We were up, showered and packed...and after breakfast at the lodge, we all gathered at the Land Cruisers. Time to load all the luggage (now we know why we each had a limit of one small, soft-sided piece of luggage with a max weight of 15 kg) into the vehicles, climb aboard and head off to continue our adventure! We were on the road shortly after 8:30 a.m....here are a few pictures as we drove through Arusha...
On the outskirts of Arusha, we reached our first stop...the Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre. It is a place where the past and present of the Tanzania's 120-plus tribes can be viewed in a single compound. The centre boasts a variety of carvings, gemstones, artifacts, clothing and books.The place is quite huge and would have taken a few hours (at least) to go through in detail, but with only about 40 minutes, we managed to have a quick look.
Our next stop today was at "Shanga"...a for-profit enterprise which employs people with disabilities to create unique handmade jewelry, glassware and home ware using recycled materials. Their products are sold in Tanzania and all over the world, with profits being reinvested back into development of new products and further employment of disabled people.
In 2007 Saskia Rechsteiner made a handful of fabric necklaces for a Christmas Fair in Arusha, Tanzania. Combining local fabric with some beads and her sons' marbles, she created a unique necklace and sold out within hours. Needing a name for the necklaces, she asked what the Swahili word for a bead was and was told it was a "shanga". The days after the fair were busy - orders for the necklaces came in from safari companies, gift shops and even people who wanted to export them to Japan and Australia.
Saskia saw an opportunity to generate extra income for a deaf lady who worked on the coffee estate where she lived and together they started producing the necklaces to sell. Saskia quickly fell in love with the idea of helping more people from the deaf community and within weeks she had employed another 6 deaf ladies - all making the Shanga necklace in her back yard.
Soon the demand was too high and the team needed extra space. They moved into the River House on the coffee estate and the Shanga Workshop was born! Shortly after, Saskia opened up a Shanga Shop and built the River House Restaurant to offer lunches. Saskia expanded the range of products made in the workshop, sourcing recycled and sustainable materials where possible and invited people to come and meet the inspiring people who made them.
Over the years this resulted in employing more than 45 people with a wide range of disabilities to make creative products from glass blowing recycled bottles, paper making, maasai beading, recycling old pots and pans into decorations, glass bead making, traditional weaving, metal work and much more. Shanga has welcomed many happy visitors and become an institution in Arusha. Some of the highlights were definitely seeing Amal Clooney wearing our Amal necklace on the international news, and a visit from Bill Clinton and the Clinton foundation. We hope to see our products in many more stores around the world!
Throughout Shanga’s colourful journey, the heart and message of Shanga has remained the same. Of utmost importance is providing a safe, consistent and loving environment for Tanzanians with disabilities who have so often faced terrible hardship in their lives. Of no less importance is making amazing products from discarded materials that are sold in Tanzania and around the world, regardless of their story. They are simply great products made by great people!
The Baobab Tree..."Upside Down Tree" Legend says that the baobab once angered God. It was torn from the earth and planted back upside down, leaving the roots exposed instead... (more on these magnificent trees later...)
Tarangire National Park (in northern Tazania) is the best park for those wanting to see and photograph the baobab tree. The lifespan of the baobab tree is very long, with most of the large trees in Tarangire being over 1000 years old. It is difficult to age them without radio carbon dating as they don't produce annual growth rings.
Elephants like to eat the bark of the boabab during the dry season to obtain moisture from the trunk's reserves. Many trees bear deep gouge marks and have odd shaped trunks due to the ravages of the elephants. However, the damage very rarely kills them.
Mongoose...
Very impressive animal sightings! I think my favorite would have been the elephants or perhaps the lions. The birds were very colorful, what a unique variety you saw. How was the food?
ReplyDeleteThe elephants are pretty awesome, but I think the lions are my fav...just wait until we get to the Serengeti!
DeleteAwesome wildlife ... what a trip. Maybe Steve got sick because of the flies??
ReplyDeleteNo, don't think it was the flies. He accidentally drank some water from a thermos when he was brushing his teeth. The water was for washing....perhaps that was it...?
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