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