Trips Around Rau

This weekend (February 3, 2007) we decided to take a weekend trip to the Mount Kilimanjaro View Lodge. After a little bit of rain, we headed to the horrible road that would take us to the lodge, which is at around 8,500 feet. The ride was going just about as smoothly as anyone could go on the road, until it started drizzling. We kept going for a little longer, but then we slid and hit the side of the mountain. It was a little bit scary, but, as my mom says, it was an adventure. We walked up the rest of the road, which was 0.2 kilometers (0.12427424 miles) and then arrived. The lodge was beautiful and it had an amazing view of Mount Kilimanjaro and everyone was extremely nice. The food was good and they danced beautiful Chagga (which is a Tanzanian tribe) dances. The dances were circle dances that reminded us of the Horah. They wanted us to join in the dancing. My mom went first, then my dad, then my sister, and then after a while of nagging, I finally joined the circle. We were all dancing and they were singing. We enjoyed our time there, even though the hike the next morning was extremely long and strenuous. We left the lodge at 9am and arrived at the waterfalls at 10:30am. The falls were amazing and beautiful. They were really big and beautiful, the mist felt really good. We took tons of pictures and we were all relieved to finally to have made it to the falls.

After staying there for a couple of minutes, we were off back to the lodge. Because we took at short cut, the way back was straight up hill. We were all so exhausted when we got back, but luckily, it was time for lunch. I was really proud of myself for doing the whole hike, with some complaining here and there. We ate a short lunch and we were on our way to our home away from home, CCS.

We got in the van and the bumpy road wasn’t very much fun. This driver seemed to be a little bit gutsier than the other driver that we had on the way up to the lodge. We kept slipping and sliding which even my mom and dad admitted was scary. Once we got through the bad part of the road our driver told us “We are safe, now.” It was scary to think that before, we weren’t safe. When we were on the “safe” part of the road, the driver started going really fast, we were also right next to the ledge of the mountain. I didn’t think that I would ever be so happy to see Rau Village.

Along with going on weekend trips to places like the Kili Lodge, or other overnights, CCS takes us on day trips. The first (and only one so far) one was a trip to a Chagga blacksmith, Chagga Market, a Chagga hut, and a hike at Marangue Falls. The blacksmith sold Chagga spears, which were beautiful. They have beaded covers and absolutely amazing carvings and designs on the spear itself.

After a little bit of buying, we headed to the cave that the Chagga built that goes from Kilimanjaro, Tanzania to Mombassa, Kenya. It was really small and really dark, but apparently, people lived in the cave for months and months. We could barely last for 5 minutes!

Next, we headed to the breathtaking Chagga market. There was beautiful fabric, fresh fruit, and many other souvenirs. We bought a bunch of bananas for one of our neighbors, named Mama Chenge, who was going to teach my mom how to cook them correctly. After spending time at the beautiful market (which, sadly, we couldn’t take pictures of) we headed to lunch at a little garden, which was very close to the Chagga hut. We ate our lunchboxes of grilled cheese sandwiches, vegetables, a muffin, a hard boiled egg, a banana, and an apple.

When we were done, it was starting to drizzle and off we went to the Chagga hut, which was a beautiful little dirt side and straw top house. Inside there was a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom all in a space that would be the size of an average American bedroom. Outside they had cattle.

Then, we were on our way to the start point of the hike to the waterfalls. We were all really pumped and ready. We had our walking sticks in hand and all, but then we were told that it was too dangerous and slippery because of the rain. We walked back to the vans, all of us soaking wet, and we went back to Rau village, with a stop at a boutique called Unique Batik, an art store, and a coffee shop, we were on our way back to the home base. That day was a lot of fun.

Along with doing our placements in the morning, some of us go to an orphanage in the afternoons. The orphanage that we go to is called Matumaini, which I recently learned is Swahili for hope. Some of my kids from my school live there. It is a lot of fun to play games with the kids. They love hand games. Their favorite one is called Amina. It reminds me a little bit of our Lemonade hand game. They also have Down by the Banks, which is a lot of fun to play with them. There are about 10 and 15 kids. I always look forward to going to the orphanage and seeing all of the kids.

One of the things that we did for them is we bought them mattresses, because the ones that they had were old and ratty, and most of the beds don’t have mattresses at all. A bunch of people chipped in and they are all really happy. The kids ages range from 3 to 15 both boys and girls. The orphanage is also somewhat new, so they need help putting it all together. When ever we get there the kids always run into our arms and are so excited when we get there to visit them.