September is not the best month for motorists in Arusha. They are supposed to drive their vehicles to the Regional Police station for inspection to determine whether they are road worthy. A whole week, dubbed "The Road Safety Week", has been devoted to that purpose and a vehicle that goes through the ‘inspection’ is provided with a sticker. The catch is, even if you want your vehicle inspected, the police force does not have enough mechanics to do the inspection of all the vehicles in Arusha, but all of them must have stickers. Now, how do you get those stickers? You buy them across the counter at the police station. The price is negotiable and seemingly motorists are willing to buy them at Sh.4,000. Without the sticker, you’re bound to pay much more later when your vehicle is waved aside by men in white.

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On Friday, September 6, I invited my friend for a bash at a joint along Colonel Middleton Road that has a reputation for "mouth watering and finger teasing nyama bites". Our evening was, however, short-lived. The problem started when we asked the waiter the price of a whole chicken ‘bite’. He said, "Let me find out from the kitchen." Five minutes later he came back to announce that "half chicken is Sh.4,000 and a whole chicken is Sh.8,000." We pleaded that we are not tourists and we can’t pay that much for a chicken in Arusha especially in that part of the town. We asked another waiter to call the supervisor. Surprisingly, he ushered in the same waiter who moments earlier wanted to play costly games on us and introduced him as the supervisor. We had no option but to leave the place only to learn later that the restaurant’s proprietor had traveled and the chicken that we wanted to order would have cost us Sh.5,000 (whole) and Sh.2,500 (half). Before you are served in a restaurant in Arusha it is important to find out first whether the proprietor is around.

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September 11, 2001 is a memorable day for all the people in the world. Many lives were lost in the terrorist attack of America. After the attack people realized that America is indeed the World. Most businesses went to a standstill even in nondescript areas such as dusty Karatu. As wounds started to heal in America, business picked up in Arusha and its environs, including Karatu.. This is probably good reason to believe that America is the "Promised Land". When war broke out in Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, business went on as usual all over the world, and when one million people were butchered in Rwanda, it wasn’t even headline news.

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