wanted to go to Africa: Wild animals. After two days at the Mzumbe University, we left the campus on our third day at five o`clock in the morning. Our destination was the Mikumi National Park, one of the sixteen National Parks in Tanzania. The Park is famous for the animals you can find there. It is common to see elephants, zebras, gnus and giraffes. For me it was the first time in a National Park and for this reason my expectations were very low. After paying the entrance fee, we were allowed to enter the Park with our busses and it did not took a long time, until we saw the first animals. I was so excited during the whole time in the park that I wanted to capture every single animal that came in visibility with my camera. Unfortunately this behavior resulted in the fact, that I was spending more time looking through the viewfinder than just enjoying the beauty of nature. However, the pictures I took were worth it.
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On the road. During our excursion we spend quite a fair amount of time on the road. We needed almost forty hours of flight to get and to return from Tanzania, four hours to Morogoro, and four hours back to Dar es Salaam. There were also five hours in total to get to Zanzibar by boot and several other hours in the bus to see the National Par, to get to the northern part of Zanzibar and to finally reach the airport on the final day. However, ever minute we spend on the road was worth it. Only be travelling long distances we had the chance to see a part
of the beauty of East Africa. Still, travelling in Tanzania is not always fun. Although we were lucky and had not any problems at all, many other road users were not so fortunate. On our way back from Morogoro to Dar es Salaam we witnessed five major accidents, one including a coach. Events like that remind you constantly, that the streets and in particular the mostly old vehicles are very dangerous. A lot safer was our crossing to Zanzibar. Never have I been on a more modern boat, than the ferry that took us to Zanzibar.
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Crossing to Zanzibar. Travelling by boat is a lot safer, than by bus. Both is beautiful in Tanzania.
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Zanzibar. Tropical beaches, exotic spices and foreign cultures. Whatever comes to your mind when you hear the word Zanzibar, we all had the chance to see how it really is. The first thing we say, after we landed at the harbor of Stone Town, the main town on Zanzibar, was a beautiful sunset and it was as if the sky was set on fire. Unfortunately, our accommodation, a good, clean and simple hotel in the heart of Stone Town, was not good enough for all students of our group. For these rea-
son, some of the students moved to another hotel, whereas the others tried to avoid the hassle and stayed in the rooms that were booked in advance. Main part of our time on Zanzibar was the Kiswahili course. The course took place at four mornings during our stay. For the rest of the time we had the chance to discover the city by our own. Stone Town, declared as a World Heritage by UNESCO, is a fascinating town. You can get easily lost in the small, win-
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Karibu Zanzibar. Sunset at the harbor.
ding allies and especially at the beginning you can have a hard time to find your way out of the labyrinth. While you walk through the small streets you have hundreds of opportunities to buy souvenirs. People who know me know that I´m not the biggest fan of standardized junk that is offered at inflated prices, so I did not by any “souvenirs�. I`m more fascinated by exotic food, so I tried everything I could find. Unfortunately I have to report that it is very hard
(compared with places like Marrakech or Kula Lumpur) to find good, cheap and unusual food on Zanzibar. What I do can recommend are the fish restaurants at the oceanfront (at least those were we had dinner). If you are in search of lonely tropical beaches, a bustling nightlife and budget accommodation Stone Town may be not a must seen city, but if you are interested in the Arabic culture, shopping and good restaurants, Stone Town is your Town
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Kiswahili course. I do not know, if I will need the few basic words we learned in the Kiswahili course ever again, but it was fun to at least learn enough words, to shop in the streets and to greet people on the street. In the first lesson we had at the State University of Zanzibar we learned how to say hello and how to answer. It was funny to realize, that our female teacher did not teach us the word “bad” to answer the question “how are you?” As we found out later, no one ever says “bad”, if you ask “Habari?”. Everything seemed to be “nzuri” (fine) all the time on Zanzibar. During our course we went to the local market to practice our Kiswahili and bargaining skills. Our teacher showed us places, where we could buy spices, scar-
ves and other more or less useful stuff. Besides learning grammar rules and vocabularies we had the chance to ask our teacher everything we wanted to know about the culture and daily life on Zanzibar. For all of us it was quite shocking to hear, that women still do not have the same rights as men. They are not allowed to leave the house without asking permission and they cannot meet other women without the agreement of her husband. Moreover it was hard to believe, that it is common for man on Zanzibar (and in the whole Arabic culture) to have more than one women. This was not a new fact for us, but to hear it from a woman, who has to “share” her husband with two other women is a total different experience.
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Besides Kiswahili we learned a lot more, than just the language in our course at the State University of Zanzibar.
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The spice tour was another highlight of our excursion . We encountered not only exotic spices, but also very nice and friendly people.
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Spice Tour. Another highlight of the excursion was the spice tour. I did not expect much, because I do know hardly anything about spices, but the tour was a really nice experience. Half an hour out of Stone Town you can find lots of operator that offer so called “spice tours”. A spice tour is a walk through the “garden” of a farm. In our case you could hardly recognize the “farm” it was more like walking through the jungle and from time to time our guide made us stop to look at this or that. But just because the whole site was so inconspicuous it was even more impressive how many spices and fruits the guide showed us. We saw jackfruits, pepper, pineapple, vanilla and lots of other exotic stuff. We had the chance to taste almost everything that was presented to us. At the end of the tour we tried freshly picked pineapple and had the opportunity to buy spices.
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The beach. Finally. The beach. After three days in Stone Town we had two days spare time. We used the free time to go to the north of Zanzibar. It is widely know, that the most beautiful beaches on Zanzibar are located in the north. We choose Kendwa Beach as our destination to relax for two days. By bus we arrived on Sunday afternoon and headed straight to the beach. White sand, plams, clear water. Kendwa Beach offers everything beach lovers are looking for. For my taste the whole area is a bit too
touristy and developed. Beach-Bars with loud music, banana boats and hordes of package tourist destroy the atmosphere and from the original paradise is not much left. Of course, it is still not as bad as in other parts in the world but by far not as unspoiled as I hoped it would be. Anyway, we had a great time and I do not want to complain about laying on the beach in the middle of November. On Saturday evening there was a beach party in our resort and we enjoyed a nice dinner on the beach and had a little dance with our teacher.
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Sunshine, warm water and two whole days to realxe. Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar.
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H akuna matatA HNU
ta nza nia exc urs i on
2011
THANK YOU.
Impressive show of a worker at the spice farm. Zanzibar.