Tanzania - Finnish Sauna in Arusha

The Sauna at the Arusha Masai Cafe

 24.02 - It was a day of printing the Rock Art on hand made papers. There are dozens of files now prepared for print and with the Epson SP 9900 printing on the heavily deckled edges is quite a simple process. By disabling the paper size check and the paper skew check the bottom rough edged media can be put into the printer feed about 2cm from the feel rollers and the machine will ignore the fact that the paper isn't square. So the printing went really smoothly and the prints started coming out fast.

Seppo and the Rock Art prints on hand made paper

Rock Art Print on Hand Made paper

Arrangements with the students from St Constantine International School to come in the evening for presentations somehow never materialized and after waiting for them to turn up for a while we decided to have sauna.

Now - how on earth did there come to be a Finnish Sauna at the Arusha Masai Cafe? When Seppo and Julieth took over the property there was a building used for storage between the outdoor restaurant and the kitchen. Seppo noticed a chimney sticking out of the roof - and inside a paneled up room - clearly with an area smaller than the shape of the building. Removing the panels he discovered a kiuas (sauna stove) and benches - a complete Finnish Sauna! So, as it happens the people who originally owned the place had been Finns and typically no home is complete without one.

Changing room

The last thing I expected on coming to Tanzania was to spend an evening under the African stars sweating it out in a Finnish sauna - but there we were in that 'holy' place enjoying our Kilimanjaro beers - eating locally made makkara (sausage) and relaxing in the cool late summer night.

Kiuas (stove)