Hamjambo Friends and Family!
We have done so much recently! After saying goodbye to our friends at L’Esperance, we finished our time in the rolling hills of Rwanda. Our flights seemed to bounce around as we touched down in Kenya and finally in Tanzania. Dar Es Salaam has a very different feel than Kigali, Rwanda. Some of us hiked up six flights of stairs at our hotel the first night with all of our giant bags.
That was nothing compared to the hike we completed on Saturday and Sunday in the Uluguru mountains in Morogoro. We started in town and finished our first day at an abandoned German hotel. A quick walk through the dark, musty rooms filled wall to wall with words from past visitors gave it a very eery atmosphere. That night, many men from surrounding villages came and performed song and dance with their drums. We all enjoyed feeling the rhythm for many hours and got our own try to make some music.
In the morning, we were greeted out of our tents by some of the best passion fruit I’ve had. Everything is so fresh! The group hiked just about 5 steep miles to the summit of the mountain which was surrounded on all sides by a thick cloud of mist. After consuming some celebratory ginger cookies, we descended back down the paths we climbed up. Lunch was back at the abandoned hotel and was accompanied by freshly picked alpine strawberries. We finished the hike with several more miles into town, bringing the grand total to 27 miles in two days.
The next day was a sore one, but we started our Kiswahili lessons!
Additionally, we met our generous homestay families. Although our conversations and interactions with others have been been great, we’ve had amazing experiences getting to talk to and learn from our families on a much more personal level. Despite being woken up by the hustle and bustle of life (with the occasional rooster crow) at around 5:30 or 6 am, spending mealtimes together and playing cards with my kakas and dadas has been so fun and I will miss this experience when we leave on Monday.
One very significant part of the culture of Tanzania right now is the presidential elections that were held on October 25th. On the days leading up to the vote, we saw many rallies for both of the two main parties. There were billboards, t-shirts, hats, flags, posters, big motorcades with honking, and even people shouting on rollerblades. There are a lot of loud opinions about the results that the ruling party is staying in power. It’s very interesting to see politics at work in another country and makes me excited to vote in my first presidential election next year.
We’ve also had a lot of fun playing some intense volleyball, basketball, and football with some of the local seminary kids. We had a valiant effort at football against the school team, including a goal scored by our very own Alex, but we ended up losing 5-2. Joseph also has enjoyed practicing with the basketball team and was even given a uniform to play in a game against another school!
I hope our last couple days at the seminary go well! I will miss my family a lot.
Until next time!
