Up The Mountain and Back Down Again

Hello, and welcome again to another blog from the great realm of Tanzania :)

Many adventures have happened since the last blog, which I finished literally seconds before going to Camp Kidia, a way up Mnt Kilimanjaro. What a place it was!

Camp Kidia, is located about 1000 feet up Kilimanjaro. Its one of many small villages located on the mountain side. This has good and bad points. Good because the view is INCREDIBLE!! You can see for miles and miles across the African plains all the way to Lake Manyara over 90 miles away. It's an awesome sight that takes your breath away. However, one of the downsides is that after walking 10 minutes down the road to get to Funguvu Primary School, where our project work was taking place, and after a hard days work, we had to trek back up the mountain. The road was incredibly steep, and the first nearly killed us, but it got easier as the week went on, and soon we found that we could walk up it with no trouble at all (or not as much trouble as the first day : ) Our accommodation was a small house on the mountain, with an amazing view, and (As we've grown to expect now) freezing cold showers. All the guys slept upstairs, in a room that soon was a pig sty (as many mothers would say) and to make things worse, on the first day one of the guys broke the flusher to the toilet, which was a hilarious, but smelly problem by the end of the week. I'm sorry to say that no girls entered our room for the entire week.

Our main job whilst working in Funguvu School, was to create an anti-erosion wall (a flash name for just a normal wall really) to stop the kitchen from falling down the mountain, creating doors for the kitchen, helping out the Mamas in the afternoon with everyday African life activities, and also teaching. We managed to complete the wall after nearly everybody, including myself took a tumble down the 6 foot trench we created to fill in with massive breeze blocks. The doors were also completed and look great, and as well as this teaching was FANTASTIC!! Much more fun than down at Mbokomu as the teacher helped us out, and was much better at English than his flat-land counter part.

In the afternoon, we 'tried' to help the Mamas of the village to the best of our ability with everyday activities, such as, harvesting maize, harvesting beans and bananas, ploughing some fields, collecting avocados (by any means) and cooking local food, and feeding livestock. It was great fun, with everyone throwing everything into the activities. During this time, me and one of the guys, Matt, got cornered by the Mamas, who decided to corn-row (?) our hair. I ended up looking like a white Snoop-Dog, and Matt looked how Jesus would look if he ever decided to have corn-rows in his hair. This was to the great amusement of the Mamas, and the rest of the group, and the laughs continued to the next day, when we pulled out the corn-rows and both looked like mad professors.

On the first day we also decided to organise a football match against a local team, and so everyday after work we trekked out to a field to play a game against different locals in preparation for this momentous match. We won every game, suffered many injuries, and in these games there were no rules. If the ball went down the mountain it was a throw. That was it. We then trekked for an hour on Sunday down to the mountain to play the locals, in the much anticipated match. Again in this game, there was a ref, but very few rules. It was a very fun game though, and great to be playing because I hadn't played in a long, long time before the game. I also ended up scoring, in both goals unfortunately, but I helped out enough to make up for the own goal.

As well as this, on Saturday, we journeyed on an hour and a half trek, down the mountain to go to a well renowned waterfall. It was supposed to be one of the most beautiful sites around Moshi, so we were very excited, although, as we were descending lower and lower into a massive valley, we tried not to think about the huge slog back up the valley side. The walk down the valley turned out to be amazing! The view as we descended became more and more incredible, giving you a clear idea of how the image of Jurassic Park and King Kong came to be, because it really felt like another world. It was practically a jungle trek! :D On the walk we encountered the 2nd most dangerous snake in East Africa: a Green Mamba. It was lying on the side of the road, and we approached cautiously, and with great excitement. Unfortunately, it was dead, no doubt killed by a local, but it was incredible to see the vivid green of the snake, in the wild rather than in a reptile house, and the traits of the mamba precede it, so it was still quite incredible to see one in the flesh.

The waterfall itself was MASSIVE! Much bigger than the previous one we had visited, which was about half the size of this monster in the valley. It was not so deep though, as it was not the rainy season, however Elefas our guide, and camp monitor, told us that it swelled to 3 times it's normal size in the rainy season. I was very frustrated at this point, as I'd realized my camera was out of power. One of the most annoying things in the world, when you see the greatest view you've ever seen in your life! Haha! After about 45 minutes at the waterfall, we began the assault on the valley side. I started at the back taking my time,and, slowly but surely, overtook everyone in front, although of course it wasn't a competition. It was a knackering climb, but it was quicker going up than down, as the path was very treacherous, and you had to concentrate to stay on your feet as you slipped and slithered your way down the mountain, with a truly colossal fall down the mountain if you went over the edge, and eventually we arrived back at our little house.

On the Sunday morning, before our match we also went to a local church. (This was not to pray for help in the forthcoming game, but to experience the local culture : )
It was incredible! In all fairness, we couldn't understand half of the sermon, but the singing that was in the church, was amazing! Very different from English churches. The music was full of happiness, and a vibrant nature that English churches lack, which I think should change, as it gets even people who are not sure of their beliefs into listening to what the ones who believe in God, are talking about. It was the type of music you truly associate with Africa, with a drum, and accapella (?) singing. I was very glad that I went, and the visit obviously worked as we won our football match 10-6.

We were sad to leave Kidia, but also keen for flat terrain, and clean clothes as none of us washed our 3 changes of clothes whilst up the mountain so, basically, we smelt horrific. We had an amazing Valentines Night in Club La Liga, and the majority of us ended up dancing on stage with the major East African music acts of the present day, that had come to perform at La Liga (La Liga is the most well known club in the north of Tanzania, which is also the richest part of Tanzania, so is incredibly popular)

Since then, we have thrown ourselves back into work at Mbokomu Primary School. Whilst we have been away, the rest of the group have put up the roof joists, and we are now ready to put on the rest of the roofing, which are the metal sheets. We have also plastered half of the outside of the dining hall, and stuck in 3 windows. Its coming along very nicely :D

Before the character analysis of the 3 month gappers, I must answer a couple of questions I received by letter from the grandparents, and hopefully it will be of interest to the rest of you to : ) They were keen to know the number of girls and boys in camp. The girls vastly outnumber the guys, with there being 11 guys, and 24 girls, however I am not complaining.

In terms of my own thoughts of the trip, I feel that its going frighteningly fast. In under 3 weeks we are going onto the next camp, Ndarakwai, (which means Place of Tall Trees in Swahili) and then the week after to the Serengeti, Ngorogoro Crater, and then Zanzibar. I cannot wait for this part of the trip! I have a feeling that the next 3 weeks will zip by, in the blink of an eye. If this is how fast my time in Tanzania is going by, when I'm staying in one place the majority of the time, doing the same thing, how fast will Kenya go by when I'm in a different place, doing different things, every week? Its incredible really.
I have also caught the bug of travelling as hundreds of ideas are going through my head for the next trip, to wherever.

On the other hand, I do miss people back home incredibly. Its very difficult, thinking about how much you can talk to you all, being incredibly busy, and at the same time not wanting to make yourself homesick, whilst wanting to talk to everyone, and not make you all feel as if I'm forgetting about you all. The last part is impossible so don't worry, but its very hard getting the mix right. Never had to deal with this kind of stuff before, but I'm trying : )


Thats it for now guys, as I'm being moaned at for being too long on the interweb by the rest of the group, as the this blog is HUUUUUUUGE. Until next time people, much love


Josh