TO MOSHI & BACK WITH HELEN

Trip Start Dec 31, 2010

Trip End Feb 10, 2011

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Where I stayed

Moshono, Tanzania

Flag of Tanzania Moshi, Tanzania
Saturday, January 29, 2011

Early to rise, get organised with hand washing and the like then into Arusha to Clock Tower to meet Helen at 8.30 and to catch a bus [bigger than a dala dala, but smaller than a coach] to Moshi, the town closest to Mount Kilimanjaro [Africa's tallest mountain]. It took forever to leave Arusha due to the theory that you don’t leave town until the bus is full to busting, but eventually we were on the road and lucky enough to see the snow covered Kili peaks without any cloud cover. My apologies, but if you wish to see this wondrous sight, you probably have two options – Google "Kilimanjaro" or come and visit/climb it yourself! I know my dad is keen for the latter and rumour has it he’s made a booking. The view has to be embedded in our memories because we didn’t actually take any photos on the day as we were a bit distracted when we had the best views.

We had a yummy sandwich and fresh juice in an appealing courtyard with non stop chatting to and fro between us, catching up on our respective volunteering projects and the comings and goings at the hostel

Helen and I at lunch in Moshi

. Helen told me a lovely story of seeing the little girl that I gave the pink pencil case to walking to school during the week. She told Helen that Helen’s friend had given her the pens and pencils and she wanted to come back to the hostel with Helen, maybe hoping that I was there, who knows. Together in Moshi we did a little bit of shopping, poking around and checking out a few little stores. Helen bought 15 plastic dinner plates for the Meru View Pre-Primary School where she has been teaching as they don’t have enough lunch plates for the growing number of littlies. I bought general grocery items for Damasi’s family which seemed slightly cheaper than in Arusha [toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, tea leaves, peanut paste and jam, etc] and some play clothes for Damasi.

I chose not to go to dinner in the Red Kitchen and instead spent the night on the computer writing blogs in my room [just in word, not on the internet].

BTW – As I didn’t take many photos in Moshi today, I’ve included some photos here of the waterfall trek I did when I went to Lake Natron which got totally overshadowed by Lengai.

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