Monday
Today we went to Arusha to visit a Maasai market and the Rwandan Tribunal court. We went with Farryl and Molly who has just arrived and will be spending 3 months at Neema orphanage. It was a 2 hour bus ride and Mt Meru was visible. It is the 2nd highest mountain in Tanzania (and the one I hope to climb when I return!)
The Maasai market is crazy. There are many very small shack type buildings on either side of a very narrow walkway. The vendors want your business desperately and are quite assertive. We did spend some money and made a few vendors quite happy. I bought some earrings from a woman named Lea and she was so overwhelmingly grateful. I didn’t even spend $10 and probably fed her family for a week.
We then met Will, a friend of Farryl’s, who is a lawyer with the International Criminal Tribunal Court. This court was set up by the United Nations to try cases involving the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide which claimed 800,000 lives in 100 days. The Hutu tribe massacred the Tutsi (see the movie Hotel Rwanda) 5 times faster than Hitler killed the Jews. The Kagera River is in NW Tanzania and flows from Rwanda into Lake Victoria. During the genocide 1,000 bodies per day were thrown into the river and flowed down river into Lake Victoria.
We were able to observe a small portion of 2 trials but very little transpired. It is an extremely slow process. The first trial we observed was hearing a witness agree to waive protective custody. During the second trial the lawyer, who was totally unprepared, tried to accuse the witness about lying about whether certain vehicles were in a particular area.
I only have 2 days left and am not looking forward to returning.
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