Second Sunday in Africa...

21-02-10

Today we planned to go to Marangu Falls with a friend of one of the guy’s who is staying in the hostel. So we started off the day by taking not 1, not 2 but 3 dala dala’s to get into the foothills of Killimanjaro. From here we n the Hope Foundation which is an orphanage which was set up by a local woman who used to work in a community orphanage but then found that when she brought kids home for breaks they never wanted to leave. Today, about 10 later, the foundation cares for 30 children between 3 and 18. It is also provides support for widows in the community, many of whom are themselves living with HIV/AIDS, The lady who runs the organisation is in late 50’s/ early 60’s with 7 children of her own and only receiving support from the local church. She was a very humble woman, quietly spoken and hugely impressive. The organisation has a website and a blog so I’m looking forward to looking up more about it.

Going from here we went for a hike into the foothills of Kilimanjaro and down to a waterfall, which was gorgeous. It did start raining when we were down at the fall though which made it a bit cumbersome for the hike back, but it really gave the feeling of a rain forest as we were surrounded by tropical trees... It was really refreshing compared to the stagnant heat in Moshi... We were then shown around a man made cave which was used by the Chadda tribes to hide from the Maasai tribes in the 1800’s. But it was cool, they could actually hold about. On our way back from here we called into the hope foundation again where the founder had arranged for some soft drinks and lunch for us. It was really extradinarily generous of her. We sat and ate the maze (like the Russian staple food) and pork stew and had a ginger soda which was really good. We chatted with some of the locals one of whom was a science teacher in the local school who was very interesting and wanted to know how we survived in Ireland and ewngland when the pipes froze and we couldn’t get water...

Following this we headed back to the main road to get a dala dala back down to the falls, but due to all the rain a lorry had gotten stuck in the dirt road causing an actual traffic jam. So we walked past this and jumped into a dala on the other side which fish tailed its way down the mountain, veering dangerously close to the edge. Although it was only the masungo’s (white people) who seemed bothered, the locals didn’t even flinch...

As it was getting late in the day we decided to skip the falls in the end and head straight back to Moshi in order to get back to the hostel before dark, and also we were all soaking so hot showers were all that were on our minds as opposed to waterfalls...

This morning we actually got to school early, not quite on time for class but earlier than usual! We had the bicycles out again today for PE so I got a good 30min work out running around with the girls trying to get them to pedal – again without any Swahili... It was a lot of fun though and the girls were getting it a lot quicker today especially when Emanuel stepped in and worked his magic! Oh and we got a taxi home so we were back in town at like 1 as opposed to 2 which was nice,
A few of the girls got back from Kilimanjaro today and let’s just say Julie and I are having doubts about our sanity when deciding to climb the highest mountain in Africa...