Babati is the newly apopinted capital of the Manyara Region and is such a boom town, with carpenter, welders, building merchants everywhere. It is also a transport hub as it is on the juntion of the main road from the coast to Rwanda, Zaire, Burundi and southern Uganda, as well as the road to the Captial Dodoma. Only the main road through town is tarmac, the rest just dirt and in the dry season gets amazingly dusty. (hense the protection over the bar drinking tables!)

Boy is taught how to carry a chicken

The people here are amazingly friendly and jovial. Respect plays a large part of life here and young people will use the traditional greetings to their elders "Shikamo", to which one replies "Marahaba". It literally means i will wash your feet, and thanks for the offer. There are no western style supermarkets here, chickens are sold live and the markets are over flowing with organic fruit and vegetables over which you must haggle each day. THere are a numer of restaurants serving local food, mostly rice or ugali based meals (fish, chicken meat) with green cabbage/spinach and beans. Chapati's are also available with other indian style street food (bajis, samosa) Because many people don't cook at home they eat out and the meals are very good value. The rice is local rice and is beautiful and if it oculd be exported would be charged at a premium.

Transporting most goods is done this way. Very eco-friendly.

The huge trucks that pass through town with their thousands of bottles of coke, fanta, kilimanjaro, and other goods will off load here onto these carts that are then pulled by hand to their desinations. They have no breaks so going down hill means using your strength and your shoes to control the speed. Many shoes are made out of tyres so they have good grip on the road!