To Learn More about Kasulu

I intended for this blog to be a resource for those few Americans who are going to Kasulu. Before I was offered a job there I had no idea where it was and couldn't find much info online.

Kasulu is amazing in so many ways. It's not an easy life though. The things that make it so great are also the things that make it a little difficult at times. It's isolated and small, the roads are dirt and full of holes, it's either muddy or dusty, a variety of food is hard to get but the local produce is amazing, everyone stares at you and calls out to you if you're obviously a foreigner, and on and on.

Unless you have a place to stay in the Bishop's compound, UNHCR, or IRC, you'll probably stay in Kasulu Motel. It's ten minutes by car out of town, down in the valley leading out to Nyarugusu and Kibondo. The Kasulu Motel's pretty nice.

If you're staying for more than a month and want to rent a place, the Anglican Bishop of Kasulu has a compound with 3-5 houses to rent. UNHCR's Kasulu Field Office also might rent out one of the cottages on their compound. Don't hold me to that though.

The center of town is a good place to shop and is a great place to people watch. And be watched if you're a mzungu. There are lots of little storefronts selling all kinds of stuff - cookies, matches, flip-flops, toilet paper, cold medicine, cellphones, solar panels, phone cards, etc. The produce market is behind the stores, down a little alley. There are actually 4 or 5 alleys that all open up to the market, which is surrounded by the storefronts. Inside the market they sell amazingly fresh passion fruit, pineapples, bananas, onion, garlic, chives, watermelon, carrots, eggplant, and eggs. There aren't a lot of herbs, spices (surprisingly), or super fancy stuff like chocolate. You have to go to Kigoma for that.

Stuff you might want to bring are good boots if you'll be in Kasulu during the rainy seasons, a good flashlight and batteries for when the electricity's off, and mosquito repellent. If you wear contacts you should bring more than enough saline solution or else you'll have to fly to Dar to buy some. Neither Kasulu nor Kigoma have it.

There isn't a lot to do in Kasulu other than hike, bike, and hang out with friends. The wazungu usually play card/board games or watch satellite tv. There are a few discos in town. We never went to one but we heard them all night long every Saturday. Sometimes the music would stop a few minutes before the adhan was made from the town's mosque. Tanzanians like to party.

And they're very warm, friendly people in my experience. I'm talking about Kasulu. When we first got there we were a little disappointed that people were calling us out as wazungu, which essentially means "foreigner" in Kiswahili. I didn't expect to necessarily blend in but being looked at all the time doesn't feel comfortable. After a while though we got used to it. We joked with some of the people who yelled out "wazungu!" We'd call out "Yes, Africans!" in reply and act excited to see them. It was funny sometimes. But other than the incessant attention and being pointed at in town, the people were super friendly and just plain nice.

One of the things I appreciated most is the respect people show for each other, especially from the young to the old. People seem to really respect the older folks. When you pass or meet someone older than you, you greet them with "shikamoo", which means something like "I'm under your feet" or "I hold your feet." I appreciated the way people shake hands and the way girls curtsy. In my experience, the people in Kasulu are open, friendly, gregarious, respectful, and very hardworking people. They're religious and relatively conservative. There are a lot of churches in and around Kasulu, and there's a mosque downtown near the main market. A lot of the Protestant churches have great music on Sundays.

Kigoma's about a 2-hour drive from Kasulu, mostly over rough dirt road. Kigoma's amazing. Not everyone I know feels that way but I think it's great. When I win the lottery I'm moving to Kigoma and building a homestead near the lake. I could go on and on about Kigoma but there's enough written about it already.

There are two hospitals in the area. Neither one is good. Avoid both. If it's an emergency, it's infinitely better to be airlifted out of Kasulu and flown to Mwanza. Medi-vac to Mwanza will cost about $3,000. If you take only one bit of advice from me take this.

The weather in Kasulu is interesting. It's never very hot or cold. It stays somewhere between 72-85 during the day and might dip to 60 at night at its coldest. But the thing about Kasulu is that it's either dry and dusty or wet and muddy. Both have their disadvantages. I preferred the wet season because I didn't get dust boogers. The soil is a beautiful deep red. The river near the center of town runs red during the rainy season. It's nice.

If you're reading this post because you're contemplating going to Kasulu, I recommend going. It really is an amazing place.