My fellow Americans,
Hi!!! This is Kate Maher from the Nkula East Africa group (obviously). I am channeling you all from a computer at our guest house in ZANZIBAR. So without further a do, as your blogger, let me relate to you the events of two weeks ago.
Our journey left off when we traveled from Mufindi to Njombe town, a town I love exclusively for its dairy products. They have an extraordinary Italian run milk factory in town and we were able to eat enough yogurt to sustain our probiotics for the rest of the trip. It was all very exciting, especially since any dairy whatsoever in Africa is far and few between, unless you prefer the powdered milk and mysterious (butter?) spreads. On the eighteenth of November we took a thirty minute taxi ride to our holistic living retreat. Ohana Amani is a beautiful house owned by two lovely sisters, Chevy and Curry. These girls come from the California coast and four years ago decided to dedicate their lives to self sustaining living and helping others. Our eyes were like saucers when we saw their glorious vegetable garden, another food group we’ve been lacking for the past two and a half months. We quickly fell in love with their home and their philosophies, and we got to camp while doing it. They had quick the set up for us in the campsite, there were five tents and a little bonfire in the center. One of the tents was called Obama, because it’s so big that one of their previous guests compared it to the white house. Eight of us managed to squeeze in there, happily (more or less). But so it happens, on the second day there it started pouring rain and we were sent to live in their big house. You could say select members of the Boston crew were pleased to no longer be camping. We instead lugged all our backpacks and mattresses up to their house and nestled in the side of their vast living room.
We were all split into three groups and given tasks. One group cooked meals with Chevy, one cleaned up afterward, and the other stoked the fire and maintained our lovely outdoor latrine at our campsite. It’s actually the nicest smelling hole in the ground I’ve ever used as a toilet. Even though it was only lightly covered by kangas and I was often rained on while using, I have nothing but fond memories of that squatty potty. But I digress!
Food here is like nothing we were used to in a long long time. We had salad literally every meal. For breakfast we had eggs and salad. For lunch we had a salad bar. For dinner we had a gigantic side salad that often was more than just the side. And we didn’t even cut a dent in their lettuce patch! I will always remember them for their infinite lettuce.
Every morning we would help jembe (or hoe) a wild field of grass in their backyard so they could grow a new fruit orchard. We got a lot done, and it felt so rewarding after every session hacking away. Chev and Cu were the most inspirational women I’ve ever met, and probably made the biggest impact for me on this trip. It’s hard to explain what they taught us through all the talks we gave us. And the love they gave was unconditional. For such young women they had such a clear view of what they valued and how they communicate.
Another thing that I really loved about Ohana was the morning movement. When I first learned that we would be doing yoga and meditation every morning, I would think ‘Ugh, I have to do yoga BEFORE I eat.’ As the days went on the movement began to grow on me. Even two weeks later I find myself doing breathing exercises out of habit.
What else can I say? I loved it here. I don’t think anyone really wanted to leave. Some of us even joked (but only half joked) about doing our student directed travel there. But of course on the morning of the 24th Chev and Cu gave us epic hugs before sending us off on our eleven hour bus ride to Dar. To this day we still remind each other to be loving and positive, and remember everything we learned from Ohana.