Kili Kili Time

The past week has definitely flown by; we got back from Moshi Sunday night at about 9pm. After the 9 hour grueling bus ride….

A couple months back, my “ex” boss from MTA asked if I would be able to do some recruiting at the International School of Moshi (ISM). He offered to contribute to the expenses and so there we went. If it wasn’t for the recruitment visit, I would not have been able to go. I was a bit nervous about the visit, since I felt a bit rusty in terms of my knowledge about MTA. But the guidance counselor made me feel at ease (she was Canadian too) and the students were great. There were 16 students and some did seem very keen after hearing personal stories about MTA.

We spent one day in Moshi and another day in Arusha. We did book a tour guide to bring us around, but one thing I’ve learned is that if they tell you the walk will be 15 mins…. Never believe them. In Arusha, we went to see a Maasai Boma (house) up on a mountain and also check out a viewpoint where we could see the entire town. The hike took us over 2 hours, and most of us weren’t quite dressed for the occasion. I quickly realized how badly out of shape that I am. The view was incredible though, you could see the Ngongoro-goro Crater mountains and then on the other side see Mt. Kilimanjaro on the other side (Except it was a bit cloudy). We also went to a place called the Curio & Craft Market, it was this market place with over 40 vendors selling Tanzanian and Maasai souvenirs. A soon as we walked, the venders were basically dragging us into their stores. The competition between the sellers was quite fierce. They were all shoving items into our faces.. and saying “good price, good price”. You definitely had to put your bargaining skills to work. The starting price for most of items was 4 or 5 times more than other places. I did to a fair but of shopping there, including some gorgeous paintings.

The next day was spent in Moshi. I had heard about some really nice waterfalls so that was at the top of my to do list. We booked a tourguide and he brought us on this hike through what I would call a banana jungle. The scenery as incredible, hiking through steep mountain sides where if you fell…it would not be a happy ending. Finally we arrived at an amazing waterfall, unlike any other waterfall I have seen before. It seemed almost as if we were at the bottom of gorge, but I think we were more at the far end of the valley floor. The waterfall as at least 200ft high, so high that when the water reached the bottom it almost turned into mist. Then there as another 30 ft waterfall at the bottom. It was such a tranquil spot; I would have loved to stay there all day.

Other than the waterfall, the other highlight of the trip was waking up at 6:30AM with the sight of Mt. Kilimanjaro right in the backyard of where we were living. The 4895m mountain was quite impressive, maybe one day I’ll climb it J

This week we’re headed to the Island of Zanzibar! Should be a lot of fun, I hear that it has some of the nicest beaches.