THE STORY SO FAR…

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
As many of you know, our heroes began their journy in Tanzania as nine
companions. Since then we have traveled many miles, lost a comrade and
experienced many strange and alien things. Now they have returned to
Tanzania, the birthplace of this adventure, ready to take the country

by storm.

RECENTLY…

Boom! Boom! Boom! The bass in JJ’s car vibrated within our chests. JJ,
a happy Ugandan Jew, bobbed his head as he tapped the break pedal
making the whole car bounce in time with the music. JJ, a minor
celebrity in his community, is the founder of the interfaith coffee
cooperative Peace Kawomera coffee cooperative. A remarkable feat,
especially in this country, Uganda, where your religious practices
often determine your lifestyle and/or community.

For the next 6 days we stayed in JJ’s house, the 8 of us bringing the

total number of people living there up to 35. Along with his own
biological children JJ houses many adopted children and extended

family.

During our stay we were privy to the inner workings of the coffee
industry. We picked, husked, washed and dried our own coffee beans,
all by hand, as well as learning the in’s and out’s of fair trade. In
the afternoons many of us went swimming, while Adam D. and Saxon
stayed behind and played guitar, the favorite jam being ‘Carry on my
Wayward Son.’

Being a Jewish household, they observe the Sabbath which starts at

sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. The 8 of us
attended the synagogue with them on Friday evening. On the way to

temple we packed 14 people into JJ’s 5-seater Toyota, bumped the tunes

and rolled through town, JJ shouting greetings to almost everyone we

passed. Once in the synagoge, the men were lent yamicas, then we all
attempted to follow the service which took place in Hebrew and
Lugandan. The electricity was down, so we held the service outside.

One of JJ’s sons, led the service for the first time. On the way home

we packed an astounding 17 people into JJ’s car.

After singing thank you and goodbye to JJ’s family with our own

rendition of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight,’ accompanied, of course, by
Adam and Saxon on guitar, we took a taxi to Sipi Falls, a beautiful
waterfall in eastern Uganda. The majority of us took a hike, led by
our guide, Alex, to visit each of the four drops of the waterfall. It
was gorgeous. We were at about 4000m elevation and the views of the
Ugandan countryside were widespread and beautiful. Behind one of the

drops there was a manmade cave, at another there was a swimming hole,

but the highest drop was where we spent most of our time. It was a
drop of about 90 meters, the water cascading down into a little pool
at the bottom hidden by rocks.  When the water hit the rocks the spray
formed a small rainbow.

The following week is one of travel. It involves us taking a ferry

across Lake Victoria, flying to Moshi and taking a bus to Tanga, an

old fishing village turned city on the Tanzanian coast.

We hope everything is well at home. We’ll see you all in two weeks!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Saxon, Lilianna