Sunday- The Village Walk

Lunch and a game of Mancala

Lunch today was another delicious meal. This time it started with a veggie soup and then Nile perch as the entre served with an assortment of local fruits. After lunch I had a game of Mancala, the African version, with Mary, one of the young women who work at the lodge. This Mancala game had about 3 times as many bead holes and was played with real stones instead of nice beads. After the game, I was visiting with Jeremiah at the front desk about other things to do in the lodge and village area. He said something about visiting the local school in the village. I thought that was a great idea. He got me set up with Vincent to take a morning tour of the school before I headed of on my safari.

The Village walk

It turns out the overnight rains were not enough to cancel the village walk. The day was very pleasant, just a bit cool and damp but very enjoyable weather for me. Vincent, who was also one of the servers at the lodge restaurant, was to be our tour guide. We were joined by an older couple from Holland on the walk. The walk would take us about 1 ½ to 2 hours. We started by going into the coffee field to see how they plant red beans under the coffee trees. This way they can get two crops in one field. Sometimes coffee trees are grown under taller banana trees as well.

We then left the plantation and walked down the muddy road of the village. It did not seem much like a real village because we were in a combination of forest and agricultural fields with houses or small shops scattered along the way. This was truly a rural community. We soon stopped at a small cluster of buildings that looked like nothing more than farm old dilapidated out buildings. There were several chickens walking around and a cow around the corner of one of the buildings. There also were several children and a woman. Soon after we stopped, an old man appeared. Vincent introduced us to him explaining that he claims to be 128 years old. He looked awfully good and healthy for 128. He talked, through Vincent’s’ interpreting, about how life was before the Germans came to the area during WW1 and about the turn of the century, 1900. He says he had 25 children and at least 200 grandchildren. He doesn’t even know them all. The picture is me and him in front of his house, which looks to be about 128 years old. After I got home, I read an article in the paper about the oldest know person in the world had just died. He was said to be 113. Either the guy I met is not that old or there is no way to prove it so it is unofficial. It makes for a good story anyway. I never thought I could meet somebody more that 1 ½ times my age (50).

The next most interesting thing on the walk was going into the local brew pub. I really like sampling different kinds of local beers. I always ask for the unique local brew when I travel. But this brew pub was unlike anything at home (or anywhere else I have ever been before). They make banana beer and wine here. The beer ferments for 4 days and then is put into an open plastic 55 gallon barrel (pictured). This is the keg! The beer is then scooped out of the barrel with a large plastic cup (like a pitcher) and then poured into a 600 or 1500ml cup. Three to five men (see picture) sit around a table and pass the cup of beer around, taking a drink before handing off to the next person. It smelled like beer but looked more like soup. It is not filtered and has a lot of fiber in it. The barrel is wide open with no way to keep out the flies and bugs. The man dipping the beer literally had beer up to his elbows on his arms. Obviously, I did not sample this brew. While at the brew pub I found this man wearing a Nova Scotia sweatshirt. I tried to ask him if he knew where Nova Scotia was, but he could not understand me. So I paid him a dollar so that I could take his picture. I thought this was a great picture since my wife is from Nova Scotia. I also took the picture of the old lady walking up the road with the basket on her head. This to me was just too classic to pass up. I paid her a dollar as well. I found that the people do not mind having their pictures taken. They understand that we are in a different world from them. It is common courtesy though to pay people if they know you are taking their picture. I had no problem with this as that one dollar would easily be a days pay for many of them.

The lodge charges $10 dollars for the village tour. The money is used in various ways in the village to help support the people, the road, school supplies and health items. I gave $20 and felt it was a bargain.

The near sleepless 2nd night

I went to bed at about what would be the normal time for me at home. So it seemed I had adjusted to the 8 hour time change pretty easily. I began to hear a gentle rain at about 10:30. This was not good news since I had set up a cultural walking tour of the village the next day, but it might not happen if we had an overnight rain. The main road would be very muddy. I guess I fell asleep around 11:00.

Well, now it is 1:30 in the morning and I am wide awake. So much for adjusting to the time difference. My body was trying to tell me it was 5:30 pm, no where near bed time. It also has been and is still raining out. So, unable to sleep, I decided to write some thoughts in the journal. I watched the people of Moivaro Village and Arusha from the car on Saturday as Jackson showed me around the area. I got a glimpse of how these people lived. My interest in them and their lives was now piqued. I desperately wanted to get out among the locals to get an up close view of what their world was really like. I just hope that the rain does not wash out the walking tour. I laid on the bed wondering just what life would be like living in a house without electricity, water, and virtually every other "luxury" that we take for granted. I just thought that with all that we have in our lives, there must be some way to give back to these, so far, seemingly wonderful people.

We saw many partially built houses on Saturday as we were driving around. When I finally asked Jackson about them, he explained that people bought building materials as they had cash to spend. There was no such thing as a home loan or a mortgage in this world. Thus, you could drive down the road and see houses in various phases of development. There would be one house with three walls and a pile of bricks near by. A few yards away there may be a house with all four walls but no roof. I saw one with a tree growing up out of the inside of the house. There was another with all of the walls that had the wood rafters in place, but needed the corregated steel for the roof. Even after a family had enough bricks purchased to build with, they may have to wait a year or so to save enough money to pay a brick layer and and tender to lay the bricks. Jackson said it could take ten years for some families to build a house. And these are only small 2 and 3 room "huts". I was told that the average income in this village was about $2.00 a day. It could take a long time to save up enough money to buy materials to build even a simple house on that kind of wages.

I think I finally got to sleep around 4:00 am. With the time change and just being too excited to see the new world around me, I really didn't care if I slept. There was just too much to see and do.

After the visit to Arusha I had a little time before dinner. So, I decided to take a little walk on the trail inside the plantation compound. The trail is about 2 k and goes up a good sized hill at the back of the compound. I had walked the trail earlier in the day on the advice of one of the Lodge workers. They had said if the clouds were clear that I could see Kilimanjaro. It had been a long running dream of mine to someday see and climb to the top of Kilimanjaro. This after all was the original intent of my trip to Tanzania. But since my doctor would not clear me to make the climb to over 19,000 feet because my minor life-long heart murmur, I had to settle for just seeing the white topped giant of Africa. Luck was with me this afternoon. The clouds had cleared exposing the only snow covered mountain peak on the equator. I guessed that we were about 50 miles away. Too far away to take a good picture. So I just sat there and enjoyed the view for a while. Even though the rainy season was coming to an end, it seemed to be cloudy most of the day. Well, time to get ready for dinner. I had already had two fabulous meals and could not wait to see what dinner would bring.

It is 6:43 now and it is completely dark out now. On June 2 at home in Kansas City, the sun would not set until nearly 9:00pm. This seemed strange to me that it would be dark before 7:00. It turns out that the sun sets and rises change only a few seconds a day at the equator. Sunrise is about 6:40 every morning and sunset about 6:20. We have just over 12 hours of visible sunlight each day here.

Before leaving for Tanzania, my wife got me well supplied with quick wash and dry clothes. Clothes that can be hand washed in the sink that will dry quickly. Last night I washed a couple shirts that I wore on the plane so that I could be sure to have enough shirts to last for several more days. However, it is so humid and cool here that the shirts I washed have not yet dried. It sounded like a good idea but so far does not seem to work.

DINNER

Another fabulous meal on the veranda of the Lodge. The salad was fresh from the plantation garden and was great. I was served a bowl of potato-leek soup that was just awesome. I have to admit that I would probably never order that at home myself. So already in two meals I have eaten pumpkin soup and potato-leek soup and spiced up my life just by being in Africa. The main entrée was an excellent spring chicken. I believe the chicken was raised right in the village. This meal was toped off with a chocolate banana brownie. I am told there are around 40 varieties of bananas grown around this are. Bananas as I am finding out are a major food staple here. Oh, and I had my first African beer with dinner. It was called Kilimanjaro Premium Lager. It is an amazingly good crisp fresh beer. I’ll have to look for it at home.

Arusha town

Before Jackson came to pick me up in the afternoon for a trip into Arusha, I had a fabulous lunch at the lodge. It started with a pumpkin soup. This is not something that I would normally order or even attempt at home most likely. But I figured what the heck, I'm on a grand adventure so why not try it anyway. It turned out to be one of the best soups I have ever eaten. It was so rich and creamy, I could have had two or three bowls of it. The rest of the meal was just as good. The main dish was pork chops in a flavorful sauce that I think had curry in it. There were baby potatoes and fresh green beans from the plantation garden. Now I have had two wonderful meals, a nice room, and absolutely beautiful environment, wonderful people at the lodge, and now it was time to leave and see some more of what Tanzania has to offer.

Jackson said he would pick me up at 2:00 to go into Arusha. I was at the front of the lodge at 1:55 (didn't dare want to be late for my first adventure out into Africa. At five after, no Jackson. At ten after, still no Jackson. I am getting nervous now. Did he forget me? Or did I misunderstand him last night in the whirlwind of the evening. Finally, at 2:17, Jackson shows up (Africa time at work). I clearly was not yet adjusted to the way things work in Africa. I would quickly learn that the most important thing about a trip like this to Africa is to remember the line from the Lion King: "Hakuna Matata". Just relax, it will all work out.

As we drove into town, the people were everywhere. I know that many if not most of the houses and shops we drove past had no electricity and running water. And then it seemed that about one in 5 houses was only partially built. More on this later. The village looked different in the day light. We were truly in the jungle. The plant life was so lush and thick. What was not forested was planted in some kind of crop. Food around here could not be in short supply. I was completely enthralled with what I was seeing. It was just like being live in a National Geographic show. I was thinking, "This must be the classic image of what Africa is." The people were walking along the road carrying bags and bundles of items of who knows what. Sometimes carrying them on top of their heads. This was the scene all the way into town, a drive that took less than half an hour.

As we got closer to town, the numbers of people out along the road only increased. There was clearly more traffic along the sides of the roads than there was on the roads. In town there were people (always men) pushing or pulling two wheeled cars sometimes heavily loaded with a variety of different things. Before arriving here, I had done a lot of reading about the area. I knew that Arusha was a commercial and government center for northern Tanzania. From what I could gather, the population was about 100,00 in town and about 500,000 in the Arusha area.
I think I expected Arusha to look more like a city with a city center. The city center w very run down, dirty and crowded. Only a few buildings looked new and in good repair. One of those the big multistory white building that housed the Rawandan Tribunal where they were still trying people for the genocide in Rawanda many years ago. You would think for all of the important government and business meetings that go on here and the fact that this is one of the major starting points for safaris that it would be a lot nicer. Welcome to Africa!

There was at this time not one traffic signal in all of Arusha. The first traffic light was installed about two months after I left. That light caused so much havoc that it all but shut down the traffic at a very busy intersection. Progress comes slowly to Tanzania. They do not even have streetlights. Although there is a plan in the process to change that now. You can read about these developments in the Arusha Times. It is linked on the side. I did see a few street names but that was rare. The U2 song "Where the Streets Have No Name" was alive and well in Arusha. That song was written about conditions in Ethiopia but it seemed appropriate for here as well. Inspite of all of these third world conditions, Arusha actually is a thriving and growing community. There is a lot of progress going on here. I would learn much more about this as the trip went on and even more after I got home.

Before we left the town, Jackson said he needed to stop at the Hoopoe Safari office for a few minutes. He was gone less than ten minutes, sitting on the street in the car by myself was a very interesting experience. Across the street from the car were several street vendors and other people "just hanging out". I felt like I was being watched by everyone. And of course, I was watching and looking at them like they were some kind of novel sight, which to me this is exactly what it was. For a few minutes, I was all alone in a strange world and really not sure what to expect next. I have to admit that there was a little bit of nervousness for this short wait. Jackson soon returned with another Hoopoe worker who he introduced as Innocence. He would be the store clerk and cook for the nights we spent camping out in the bush later in the week. Oh wow, this safari adventure is really going to happen. But still two days away.

Day 1 at Moivaro

I woke up at 7:15. I don't think I moved an inch all night. The bed was great and the room was very comfortable. After a quick shower I ventured outside to see what world of Africa was like in the daytime. I found a nice little covered porch with a chair (see picture) out of my door. This would come in handy later on. I walked to the lodge for breakfast in a light rain. There is an umbrella in the room for guest use but I just carried it. The rain was very light, more of a drizzle. When I arrived at the lodge, I was greeted by a friendly waiter who seated me at a table on the outdoor covered veranda. I thought this was really cool. Here I was ready for my first meal on African soil and sitting at a table under a thatched roof with a gentle rain coming down. The view from the lodge was beautiful. Having come in at night, I really did not know what to expect when I walked out of my room in the morning. The walk to the lodge was through a lush forest of trees and shrubs up to a beautiful open air lodge that looked out onto an open lawn. I knew if nothing else, I was going to enjoy the view as I ate my meals.

THE FOOD
I had a choice of several juices, coffee or tea with my breakfast, which was self serve. I had a glass juice called passion fruit. This was the absolutely most delicious juice drink I have ever had. Just inside the lodge was a large table with several types of locally made breads or rolls. I had to try a little of each. They were all good. On another table there was a cook that would make an omelet for you. So, I had an omelet made from local chicken eggs and fresh vegetables. The omelet was ok, nothing special there. Also, there was a thinly sliced fried potato with onions. This was pretty good. There was a really good white cheese on the table as well. I think the cheese was a goat cheese. All in all, the breakfast was good and filling.

THE WALK
After breakfast, I went for a walk around the plantation. The waiters told me about the 2k trail that goes throughout the plantation within the plantation walls. So, I was off on my first little adventure. I had the day to my self I guess so that I could get rested and acclimated. No need for that, I was ready to explore. I quickly found that there is an amazing amount of bird life here. I was in bird heaven. I get a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment out of watching the birds in my back yard at home and what I was seeing here was truly a treat. It was almost like walking through the enclosed bird sections of the zoo at home. They are brilliantly colored in yellow, orange, red, flourescent blues and greens. I did not even try to photograph them, just watching them was all I needed. By just standing still for a few minutes, the birds seemed to literally come from out of nowhere. It was easy to see that different birds were attracted to different types of flowers. The plants and flowers here are varied if not more so than the types of birds. There are so many different fruits and flowers you can see why there is such a great diversity of animal life here. And I have not even left the 40 acre plantation yet.

At one point I was very near the plantation wall and saw this woman hoeing weeds in a field of banana trees across the road. There were 4 or 5 chickens around her as if they were pets. They were probably eating bugs that were getting stirred up by the hoeing process. I found this scene to be very touching as it was my first exposure to seeing what the life of a "typical" African might be like. This woman was working very hard. It made me wonder, "Is she working for someone else, or is this her personal field of bananas?" I never found out. You may want to click on it and blow it up to get the full picture.

My first night in Africa

The room is simple but very nice. There are two single beds with a white mosquito tent around them. The beds have pretty fresh orange flowers on them. It is a very earthy natural looking room. There is no air conditioning or heat for the room outside of opening windows and a small fire place in the corner of the room that does not look like it gets used. The bathroom is nice with a lot of space. There is a small desk in the room by a window. With the window open, I look out into a small bit of the forest I am now living in. I can hear many different bird or bug sounds, an occasional cow in the distance and even rooster or chickens at times. I cannot see another room from my window all though there are 40 of them scattered around the compound.

The room is cool and damp, (everything is damp here). It has an earthy, almost musty smell but it is clean. Before I went to bed, I decided it would be nice to walk back to the lodge to send a quick e-mail home to let my wife and daughter know that I had made it. I had little trouble finding my way back to the lodge following the trails. I had a flashlight but did not need it with the trail lights. There is a computer at the lodge that I could send an e-mail from. When I was ready to go back to my room, one of the lodge workers asked if I needed a guide back to the room. Being the good Boy Scout that I am, and having a good sense of direction (or male ego), I declined and started off in the right direction. I soon however, found the maze of trails through the forest more confusing than anticipated. I was lost! Fortunately, I knew the area was small and after backtracking and trying again I made it. I had actually walked right passed my room once before.

By the time I got to bed it was just about midnight Tanzania time. Eight hours ahead of central time in Kansas and about 30 hours after I started my day at home the day before. As I was finally in bed, I it was to the sound of a gentle rain. As I found out, it rains just about every night here until the dry season sets in in a few weeks.

Moivaro Lodge

After driving about a mile or so down the village road, we came to driveway with a gated wall. There was a man there to open the gate for us to enter the lodge compound. At this time, it made me think that the wall and gate were there to protect the visitors from the villagers. Again, I was thinking "where am I and is this going to be a good place to be?" As it turns out, all of my fears and doubts would soon be erased.

We drove 100 yards or so and stopped at the front of the lodge. There were three men there to greet us and take my bags. It was very dark out when we arrived. We were seemingly surrounded by forest. The air was slightly damp and had a sweet forest smell to it. We walked up a couple of steps into a central foyer with a check in desk on one side and open in the back to grassy area. We were in a breeze way that was open on both ends. Although the employees were all wearing a light jacket or sweater, I found it to be very pleasant temperature wise. I was offered glass of juice that looked like orange juice. It actually was passion fruit juice and was absolutely delicious. My first bit of African cuisine and it was a big hit.

After getting checked in, David led me to my room. Moivaro Lodge has about 30 small cottages scattered through out the 40 acres of the walled plantation. Moivaro is a coffee plantation and the lodge is a part of the plantation. We the main lodge, which I will describe in more detail later, with a flashlight in hand. David led me down a path into the forest. The path was well maintained and lighted with round globe lights about every 40 to 50 feet. We made several turns passing several other cottages and path intersections along the way. The three or four minutes it took to get to my room seemed like a whole adventure in itself. I had no idea where I was going or what was ahead of me, and loved every step of it. All of my senses were on high alert. I could hear birds or bugs singing in the night. The smells were like nothing ever smelled before but pleasant. David stopped at one point and told me to look at the path. Between us was a black line across the path. The line was moving! There were literally thousands of ants moving back and forth across the gravel trail. Their movement had actually created a little smooth road in the gravel. I would find many more of these lines in the next two and a half days.

I love being out in the wild of nature and enjoy any walk in the woods. This was a walk that no other could compare to. I found myself thinking about the possibility of running into some wild animal. But then, realized I was within the confines of a walled compound in the middle of a village. I could hear chickens and cows outside the walls. There were children's voices playing and the sounds of a radio playing music. This was all a fascinating part of the adventure that was already beginning. I tried to think about what was really going on outside these walls, what was the village really like?

THE ROOM
The room or cottage, has two main sections. You enter into the sleeping area with two single beds, surrounded with a mosquito netting tent (picture above). There was a small desk with lamp and a small fireplace in one corner. After a short hallway with closet and storage for my clothes was a toilet room and a shower. This was not a lot different from some rooms you could have in rustic lodges in the U.S. But yet is had a more rustic feeling to it. The room was slightly cool and damp. This was the general feel of the whole environment here. We were just coming to the end of the rainy season for this region.

The drive to Moivaro Lodge

After collecting my bags, I exited the terminal to find a group of drivers with signs awaiting their passengers. I soon found my driver. His name was Jackson. He is a guide for the Hoopoe Safaris company that I will talk more about later. Jackson would be my personal guide for most of the next 18 days as we toured 5 different game parks and several villages. He is a very pleasant man with a great Tanzanian accent but pretty easy to understand. He was about 5'7", certainly not the tall war-like Maasai we have heard so much about.

As we walked through the parking lot of safari trucks to get to our Land Rover, I began to get the sense that this journey into the wild of Africa had truly begun. The drive to Moivaro Village would take about 45 minutes. I quickly found out that a Land Rover built for the African bush country is no limo ride, even on a paved road. But I did not come here for a limo ride. The temperature was beautiful, just a slight cool in the air, so I was able to roll the window down and enjoy the fresh air. This was after all in the middle of winter just 3 degrees south of the equator. This kind of winter weather, I can take. As Jackson was telling me about the area and answering my many questions, I was trying to watch what was around me. Mount Kilimanjaro was within easy eyesight but is was too dark so see, so I would have to wait until at least tomorrow to see the "great mountain" of Africa. We were on one of the main "highways" of Tanzania. It was a well paved two lane road with a posted speed limit of 50 kph. This is the main, actually the only real road between Dar es Salaam, the capital, Moshi and Arusha.

I saw many people walking along the side of the road and even crossing randomly. You certainly don't want to drive too fast or veer off onto the shoulder for fear of hitting a pedestrian. I also saw numerous goats and cows grazing along the road side being tended by people, sometimes kids. Along the way there many homes, businesses, open air cafes and a few small communities. Corn and bananas were growing right up to the road at times. I was amazed at the number of people that were out moving about at this time of night. It was now well passed 9:00 and the sun had been set for hours. But then, the weather was absolutely beautiful, so why not be outside? It seemed that we were almost continuously in or very near a small village. We seldom had more that a few hundred meters with no one or some building in sight.

After a while we turned left off of the main road at a small cluster of businesses. There were many people milling around an open store and or cafe. I quickly looked around to see if I could find a sign telling us where we were. But, as the U2 song, "Streets With No Name" suggests, there was no sign to be seen. Even as we passed through various villages on our way from the airport, I could only recognize one village name, Usa River. But only because it was on several buildings. We were now on a muddy, bumpy, heavily rutted 4-wheel drive dirt road. This road was barely two cars wide and Jackson was constantly driving around large ruts or even rock outcroppings in the road. It had been many months if ever, that a grader had been on this road. There were many houses around that were very basic and most likely did not have electricity, much less, running water. Again, there were people walking on the road, sitting outside their houses or at several small stores along the way. The plant life around us was growing right up to the road and over it. It seemed like we were literally driving into the jungle.

The pictures of Moivaro Lodge on the internet were beautiful. I was beginning to wonder where I was going to end up. I was going to spend my first three nights at Moivaro Lodge before the actual safari started. Was I going to be off to a disappointing start? Certainly, the living conditions of the local village at least in the darkness of night, were not very encouraging at this time.

Arriving at KIA

Landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) was about like landing at any other airport. But that is where the similarities end. The airport at KIA is unlike any other airport I have ever been in. We departed the plane by a portable stair way that was wheeled up to the exit door. This was strange because this was a huge plane with several hundred people on board. We had to then walk across the tarmac about 5o yard to get into the terminal building. It was after 8:00 when we arrived and the temperature was absolutely perfect. With my feet finally on African soil, the real adventure was about to begin.

Once inside the terminal, there were two paths to take. If you had your travel visa for Tanzania as I did, there were three lines to get in to be processed. There was a separate line off to the side for people who did not have their visa. I was advised that you really wanted to go with a travel visa already in hand to avoid delays on arrival. However, Seda, the tourism guide did not have her visa so she went to the "need a visa" line. As it turns out, there were very few people in that line and she was at the bag claim area ten minutes before I cleared customs which was amazingly easy. The whole time I was in line, I could see the bag claim area in front of me. The airport terminal was very small and amazingly open. The doors to the terminal were all wide open. There were fans blowing to keep air circulating. It was getting warm in the building.

Bag claim was a small adventure in itself. The operation was simple. You could see the luggage being unloaded from the plane and brought right into the nearly open air claim area and placed on the conveyor belts. There were two baggage belts running when I was in line for customs check in. One apparently stopped working before I got through the line. A taste of African technology and efficiency at work and I haven't even left the airport yet. When the bags stopped coming on the one working line and mine had not made it yet, I began to worry a bit. But, there two more bag carts coming from the plane. They finally got into the bag area and two guys started loading the bags onto the one working conveyor belt. I swear, my bag was the vey last bag off the cart