Of course the arrival on their end was
trouble-free, however, my end was a little more frustrating. I had
called a taxi the night before to come get me at 3am. I stressed the
AM part about 14 times. Some of you may think it's the pessimist in
me, I'd like to call myself a realistic, but to my expectation, the
taxi driver did not show up. I found myself wandering the streets of
Moshi at 3am (thankfully another PCV was with me) to find another
taxi driver. We were eventually picked up at 4:30am, over an hour
after they had already landed. We showed up at the airport about two
hours late but there they were, just waiting for me. I felt like an
awful sister and friend :/ Luckily we were so happy, the lateness was
quickly forgotten.
Their first day was supposed to be a
rest day. This is my version of a rest day: I allowed them four hours
of sleep, we took a few forms of transportation to swim at some “hot”
springs, and didn't go to bed until 10pm. They were troopers! I kind
of felt like a drill sergeant, but I knew being semi-active would
help them get onto a more normal sleep schedule.
The next day was the start of our
3-day safari. Woot! It's about time I see some damn animals! We saw
so many animals: giraffes, elephants, impalas, gazelles, ostriches,
zebras, rhinos, lions, wildebeests, monkeys, baboons, flamingoes,
pelicans, warthogs, jackals, hyenas. I'm sure there are more (Kaarin
would remember). We all could have watched the monkeys for hours,
they sure are silly little creatures. The 'dome tent' we stayed in
each night was quaint. It was definitely luxurious camping. The heavy
duty tents were on a platform with a rain cover, had two wooden beds
with mattresses and a towel. Luxury. It was an amazing three days.
The day after we returned from the
safari was an open day in Moshi to re-pack and prepare ourselves to
climb Mt. Meru. I can honestly say this was the most difficult
physical and mental task I've ever completed. And, guys, I've been
living in Tanzania for the past 18 months. That's not easy. Granted,
I have six more months until I can say I've completed my service, but
still. Not easy.
Steph, one of my best PCV buddies, was
able to meet us in Moshi and join us. We all summited, and. It. Was.
Amazing! We chose to do Mt. Meru because it's significantly cheaper
than Kilimanjaro. We had no idea every guide and porter who has
climbed both all unanimously would say that Meru is more difficult
than Kili. Very cool. The reason is because the amount of days to the
summit is less, which means a bigger change in altitude each day. We
summited Meru in two days. TWO DAYS. Meru is 14,980 ft tall, high, up
in the air. Again, very cool.
I'm unsure of how altitude affects me,
but the last three hours I felt very … unaware. Kind of like I
wasn't really consciously putting one foot in front of the other, but
it was happening; a very out-of-body-experience. Pretty sure if the
other three would have known about this, they wouldn't have let me
scale those rock walls by myself, ha. Sweet deception!
We summited a bit after 5:30pm. If
there is one feeling I'm absolutely in love with, it's the feeling of
being on top of a mountain. You could see EVERYTHING. It was a bit
cloudy, but not raining and we were grateful for nice weather. In
three minutes I went from sweating buckets to freezing my butt off.
The cold does not agree with me! (Hence my wanting to live in a hot
region! Thank you Mtwara.)
That's the highest all four of us have
ever been. I can't even describe what it felt like to be on top of
that mountain. I think I'd like to continue climbing things! Since we
summited in the evening, this meant climbing a good portion down in
the dark with headlamps. I'm not gonna lie, there were some scary
moments. Mom, I'm glad you weren't there to see us. Love you! We
arrived at our hut around 10:30pm. I was exhausted. Merely going
through the motions. Water, sleeping bag, zzzzzzz.
The third day, we made the decent from
the second hut down to the bottom. There were some
arguments/discussions about price and tipping which sucked. It seems
like nothing in Tanzania can ever be easy or clear cut, like oh I
don't know, guide fees or entrance fees. Politics, I will never
understand you... It ended up being fine, just a stupid (and normal)
hiccup in our amazing trip. Once we reached the bottom, we each got a
little certificate :)
I must say, Kaarin and Laura are such
good little travelers! They attacked the Tanzanian transportation
head on and survived. They didn't even complain. The day after we
descended Meru was another rest day, to get ourselves together, move
our muscles, and get ready to head out of Moshi. We went to Lushoto
next, just a bit south from Moshi. Here, we walked around the sleepy
town, and made a day hike up to an amazing lookout point with another
PCV buddy of mine, Glenn. He takes so many visitors on that hike, he
should get paid for his services. We had a delicious lunch of
homemade cheese, jelly, and bread at one of the local tourist stops.
Best cheese I've ever had. Well, in Tanzania. Oh come on guys, I'm
from Wisconsin, what did you expect?
The next day we made our way by dala
to Pangani, a town on the coast. It took us all day to get there, but
once we did, we slapped our suits on and went for a swim in the warm
bathwater that is the Indian Ocean. We spent the next day kayaking
and body boarding around, indulging in a great lunch at the resort
next door, and taking pictures of the nearby caves. Kaarin and I
ended up getting stung by jelly fish, but thankfully neither of us
had an awful reaction, we self-medicated ;) All in all, it was very
relaxing and nice end to Kaarin's portion of the trip. We spent the
next night in Tanga, in a guesti with AC! Once again, luxury. The
next day we made it to Dar early enough so they could do a little
shopping. It was kind of fun being the only one who knew the language
to make sure they didn't get ripped off and got good prices on
things. Laura and I took Kaarin to the airport at midnight :/ I was
sad to see her leave, but so glad we could partake in Tanzanian
adventures together!
Laura and I got on a bus to Newala
with only 3 hours of sleep. It was an 11 hour ride. But! No
complaints; because Laura and I were together :) Once again, she was
a trooper. We got a bunch of fruits and veggies to last us the week
and went to my village the next morning. She spent six straight
nights in my village; that's more than some PCVs can handle. I kept
telling her she'd be a great PCV. We didn't even do a whole lot
(there's not much you can do in a village), but we had a blast all
the same. We cooked, baked, did laundry, read, biked, hung out with
my Tanzanian family, and took some walks around my village to greet
people and show her things. All my villagers kept telling us they
could tell we are twins because we look alike. Um, I don't know if
ya'll know what we look like, but we look nothing alike. They just
like saying things sometimes. We roasted some cashews my mama gave
us, I'm glad Laura got a chance to take part in that, cashews are a
huge part of my region's income. All in all, I'm glad she got to come
down to my village and see where I've been living for the past 18
months. It was just nice to hang out with her in my house!
We then traveled on three different
buses in a total of eight hours to make it to Mtwara town on the
coast, where we were able to meet a majority of the other PCVs in my
region. We stay at a house on the beach which is always super fun and
really relaxed. We had a chance to go shopping for gifts and
carvings. When our last day together arrived, we both got really sad
:/
I decided to fly her from Mtwara to
Dar, which took a lot of convincing. Me, not her. I've heard many a
horror story from other PCVs about the Mtwara airport being
unreliable and expensive. My biggest anxiety was that her flight just
wouldn't take off that day, which was a definite possibility. I
accompanied Laura to the airport and physically waited until I saw
the plane take off with my own eyes. If they were to have “decided”
not to fly that day, she would have missed her international flight
back home...which would NOT have been ok. The airport security let
her hang out with me in the lounge until she had to board. They also
didn't make me pay for my overweight luggage. Being nice pays off
sometimes, talk about a break! So, it's not Tanzania if something's
not delayed, but we got an extra two hours of hang out time! I
immediately missed her, and still do...
AMAZING trip and I would not have
changed anything for the world. Thank you Kaarin and Laura, for
giving me the boost I needed.
