Almost the Weekend!!!

Its Thursday evening and I cannot wait for this weekend, especially since we are climbing Killi on Sat. Or at least part of it. Starting Tuesday I have felt sick having just about every symptom imaginable which made it really hard for diagnosis and also deciding how to make myself feel better. This morning I still didnt feel great so made the decision to stay home from work and just rest which proved to be a great idea. However, the staff at my homebase came in my room at least 5 times asking if I needed to go to the hospital, which was the last thing I wanted to do, especially since our field trip there last week. I dont know if the one we got the tour of would be the one I would be taken to but if so i would definitely want to avoid that at all costs. However after resting and getting some food into my body I feel a lot better now which i am really happy about. Also made me less worried that i have malaria, which probably was never even close to being the case but guess i got myself nervous. I also heard from the other volunteers at my school that the teachers just didnt show up today so they were on their own with 90 children, which from what i heard was very hectic. Probably a good day for me not to go if i wasnt feeling great.

Anyway yesterday, although i was feeling terrible through the whole thing, we went on a great fieldtrip. We started our day visiting a batik artist in our town of Moshi. He showed us how he takes a piece of cloth and creates these fabulous colorful scenes on the fabric using paint and sponges. Afterwards, we went and visited a cave where people who belong to the chagga tribe hid in times of conflict. It was very tiny however and we all came out covered in mud from crawling on our hands and knees. After the cave we stopped quickly at a market and then drove up towards mt killimanjaro to have a picnic lunch.

Following lunch was definitely the best part of the day. We took a steep path down to this beautiful waterfall and were allowed to hang out down there and swim. Even though i didnt feel well enough to go in the water it was still so peaceful and nice to be down there. I also got to be the designated photography while people were in the water, so at least i was put to use. We then followed signs to a "natural swimming pool" which turned out to be more of a tidal wave pool with huge currents. It actually dragged one of our group members down the river a ways before we were able to grab her. All in all: definitely not a swimming area.

We all hiked up afterwards and went and saw a traditional Chagga tribe hut and then went to a small one-roomed museum to look at a few of the Chagga artifacts. We learned that the masai and the chagga tribes have always been enemies and so it was interesting to compare their lifestyles from what we saw the other day on our safaris. We also learned, and saw, that the chagga have to keep their animals and especially their cows in their huts with them so the masai wouldnt come and steal them. This was because, as i said the other day, the masai believe that all cows belong to them. The man who gave the explanation of everything told us that a lot of the tribes are losing their culture, but many people do still live in the traditional lifestyle and in the huts, like the ones we saw.

Our last stop of the day was to a place nearby where people in our group could try the local drink - banana beer. I personally did not try any because everyone was sharing out of a few jugs and i didnt want to get people sick but people said it was very interesting tasting. We saw many older women who were at least in there 70s chugging the stuff, so guess people like it. According to the people who tried it though it was very grainy.

On the way home, which was about an hour, everyone was exhausted so the van was fairly silent. We were, however, welcomed home to a barbeque in the front yard where we sat in a half circle of chairs because thats how the Chagga tribe eats when in a large group. It was just a chagga day overall. It was very cool to learn about another tribe and their way of life. We also learned that one of our homebase staff (Baba) is part of this tribe so that was intersting to learn.

Today overall has been pretty relaxing and we are going out to dinner in a little to get another break from the food at the house. We ended up loving the indi-italiano place the other night, which turned out to be exactly what it sounded like - 1/2 italian and 1/2 indian. I am pretty sure every other white person in moshi must have been there eating as well so I guess we werent too orignal but we definitely plan on going back when we are in need of pizza.

Cant wait to write again post experiencing climbing Killi!