Volunteer Amani
12th Dec 2006Another Special Day In Paradise! It is now December 12th and there has been a noticeable change in the daily weather here in Moshi. The days are now very hot, sweltering even, and I am now taking every chance to seek out shade and wear my hat! There seems to be a very regular weather pattern now of a clear sky in the evening which is amazing to see, when I walk back down to my house having visited friends in town. You can see literally every star on the sky and there have been amazing views of Kili. recently with a full moon - amazing! Bright sunshine in the morning often leads to a heavy short downpour in the afternoon caused by clouds that form over Kili. and are then blown over Moshi by a cool breeze. It really does not seem like December here, and I am sometimes longing for a cold frosty Winter morning with the sun rising through a mist rolling off the fields! There is a different air about Amani now, with around half of the children having already left for a Christmas visit to their homes or relatives. No teaching is taking place and I am now involved in education workshops each day. I am feeling rather sorry for those children for whom Christmas Day will be spent at Amani. Family circumstances for some children inevitably mean that it is impossible for them to return home or visit relatives. It must be so hard for them to see the other children pack their things and leave for Christmas knowing that they will remain at Amani for Christmas. Some lucky children have been invited to spend Christmas with Staff members an I am left wondering whether it will be possible to accomodate 2 of them at my place just to help out and give them a special day to remember on Christmas Day. I will make some enquiries! Back to the main subject of this entry, and another fantastic day that I spent in Kingori after an invitation to the Confirmation Ceremony of my good friend`s niece. The day started early with a meet arranged for 7.30am in readiness to catch a bus from the main bus stand in Moshi to Arusha and Kingori. I laughed as my friend struggled with a cake in a large cardboard box, that she had made for the celebration, as I was also carrying some gifts to pass on to her parents as a thank you for their hospitality. We had also been able to buy the niece a dress as a present for her special day. The bus stand(station) was its usual chaotic self with hundreds of people and the usual hawkers all present all doing there level best to seek customers! It was a relief to find a large Arusha-bound bus with spare seats and to sit down away from tall the chaos! The journey took less than an hour where we alighted at the side of the main Arusha-Moshi road and waited for our intended lift, from one of my friend`s brothers. True to African form he was `overdue` but it didn`t seem to matter as it was quite entertaining to watch African life go by! The pickup finally arrived and to everyone`s suprise the back was already full, loaded with a 3-piece suite! By this time there were now other family members who had arrived for the same lift, and so began another crazy African journey up the same incredibly rough, bumpy and dusty road, that I had experienced a few weeks earlier! 7 of us plus a 3-piece suite disappearing in clouds of dust as other vehicles went past us, or we caught another vehicle up, which was even worse! The ladies wrapped Kangas over their hair as we sped up the `road` I just held on very well, and wondered if I would arrive looking more African than white through dirt and dust! Now I know why Africans have black skin so the dust dosn`t show up! They really are so lucky as they don`t even go pink in the sun and can stay in it for hours! Bet they couldn`t handle a good old British frosty morning though! Back to the main story. A very long, bumpy and dusty ride later we came to a stop where we picked up a couple more passengers. Another short ride and stop later we were picked up again, after the suite had been dropped off at its intended destination! I forget how long th last leg of the journey took as I was beginning to be so amazed by the scenery which was even more amazing than my last vist! We were now in a different region of Kingori and visiting a different village. The whole area was a mass of tropical trees and plants with banana palms and coffee plantations growing inbetween. Further back the landscape was even more amazing with amazingly pointed hills also covered in vegetation and Mount Meru dominating the skyline, the second highest mountain in the Kilimanjaro region. We finally reached our intended destination to find a small village church absolutely packed with people and many who just would not fit in and stood outside the front doors! We all `alighted` from the back of the pick-up covered in a film of dust! It was quite entertaining to watch my friend and her other femaler relatives, try, in as lady-like way as possible to climb out of the back of a pickup in their best long skirts and dresses! We all laughed and I tried my very best to help and look away at the vital moments! That is what I admire so much about the women over here. They very rarely complain and put up with far more than they should! Real tough cookies, and with real spirit and character, especially if you make an effort to speak with them. At this point I started to feel quite conspicuous as I was the only whiteman there, but more-so than usual. You kind of get used to that feeling on a daily basis here, but I could really tell this time that there must have been very few white people who have ever visited this region before me. When we first arrived everybody looked at me and I mean everyone! A little later I was able to confirm my suspicions with my friend`s brother.It was true they see very few white people in that region. The children in particular were really inquisitive but too embarrased to come and talk! Anyway. back to the main story my friend shot off with my digital camera to try and catch some good pictures of her niece during the service whilst I was asked to join a large group of men who were sat on benches in the church grounds. It was soon very apparent that we had arrived just too late to join the main service in church, and I would spend quite a pleasant afternoon sat outside in the church grounds with an increasing number of men. I was being looked after by my friend`s brother who went out of his way to make sure that I was ok. He was the driver and owner of the pickup that brought us to church. The surroundings were pretty amazing again as I moved places several times to dodge the full sun I had several different views! Greenery everywhere with tropical trees an lots of ground vegetation. The church service eventually came to a close and everybody left the church to go their seperate ways. The service was a mass Confirmation so the repective families dispersed to go back to their homes to continue with their own private family celebrations. This is where the day became very interesting as my friend`s family collected together end we began a walk back to the remote home of my friend`s brother. The path became smaller and smaller as we wound our way through forest interpsersed with coffee and banana trees/palms. We then broke into a clearing with the path now becoming steep. I stopped and turned back to admire the view as I knew we were now at quite an elevation. It was breathtaking and through a gap in the forest cover I could see out and over a huge green plane to where Mount Meru rose up through the mist. It was amazing but the cows that I was currently stood by looked suitably unimpressed! We climbed a seriously steep path and arrived at the top for me to take a last good look at the amazing view again before we had to continue further. Along the way we came across some local children who looked at me in amazement. I knew they were thinking what is this crazy Englishman doing here? We eventually approached the house of our destination and were greeted by the whooping of African ladies, which I was told is a traditional African greeting. Qeite anumber of people had already collected in the garden at the house which was made from wood and had an amazing view because it was perched on top of a hill. I was made to feel amazingly welcome and must have greeted at least 20 people, who were all interested to speak with me. An area of the garden had been set aside to receive guests and an awning had been made with brightly coloured Kangas (African sarongs)stretched to fill in the sides. It was really pretty and in such an amazing location again. Chairs had been placed inside to seat everyone and I was invited to sit, having first joined the que for some really well prepared African, celebratory food.The important people were seated at the head of the awning, behind a long table which was decorated with flowers and a table cloth. We ate pilau, bananas, vegetables and meat, and I felt very priveliged to be part of such a close family occasion. I ended up eating 2 huge plates of food, as my friend was being so helpful with the other guests that she brought an elderly lady food, who already had some! She gave the plateful to me, and I felt obliged to eat it! I lost count of the number of cooked bananas that I ate! After eating the true celebrations started. It is hard to recall all of the proceedings in real detail, but needless to say it was a truly African celebration with the confirmed niece the centrepiece. There was all sorts of singing and dancing, presenting of gifts and greetings to the family of the confirmed niece. We had bought her a dress, which my friend asked me to present, as part of the que of people who were making money contributions. One novel part of the celebration was the cutting and eating of the cake that my friend had so carefully carried all the way from Moshi in that cardboard box! Amazingly it had survived the journey, and was cut into small pieces, which were then presented to certain people directly into their mouths on the end of a cocktail stick, accompanied by much singing and celebration! One of those people included me, and I tried very hard to make sure that the cake stayed in my mouth, which is quite hard infront of such a large and interested audience! My day came to a close quite dramatically, as I was ushered out of the awning and told that we had to leave as our lift had arrived. It felt quite rude to be leaving before the celebration had finished, but I was assured that we had to take the offer of a lift as it would be the only one of the day, and it was way too far to walk. I requested to express my thanks for the invitation before I left, and was again suprised when I was asked to address everyone! In my best Kiswahili I said my thanks, before we were whisked away by car down a pretty treacherous steep dirt road. We were met by my friend`s brother again, who gave us an equally entertaining lift back in the back of his open pickup truck, this time luckily there was no 3-piece suite to cause us space problems, but even so the space was limited as we stopped to pick up various other pessengers along the way. The dust was just as bad during this journey, but I didn`t really notice as I was so amazed by the passing scenery and amazing views of Mount Meru. A long drive took us back to the main Arusha-Moshi road, where we bid our farewells and thanks to my friend`s brother, and caught the usual bus back to Moshi. In less than an hour we were back in Moshi, and after a quick drink and another bite to eat, we bid each other farewell and caught dala dalas back to our homes. I arrived back home completely shattered and covered in dust, but again very grateful for another amazing day in Kingori!
|
| 2293 Words | This page has been read 33 times | View Printable Version |