Longido

Now that we’re back in Moshi, we can finally post another blog entry for all you eager and nervous parents and friends. As you know, we voyaged to Longido on Saturday, June 24. Upon rushing out of our hotel and finding that our booked bus was overcharging us by about $40, we walked to the Moshi bus station. In order to avoid being mobbed, we sent in Nihal, Seth, and Chris to negotiate a price for the ride and left the rest of the team across the street. They agreed on 18,000 shillings (about $16) for all ten of us to go to Arusha (the city halfway between Moshi and Longido). Once in Arusha, we met our “Cultural Tourism” contact, Ali Amadou. He arranged a bus for us from Arusha to Longido for the agreed price of 25,000 shillings, thus placing us about 15,000 shillings under transportation budget for the day (more on this later). We arrived in the small village of Longido and set up tents near Ali’s hotel. As soon as we did, some local children came to marvel at the visitors, and we started an enjoyable game of Frisbee. Ali told us about the customs and a brief history of the local Masai tribe, including a massacre of a cannibalistic tribe from Zimbabwe, dowries for wives that could be up to 50 cows, the Boma system, and the Masai market. After a brief peanut butter and jelly lunch, Ali introduced us to our Masai guides, who brought us for a stroll on the African savannah behind the village. We walked to a Boma, the traditional Masai village, in which five to six cow-dung houses were surrounded by a brush fence. During the walk, friendly children swarmed us and insisted on carrying our Nalgene bottles. They liked this even more when Seth showed them the water cyclone that develops when one spins a Nalgene. Once in the Boma, we were given a tour of the two-room houses and informed of the Masai customs of circumcision, marriage, and up to twelve children per wife (of which a male could have many). While one group was in the house, the other talked with the Masai women (who, of course, were confined to the Boma). We taught them Tic-Tac-Toe and how to count from one to ten in english. Greg pulled out his playing cards and showed them the numbers on them, and Seth’s bouncy balls were an immediate success until one child discovered the fake 100 dollar bill inside one of them. “WOAH,” he exclaimed as he caught sight of it, and ripped open the bouncy ball. Then, the Masai women tried to teach us their first ten numbers, but that did not turn out so well for us, as they all got to laugh at our poor Masai. On our short trip we saw a prairie dog (squirrel), goats, cows, donkeys, and the meat market. Every Wednesday, the Masai gathered to have a cow and goat auction at the meat market. This even included a cow wash, where the cows had to swim across a long pool to become clean enough to sell. We returned to camp to eat dinner and prepare for our long hike the next day, as Longido Mountain loomed over us.

The next day, we awoke to the sound of roosters crying loudly throughout the village. After some oatmeal for breakfast and tales of Malaria-induced Technicolor dreams, we set off at a brisk pace away from the village, toward Longido Mountain. We hiked through the arid lowlands full of red soil, six-foot termite mounds, sharp thorn (toothpick size) bushes, acacia trees, and broken trees caused by “elephant damage” behind our amazingly fit Masai guides. After a relatively difficult hike up and down for seven hours, we traveled almost 180 degrees around the mountain (now we were on the backside of the mountain) and gained about 4500 feet of elevation. After brushing off ticks and burrs and finding water in the woods with one of our spear-wielding guides, we set up camp at a small clearing for the night.

The following morning, we awoke around six to find complete darkness. We departed at 7:45 with our guides up the mountain. We ascended through arid desert as described above, temperate forest similar to forests in Massachusetts, and then rain forest above 7000 feet. Today, our guide Aleesha carried a rifle to protect us against any wild animals, which included baboons, lions, buffalo, and elephants. When we reached about 8000 feet, we took a quick snack break and deployed a summit team. Unfortunately, Pete was feeling a bit sick so he and Elsa remained behind with one guide while the rest continued the short distance to the final summit. We ascended a 100-foot, medium steepness, narrow path full of fire ants, wet rocks, and roots to find a stone plateau towering above the plains. The clouds started to open up and we caught sight of miles and miles of desert, acacia trees, and termite mounds extending in all directions. After a few minutes on the summit, we descended the narrow path down to Pete again to eat a full-fledged lunch of peanut butter, cheddar cheese, and Nutella on shortbread crackers. We descended another 90 minutes to our camp and cleaned up (today we were slack-packing). At around 4:30, we departed from this camp and completed the final trek down the mountain with all our gear to meet the transport at about 6. We somehow got about 18 people and 10 packs onto this truck safely, and then took off toward our campsite, where we set up camp and were greeted with the most amazing dinner cooked by the Masai women. It is a tradition for them to cook us dinner after we climb the mountain, and they have apparently had lots of practice. The plethora of mashed potatoes, bread, bananas, roasted meat chunks, watermelon, cucumbers, and rice was delicious and well deserved after two hot days of hiking. We thanked the cooks profusely and then crashed into our sleeping bags, most of us completely exhausted.

The subsequent day was Masai Culture day. After breakfast and a short expedition to buy 20 packs of Marie biscuits, two bottles of spirits (fuel for the Trangea stoves), plum jam, and peanut butter (all for about 8000 shillings - $6.50), we walked again out into the savannah with our guides to a cave in the woods only partially up the mountain, where the Masai men were completeing an amazing tradition of preparing for the dry season. On the walk Aleesha taught us all about the different traditional medicines that the Masai gathered from the shrubs, including the morning after pill, an antibiotic, an anti-pneumonia leaf, tea flavoring, and the toothbrush tree. They would kill cows and goats in their cave and boil the meat. By stocking up on this food, they ended the rainy season (it just ended when we got here), and initiated the dry season. They cooked a piece of goat while we were there and passed around samples. It was very good, but gave a few of us a bit of indigestion. On the whole however, it passed quickly. At the cave, the Masai were very friendly and welcoming, and loved seeing our cameras, sunglasses, and walking poles. They made fun of our tiny pocketknives and jauntily flashed their two-foot spears as we used the knives on the goat chunks. On the walk back, we stopped at the Masai market and bought traditional jewelry, water gourds, and walking sticks. We returned to camp in the early afternoon to find some free time on our hands. Instead of having a leisurely afternoon, we somehow attracted about 60 children, ages five to fourteen, to the field near our campsite. We played with bouncy balls, Frisbees, and spun the children through the air. We all had a wonderful time getting absolutely mobbed by kids wanting us to pick them up, spin them, throw a bouncy ball or Frisbee, or just take a picture of them. After collapsing near our schoolhouse/kitchen site, we made a delicious dinner of spaghetti with vegetables, tomato sauce, and cheese, along with a no-bake cheesecake. After tipping the deserving guides and saying farewell, we all collapsed into bed again completely exhausted.

We woke early today to prepare for our ride back to Moshi, which passed without incident other than the vehicles being very crowded. We arrived, recovered our day packs from the storage company, checked in with Will (the World Challenge man stationed here), and then returned to the Buffalo Hotel to eat lunch. We had oranges, passion fruit, guanabana, mini sugar bananas, and PB + J sandwiches. For the afternoon, we split into groups to divide, conquer, avoid pestering street vendors, and plan for our service week in Mwanga at the primary school. That leaves me here, writing this entry.

No casualties,
Max

Moshi - 4:18 PM - June 23, 2006

So, this will be a longer blog entry that covers the last few days now that we have more free time. I will start with Day 4 (June 21). Starting off the morning, we landed in Johannesburg around 7:30 in the morning. After waiting in a long customs line, we proceeded to baggage claim, where we discovered that unlike Logan airport, the operators don’t give you warning before they start the rotating belts. The airport porters thought this was incredibly funny, as Seth, Greg, and I jumped off the belt yelping. After this, we discovered that Pete’s bag was missing! After attempting to sort out the lost luggage, we cleared the second customs line and Seth finally found about four Appletizers (in many flavors) at a small café in the airport. Soon after, we took a four hour flight to Dar es Salaam International Airport on South African Air. Upon leaving the airport, we were immediately accosted by taxi and bus drivers attempting to have us commission their services. After a minor fiasco with finding a “bus,” we finally agreed upon a driver to bring us to the US embassy and then our hotel for only 35,000 shillings (about $30). After jamming all ten of us and our packs into a medium sized van (it was cozy, to say the least), we started into the city. The drive was amazing, as we experienced first hand the poverty that plagues much of Africa. We drove past dilapidated houses, desperate street vendors, children begging for money for a soccer ball, and black, smog-emitting buses. After a slight complication at the US embassy, our embassy pack was finally accepted and brought to an embassy employee. Then, our driver brought us to Hotel Jamba (Hotel Hello). This hotel was like nothing we had ever experienced, and would have been considered terribly run down by American standards. After reserving three rooms at the agreed price of only 72,000 shillings (about $60), we walked down the street to “Chef’s Pride” restaurant. The food was surprisingly Americanized and delicious. We proceeded to an internet café, where 30 minutes on a computer cost us only 500 shillings (about 45 cents). After an intense scrabble game, most of us retired to bed.
The following day, we woke up around 7:40 and ate breakfast (included at the hotel). It consisted of a juice, an egg, and toast. As soon as we finished, we power walked with all our belongings to the Scandinavian Bus Line station in Dar. We took the 9:30 economy bus to Moshi. This was another shocking, eight-hour voyage. As we drove out of Dar, the city faded and small, adobe and concrete villages began to pop up along the road. As we left these villages, green shrubs stretched consistently out in all directions. In the occasional village, vendors selling fruit, cashews, cell phones, cigarettes, etc swarmed our bus. We suspected that the driver stopped on purpose in order to let people try to sell us things. Occasional silhouettes of mountains emerged in the distance and then faded away. As we approached Moshi, a mountain started to emerge in front of us. It was probably the most massive mountain most of us had ever seen, and we all exclaimed “KILIMANJARO!” Well, about ten minutes later, an even bigger mountain emerged from the clouds in the distance. We were all immediately awed. This one was really Kilimanjaro. It was a looming figure about 300 kilometers away, and yet, it was still the biggest object any of us had ever seen. Approaching Moshi, we began to get better views of the mountain. Upon arriving in Moshi, we met a World Challenge representative, who gave us a hint to find a good hotel. Taking his advice, we proceeded to the “Buffalo Hotel.” This one was infinitely better than the first in Dar, however it would still be considered “not so great” by our typical standards. After negotiating our room fee ($50 for four rooms) and settling in, our first thought was to go to the roof. As we did, we got an amazing view of the top of Kili as it emerged above the clouds. We discovered that Moshi was a much more “manageable” city than Dar. The people were generally nicer, the city was cleaner and in better condition, and there was far less chaotic activity on the streets. We went to dinner at the hotel, and some people ordered steak. Although there was some apprehension, a steak dinner (only 3000 shillings - $3) was absolutely delicious and caused no nasty side effects. There was another internet café about 10 feet from our hotel, which is where I am now. My personal favorite moment of the day was outside the hotel and café, as a man introduced himself to us, as Tanzanians frequently do. After the usual formalities, Justin commented “it was a hard day for us, but a great one for you.” He was of course, referring to the World Cup, in which Ghana had just defeated the USA two to one. After a look of confusion on the man’s face, Justin exclaimed “The World Cup!” The man immediately broke into laughter and a wonderful conversation ensued about soccer. The conversation managed to bridge all rifts between us, and it was incredible to find something we all had in common.
After a comfortable stay in our rooms, we awoke today to a great buffet that consisted of toast and passion fruit juice. We walked to Will Woodstock’s office (the in-country World Challenge agent), and he gave us a brief synopsis of the city’s dangers and wonders, and how to proceed in arranging our trip to Longido tomorrow. We split up into groups of four and bought food, cooking fuel, rebooked our hotel, set up a bus for tomorrow, and talked to Zora (our Kili guide company). As usual, numerous street vendors selling jewelry, art, fruit, clothing, etc approached us as we wandered the dusty streets. After sorting food and changing over a bit more personal spending money, we were allowed to explore the city, and that brings us to me creating this blog entry.
We will probably not have another entry for a few days because tomorrow we are going to Longido to hike and meet the Masai people.

To infinity and beyond,

-Max + the Team

The Jambo Inn - Internet Cafe 9:33 PM 6/21

We arrived in Tanzania this afternoon and took a taxi to the US Embassy where we dropped off our information papers. We then continued on our taxi adventure to a hotel called "The Jambo Inn." It is a relatively nice hotel and we are all pleased that we are finally in country. Tomorrow is looking to be an extremely busy day. We must gather our gear and board a bus for Moshi. The ride is 8 hours and should prove to be rather...long. Max has a Scrabble board though, so about 4 hours of the trip will be arguing over some stupid word and/or the definition of "slang."

Till another time,

-Greg + the Team

And they are off.

Welcome to the first blog post for the Kilimanjaro Expedition! Here you’ll be able to track our progress from Boston through London to Tanzania and eventually to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Today was our first proper day of preparation, filled with gear checking, packing, unpacking, searching for minor missing items like our yellow fever immunization cards, calling our parents in a panic to bring out spare clothes et all, repacking, realizing nothing fits, jumping on the bag a couple of times to compress it, and then finally zipping it up all of our stuff and loading it into the car.
When you pack for a long expedition like this, there is plenty of stuff to bring; enough to overload even the largest Polar Gear backpack. But our most precious piece of equipment, isn’t really a piece of equipment. Her name is Kidogo, a little hamster puppet, dedicated as our fearless mascot. In Swahili Kidogo means, “a little,” a name which we all feel is quite apt for such a strange and amusing creature. Kidogo will be our mascot for the trip and will proudly proclaim victory atop Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Today we leave for London, red eye special, and arrive at 9:00 am in Heathrow, Airport where we will hopefully spend the day enjoying the wonderful British weather and, of course, practicing our British humor. As always, the excitement is running very high and we can’t wait to board the plane en route to London.
So from the members of Team Kilidogs remember:
You Stay Classy San-Diego…(written by: Seth)