Arusha — Residents of Arusha municipality are in the company of a diversity of communities. Some of the communities are more distinct than others.

For instance, residents of Arusha are in the company of distinct women communities that are determined to feed populations. It is not news that African women prepare breakfast, lunch and dinners to feed members of their families daily. But now, women communities in towns like Arusha feed even populations other than their family members everyday. Women are a big army.

For example, a women community in Arusha municipality arrives in town as early as 5.00 a.m. daily carrying huge sacks of vegetables on their heads mostly from their gardens. The women sell the vegetables cheap on retail and sometimes wholesale. They conduct the business along streets that include the market street in town.

Meanwhile, another distinct women community buys the produce from the gardens to fill their huge baskets. Then they transport the produce to the outskirts of the town where they sell the products on retail in the evenings to their clients when they get back from work. Other women sell the produce on retail outside the main markets when such markets are closed in the evening.

There is a women community that stays late into the nights along the streets to roast maize daily. Members of the women community sometimes do that while carrying babies on their backs. It has to be said that the women roast the maize well. Roasted maize along the streets of Arusha smells and taste good because it is fresh from farms.

Residents of Arusha municipality are also in the company of small local mineral dealers who gather by the hundreds along the Seith Benjamin Street on certain days. The community gathers in the form of an informal open market. Small sellers and potential small buyers are seen observing pieces of minerals from side to side against sunlight in order to verify quality of the gems that are for sale. Again, women are observed in the area selling fruits.

The Maasai men dominate at the small mineral trading market. They are distinguished from a distance by the type of cloths they wear. Their cloths are dyed with distinct colours that are sometimes referred to as "Maasai colours." It is the same way people refer to "Rasta colours" meaning red, yellow, green and black displayed together in a particular sequence on objects such as hats. But it is not clear whether the Maasai colours have meanings as the Rasta colours do.

The majority of people who sell fruits on hand carts along the streets of Arusha are Wasambaa who belong to a tribe from Tanga Region. They can be distinguished from other fruit sellers by the extent at which they have mastered a technique to peel only the thin top layer of oranges quickly. Many people would require a peeling machine to do the same.

The city bus drivers also known as "dala dala drivers" provide valuable services to the public in the municipality. They are distinguished as a community of its own by their lack of discipline on and off the road. The drivers can stop at prohibited locations without notice to collect passengers or they can overtake other vehicles from a wrong side. Therefore, it is advisable not to drive too close behind the dala dalas. The rest of the vehicles operators are also to treat the right of way with caution where dala dalas are allowed to operate.

The dala dala drivers give a reason that makes them to operate vehicles in town carelessly. They explain that they rush in order to make as many trips as possible to and from destinations in order to collect as much revenue as possible. Apparently, owners of the vehicles they operate require the drivers to remit a fixed amount of revenues at the end of each working day. Otherwise, owners assign their vehicles to other drivers that can generate the required revenues by end of the day. Therefore, dala dala drivers are often tempted to honour their contracts as regards revenue collection even if it means breaking the law.

Admittedly, the dala dala drivers don't cause as many fatal accidents as it happens with upcountry buses in the country. They mostly make a nuisance of themselves that inconvenience other vehicle operators in town.

Most dala dala operators do not care much about their personal hygiene. Or, may be they do but that hygiene is not a priority. For instance, many operators do not brush their teeth and they do not wash their bodies or clothes adequately.

Therefore, dala dala passengers avoid the balcony seats along the first two passenger seat rows behind the driver whenever possible. The idea is to avoid inhaling bad smell from unhygienic bus fare collectors because they spend most of their time in the bus next to such seats.

Another community spends much time in the dala dala near the same two front passenger seat rows. The community is in the form of petty thieves who would attempt to pick anything they can find from the other passengers' pockets or women bags next to them. It is said that the dala dala drivers and fare collectors in the buses know the thieves and many passengers believe that particularly some fare collectors sometimes aid the thieves to steal from passengers. Save for the fact that bus operators have scribbled messages inside the buses that warn passengers to take care of their belongings such as money and mobile phones.

On the other hand, passengers categorize taxi drivers in the municipality as more pleasant and that they drive more carefully even though their employers also require them to remit a fixed amount of revenues at the end of each working day. The difference is that unlike dala dala drivers, taxi drivers can collect the amount of money required by their employers by making relatively fewer trips to destinations per day. That list of distinct communities in Arusha municipality is not exhaustive.