It's wonderful having people here in town who want to go do things! This weekend was probably my favorite two days of the trip so far.
On Saturday we went to the circus and an Ethiopian restaurant. Yesterday my friend Roger led me, Mary Ellen, Jessica, Jenna, and Nadia on a hike to the Mt. Meru waterfalls (maporomoco ya maji) and it was incredible.
We walked up through the village of Sanawari (just across the main road from my new homestay) and up, up, up, winding among the farms where I did agriculture training follow ups a few weeks ago. The raw, jagged summit of Meru stood tall against the sky, cloaked by incoming rainclouds without disturbing the sunny jungle of the mountain's base and hillsides. It was beautiful. A bunch of local kids joined us for part of the hike and we made a chain of friends- it's surprisingly tricky to hike without free use of your arms... no balance!
At one point, a little after we left our friends behind, we climbed to a new level of mountain ecology and walked through a shady forest of tall evergreens. When we left the forest the mountainside opened up into a huge meadow covered valley and Jenna and I threw out our arms and ran laughing down the narrow path like we were flying. The air up there is incredible. I love wind. At the edge of our meadow was an enormous, majestic mahogany tree abstractly covered in rich patches of fat moss. I want to be that tree. From there we started down, down, down into the valley. Along the way we saw the biggest banana tree in the entire world. (Okay, I don't know that, but it probably came close!) Absolutely enormous. I love the tropics. Just after that one of the other girls asked if there were any monkeys over here, I looked up at that moment and saw one immediately- "There is literally a blue monkey RIGHT. THERE. Look..." I love Tanzania.
At the bottom of the valley we hopped along rocks and climbed over boulders to follow the stream up to its waterfall origin. It was downright surreal and the huge trumpet flowers made it smell so good! Finally we got to point where the lush gardens fell away and the sides of the creek were steep, scooped away rock. We were there.
The waterfall was about a hundred feet tall, a clear fountain of raw power flying off the cliff above in a long narrow tube. We got some sick pictures.
The waterfall was great but the hike was incredible. After the waterfall, we went back to Roger's family's house which stood about halfway down the mountain. We ate a late lunch and then continued down to Sanawari where we were greeted with a wedding party complete with a band in the bed of the truck, ribbons on the cars, and endless horn honking. Typical. We all went to relax at a great outdoor bar on the main road, and from there I just hopped across the street and went home. I love living in town.
Grateful, grateful, grateful.
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