Uluguru Mountain Climbing to Morningside!!

Our climb today was amazing and Linda, Franki and I had a blasttttt together. We took a taxi about half way up the mountain until the road was too rough to keep going (it was NOT a relaxing car ride!!! most of the time the road was either full of giant holes or on a 45 degree angle) We started our climb at about 7:30 and the first part was reeeally steep. Poor Linda only had her sandals so she was slipping a lot... not exactly an anxiety free climb :P ... We seen a few villages along the way, a lot of farms - which i thought was awesome because we didn't even think anyone lived up there - and bananas everywhere! 

The view was amazing and the clouds kept rolling in and out the whole time. We could also hear the water in the rivers and waterfalls running down the mountain the whole time so despite our huffing and puffing it was a beautiful climb. The best part was Franki grew up in the mountains so he barely broke a sweat - just realized how ridiculously out of shape I am!!

When we got to Morningside it was absolutely amazing. There were beautiful flowers everywhere and even though the building was a little creepy we had breakfast and made some Chai and it was really relaxing. We could kind of hear the baboons but we would have had to climb another few hours to get to where they were and me and Linda were already dying, so we settled with hearing them :P. 

On the way back down we stopped at a few spots in the river and Franki and I climbed down ( Linda has those pictures and her camera memory card doesnt fit in the computer :( ) I almost fell down a 15 ft waterfall but I caught myself on a tree lmao sorry mom!!! It was a greeeeat trip and we're potentially planning for next weekend to goo to the other side of the mountains and see a big waterfall.. the one we were going to see today was too steep of a climb to get to.  

AWWWEESSSOOMMMEEE day!!

Our view during our climb... clouds everywhere and it was beautifulllll!!

Little baby waterfall!!

Bananas were everywhere we looked

I have no idea what this was but we thought it was neat

Franki climbing over the river to get to Morningside

We made it!!!

Morningside :)

Majestic :P

Meeee!! I climbed the mountain!

Me and Franki

Franki dancing on the rock :P

Some of the awesome flowers we found up there

Morogoro!!

Some of the farms on this mountain.. It baffles my mind that people can do anything on these slopes

On our way back down

Some of the houses that were there

I climbed down where that hole is with Franki where I was almost lost forever... much deeper and slipperier than we thought 

Beautiful view!

Cool looking moth :P

These little guys are everywhere!!! :P I love them!! Finally got a picture of one...they move too fast usually

My first souvenirs :)

 This is my painting that i bought... I can't remember what they're called now but they're paintings on fabric  and they're really beautiful!! they guy Linda and I bought ours from was really nice and has a shop we're going to go see for more cool stuff when we get more money :P ... He had a lot of awesome wood carvings and jewelry... so great!!

This is my Kanga!!! It's actually cut into two pieces so technically I have two kangas but I got it for 7000 tsh and they're so easy to wear. It's basically just a wrap that everyone here just wears like how we would wear a towel after a shower but I pin mine in place (just to be safe lmao).. I'm definitely getting a few more before I leave :)

First day of HBC and ESL classes

Today we had our first meeting with the HBC kids and after that was Jelena’s first ESL class. For HBC only 5 kids showed up so I found it really challenging to get into it… a lot of the stuff we had planned was for a larger group so it ended up being pretty quiet and I felt awkward and it kinda sucked to be me since I was running it lol… near the end more kids came for the ESL class so the game we played went a lot better  so “Note to self: never have these kids sitting because it doesn’t work!!!” ..

For ESL pretty much all of the girls club came and there were almost 40 people all together for the class so everyone woke up (besides me because my chest started hurting in the morning then just got worse and worse -.-”). Franki like always took all the babies… he’s so cute with them!! Jelena’s module is all about work readiness and English for tourism so Franki also helped show the kids what not to look like for work. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it because he made himself look ridiculous :P… The kids also got chart paper with pictures of human bodies on it so they could draw in groups what a “work ready” person looks like. They ended up having a lot of fun and it ended on a much better note. 

Franki, Jelena, Linda and I all went for lunch in town and we’re planning on resting tomorrow then going on our mountain hike on Monday instead of next weekend now… It’s called Morning Side the first place we’re going to which is about a 2 hour climb then there are waterfalls that are another hour and a half… If we get high enough Franki said there are also baboons everywhere so it should be AMAZINGGGG. In a few weeks we’re going to go to another set of waterfalls that are bigger and if we’re brave enough we might try to get to the top where there’s a radio tower everyone hikes to in the clouds. 

So just so everyone knows, maybe no blog post tomorrow but definitely one on Monday after we climb :D

So so so excitedddddd. 

Franki with all the babies again :P

ESL Class working on their "work ready" drawing

Linda grabbed a baby too! :P

Girls working away

The class getting ready to present their drawings

Franki and Jelena teaching - they did a great job today 

Some excitement during my day

Two adventure stories today:

1. We took a daladala to get to Girls Club this afternoon and when we were taking a turn onto a road there was a ridiculously large hole in the side of the road. Apparently the driver thought he could make it through fine but then we kept getting stuck and had to drive back and forth and back and forth for like 5 minutes until it finally made it through. There are N O  R U L E S on these roads!!

2. We finished girls club a little before 6 and called our cab driver that we usually call to get us - he’s been reliable before so there shouldn’t have been a problem. First he said he would be there in 15 minutes because he was in town (Chamwino is about 15-20 minutes from there). Then half an hour later he said he was about 10 minutes away. Then when it was getting to be almost completely dark we called him AGAIN and he was magically 15 minutes away again. We called another taxi but then we were driving in the dark and everyone seems to think it’s a good idea to drive with their brights on here. We hit a few good potholes, almost ran into a daladala, and watched another taxy almost back into 3 guys on motorcycles.

Needless to say I’m glad to be sitting in the house now… time for BED!!!

Girl's Club - First Meeting!!

Girls club went pretty well for the first time today. Sana took the lead so we didn’t do too much but it was a lot of fun. I helped her hold up some of her posters and she taught the girls about the difference between sex and gender. They were a little quiet at first but once the session got going they were very talkative and we got to laugh a lot. There were a few girls that had babies so Franki took them outside and it was ridiculously cute!! :P

The girls did an activity where they had to tell us words to write on chart paper that were things woman could only do because of their biology and then on another paper things that women “can’t do” because of social constrictions. Some of it got a little lost in translation but overall the girls enjoyed themselves and Sana did a really good job of getting them active. Next session tomorrow we’re going to teach them about debating and they will be having a debates next week on some of the things we discussed.

After we were finished Franki, Linda, Sana, Jenga and I all waited for our cab and Franki showed us his rap song that’s on the radio and it’s actually really good!! When I get it on my ipod I’m going to try to put it on facebook or something because I love it hahaha. They have music here called “bongo flava” that’s just rap in Swahili but the music itself is great!

We’ve had a good few days and I bought my first Kanga today so I’ll get a picture of it when I get it tailored and can wear it J It’s got pretty birds on it!! Loll

Lots of meetings tomorrow morning then girls club, and after HBC on the weekend it’s shopping time!! :D

 Franki holding one of the babies... so so so cute hahaha he's an awesome babysitter!!

Some of the girls club girls doing their assignment

More girls club girls... they did a really good job!

Pictures!!!

Norbert trying to get the fan to work in the office

Mako working hard... He's always cooped up in his office :P

Saidi A.k.a Majioka (Snake)- one of Robert's friends who teaches us slang!!

Majioka and Robert a.k.a. Kibaka (Thief)

 They all have nick names and it's hilarious!! :P

Robert, Ashi and Baba Robert

Me and Ashi!! :)

The Mosque that Jelena walks by every day on her way to work. We were at Home Based Care (HBC)  today and walked for 30 minutes back into town.

Mountains on our way to Bamba that we drove by

Chickens...... they're EVERYWHERE!!!!

Bamba Village

My new favourite program is Bamba. It’s an African village that we’re going to work with on talking about Malaria, TB, and Governance (Tanzania is re-doing their constitution and want the citizens to be involved in the process so we’ll be bringing in an expert to talk to the community about this and their other issues). The village itself is very beautiful and situated in the middle of two large hills that lead into mountains on either side of it. There are some houses but also huts with straw roves and all the palm trees had slashes in them all the way to the top like stairs to get coconuts for their food.

We met with the leader of the village and our contact from Faraja that lives there, and the rest of the participants met with us outside the leader’s office. It’s a mix of ages and even some small children were with us while we talked (a chicken also joined at one point) and they are all very eager to learn. One man actually said that he felt blessed that we were coming to their village because normally any kind of training is in Morogoro and hard for them to get to. I'll be getting more pictures once we start the programs next Wednesday and then I'll show some of the villagers. 

Linda and I led the session with Mako translating and it went really well. The atmosphere in general has been the best so far of all our programs because they are so eager to learn and so grateful. It still amazes me that even having so little here in comparison to us most of the people I’ve met are happier and friendlier than most people in Canada (except the guy that wanted me to marry him and bring him to Canada today…. He was creeepppyyyy and I was not impressed). It’s given me a lot of hope in this particular project and We’ve already started to arrange to spend a night there in two weeks. The key will be to have Frank or Norbert with us to translate but other than that It should be an amazing experience working there!!

Houses in the village

Some of the kids playing soccer in the village

One of the houses