What to do in Morogoro if you’re bored…

I will be very honest: Morogoro is not Seoul. There is not nearly the same number of things to do here that there are to do there, and this has caused me a lot of time thinking about what I can do. I have, however, found a lot of things to help fill the time.

Books/Movies

This can be tough if you didn’t bring your own books (or had them stolen) or computer. Lucky for us, the YCI office has a small collection of books (even some I had been wanting to read) which we borrowed and spent some time reading. As for movies, there are a few options. If you have a laptop you can buy DVD’s at stores that have many English movies. The quality is low, but they’re passable and easy to watch. There are also places you can go to that will play VHS or DVD movies for a small price. I haven’t been to them, but you can see them everywhere. Some people also have VCR’s on their TV’s here and can watch movies whenever they like (well, if the power is on).

Though it’s not the same, you can also watch European Soccer Games on television here or in bars for a price. I haven’t done this, but it is a very common thing here.

Playing Pool

This is something I’ve seen around a lot, but hadn’t tried until a few weeks ago. The price for a game of pool near my house is 200 shillings which is roughly 20 cents. Not bad. The quality of the tables is not always great (but not bad) and I think the balls are smaller. There are a lot of people here who are good, so usually I play one game, lose, and that’s it. It is something that is fun to do though, and I plan to go back a few more times before I leave Morogoro.

Swim in a Pool

There are a couple of hotels in Morogoro (Oasis Hotel and the Morogoro Hotel) that offer swimming in their pools for a small fee (3 or 4 thousand shillings). We have gone once (many weeks ago) to the Morogoro Hotel. It was a nice afternoon, but not nearly as cheap as the other things on this list (plus we had lunch there and that was much more expensive than the food in town).

Disco/Live Music

There are different types of places to go out to at night if you want to hear music or dance. I’ve been to a few of both. There are some places where you can sit down and get a drink (alcohol, pop, etc.) and listen to people playing live music and others dancing to it. There are also some places where they play a lot of dance/hip-hop, etc. music where you can go and dance. We went to a disco on Saturday night. It was fun, but I was surprised at how empty the place was. Generally you have to pay for the discos, but you can go and watch the music for free (or the cost of the pop).

Climb a Mountain

Also, since there is a huge mountain right next to the town, you can obviously climb that or go for a hike there. I’ve already talked about that here and here, so I won’t mention it again.

There are things to do here, but obviously not as many things as you would find in a bigger city. At times I have been bored, but I have also had a lot to do at other times. It takes some getting used to, but if you look hard enough, there are several options to fill your less active moments.

Mountain Climbing: Part Deux

Not too long ago, I managed to convince Gasto to climb the mountain behind town with me. This time, instead of stopping at Morningside we went to the communications tower at one of the peaks. It was a long and tough hike (Gasto told me that it’s harder than Kilimanjaro, but obviously shorter), but we made it to the top in four and a half hours. I was surprised at how cold it was at the top. I took a lot of pictures on the hike and here they are. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy at the top and we didn't really have a view from there.

1) The beginning of the forest as seen from below. These trees are huge. 2) A butterfly. 3) The dense forest we hiked through. 4) A tree on the edge of the mountain. If you look closely you can see the level of clouds BELOW the tree. 5) A millipede There were many on the path. The longest one was about 10-12cm by my estimation. 6) The last part of the climb. You can see the gate to the area where we rested. 7) The communications tower and building. I would not have wanted to be the person who had to carry up all of those materials. 8) The three of us before our descent. 9) - 13) Various pictures of the town from the mountain during our descent.

Remember that time we climbed a moutain in Tanzania? (no, not Kilimanjaro)

Written October 4th, 2009

Yesterday, Godfrey (one of the two YCI program managers) took Nicole, Melissa and I hiking. We were accompianied by Gasto (a Tanzanian volunteer that we will be working with), Maka (the English-speaker in my homestay), Paolo (the English speaker in Melissa and Nicole's homestay), and another friend of theirs.

It was not a very long hike, but because I have not been as active as I usually am (over the last few months), it was a moderate challenge. It was also very nice. We had decent weather (mostly cool with clouds in the morning, and then more sun as the day went on).

This is a pretty common hike for YCI volunteers in Morogoro (as I had seen by reading the blog posts of many of those volunteers). We didn't go all the way to a peak, but we did stop at a spot called morningside. It is pretty much just a flat grassy area with a good view of Morogoro. There is also an old German hotel, built in 1911. It was pretty interesting. We signed a guestbook and someone there gave us a short tour of the building. Not bad for 1911.

Anyway, it was a long day and even now my legs are still a bit sore. Here are some pictures from the day. 1) The red earth that is common around here, 2) A waterfall, 3) The view from Morningside Peak, 4) Part of the hotel, 5) The group of us (L to R: Me, Melissa, Maka, Nicole, Godfrey, Paolo, I'm not sure (I have a bad memory for names), and Gasto; notice how everyone but me is doing the tough pose and I'm doing something different... )