Essentials for the Uluguru: Howl, Bandaids, Water, Mayai, and a Danish surgeon.
Today we had the incredible opportunity to hike the Uluguru mountains (a small piece of course.) There are a newly wed couple of Danish medical professionals studying in the language school who hike on the weekends. We heard they were hiking an obscure tiny mountain path in the heart of the range today and jumped at the chance to go. This morning began early. We arrived at the foot of the mountain at half past eight. The journey was not finished until a quarter after five. The first five hours were spent hiking deeper and deeper into the range and the last four were spent on the four hour jaunt back. Of course by jaunt I mean leg numbing, vomit inducing, healthy trot up thin rocky paths placed by God, littered with direction changing boulders. At times we had to scale small areas by hand and foot. And that slow African pace is completely abandoned when there is a mountain to climb. The fast pace felt amazing. I absolutely loved it.
Peter was not feeling good before we left but really wanted to go. He vommed about an hour in the the trip and felt way better afterward. I was proud of him for moving on and finishing with no problem. It was certainly tiring at the speed we kept up (we are pretty certain it was at least 15 kilometers of walking over the nine hours, at least) but after about an hour it began to feel amazing and now I have these amazing endorphins doing a happy little number on my brain. And even at the speed we traveled, there was plenty of time to take in the beauty. Half way up consisted of mostly wooded areas littered with banana trees (purchasing fresh bananas while climbing the range is a very good idea!). After that it awas mostly open area and very steep and rocky. I have never seen anything like it. I have been on plenty of mountains in the US but none with this view (we could see like all of Africa from the peak, ha), and none so full of streams and waterfalls. The path was surrounded and often covered by bright greens and we were encased by the woody green and yellow of countless banana trees. Every flower was a brilliant shade of blue or pink. It was alright! I would love to be able to do this again. There was so much time o reflect and think and get to know the people with whom we traveled and greet the Uluguru people. Delta is talking about trying to set up a two day journey where we climb all day and then find a guest house and climb another day and bus it back. We will see what we can do. So good. So good. Next time, though, we have to remember more water and some sunscreen. We didn't have nearly enough of these.
The rest of this week has basically been life as usual. It is nice to have soemething of normalcy here. We are developing a groove. It is nice. The food is still incredible, there is really nothing I don't like. And Kiswahili is going pretty well. I would like to devote more time to it and really learn it but I know this is unrealistic. I can now understand most things people say but have some trouble responding. It just needs time.
There were a couple of different things that have happened at the end of this week. First, during our lessons on Friday the language school director, Chuma, comes up to our group and hands me a dafu (baby coconut). I had no idea what it was for and he simply told me what it was and asked me the noun class. I answered correctly and thought he was just showing it to those of us who hadn't held one before so I looked confusedly at it and the handed it to Sara. Chuma said, no no. It is for you. So I, still confused, said "thanks?" He could sense the lack of understanding so he instruced me to begin to eat it with the top part covering the drink hole. I did not understand him and still thought it was for everyone so I asked...do I lick it? Idiot. No, you don't lick it, he wanted me to eat it. It was mine, for some reason. So I spent the last hour of class with a coconut in my hand, stealing short drinks between questions.
Also, yesterday evening Peter uploaded the third pres debate. We have been following everything closely but have not been allowed to watch anything...of course. So after dinner the Americans along with our Indian, Danish and Tanzanian friends (who have resorted to calling me "Mistah Obama" I kind of like it) watched the part taht worked. We caught about an hour of it and had very lively discussion afterward. The Indian man, Rohoid (I actually don't know how ti spell it) was somewhat impressed by Obama, he did ok. But was sickened by McCain. He only talked about his feelings and patriotism and his cock a mamy idea that $5000 will allow Americans to all be insured. We all agreed with his analysis. Now, I did have some problems with Obama's health care plan and his black and white stance toward outsourcing, but that is for another time. It is really something to hear about perceptions on American politics from so many different sources. The Africans talk about war and money for development, the Danes were concerned with economics and the high jacking of the language by Republicans, and the Indians (who are doing Doctoral studies on economics) were concerned with economics and human rights abuses. We agreed on nearly everything. And the Americans got to teach a little history lesson and discussed how the problems in Amerika can relate to the grasp for the American dream, a society based on commodity, a history of brutality and repeated economic crises and fear over communism and now terrorism and our often violent protection of this way of life. I came to see that I love my country and many people around the globe car about us so much, but there is a lot to change (just as in every nation.) I still speak with pride about the people that have come out of the US but I know and the world knows that for any real change to occur we must have introspection. We must ask ourselves if this current lifestyle of blind consumption and violence is what we want. Changing anything, we decided will only come about whe the people decide to change. This may take a terribly drastic event like is currently happening with the market and the change will surely be slow. But if we individuals change our lifestyle to one that is more healthy and life giving and we have a lot of patience, change is certainly possible. This little corner of the world thinks that the change can start with Obama. Support for him is overwhelming in Tanzania from both nationals and internationals. I hope this is true.
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