It's About Time

first off, to calm your fears and anxiety, i'm doing great! for the last 3 weeks i've not updated due to being in marangu and now in himo. let's start with marangu, then move onto himo.

marangu is incredibly beautiful! i absolutely loved it there. that's been the place where my heart has felt the most at home since i've arrived in tanzania. the place is green and lush - there are streams flowing from mt. kilimanjaro, offering clean water from drinking and washing. i like places that are green and lush! also, many of the people in marangu are educated, so they speaking some english which for me was incredible! i loved chatting with the locals about life and answering their many questions about why america is so richly blessed and weathy. i get asked the strangest questions.

since marangue is at the base of the mountain, it is very hilly. my legs were killing me the first couple of days, but after that i learned to really enjoy the hike. each day we would go and visit the locals, door to door, and they were so great. i could live there for 6 months a years - that's how much i love it. the local shop owner (AKA the bar tender) offered me a piece of land in which i could build a house. but he wants me to come and build a house, stay for 3 or 4 years, then leave the house for him to rent out to hikers. it's nearly tempting since building a house costs about $800 here. who would've ever guessed that i would be given land in the beautiful place flowing with resources! that truly blesses me so much. oh, and that little shop owner and became friends since i enjoy a coke nearly every day! (maybe i'm not supposed to admit that i escaped from the compound everyday, but it was a beautiful thing to take a break every day - by myself!)

on crazy story from marangu (since my time at this internet cafe is running out!) the last day we were there i decided to take a little walk before we left. as i was walking along the road two beautiful kids walked up behind me and grabbed my hands. the kids here love me - and i kinda like that, tho i don't know how to speak to them. so i continue to walk with the two kids to their house. their mom was there with some other kids. the next thing i know she was telling me 'thank you' and the kids were leading me out of the house. at this point i still i didn't know exactly what was happening but i assumed i was taking those kids, now 3, to school. as we climbed the mountain, the shop owner along the way kept calling out to me, 'teacher, where are you from?' i couldn't help but laugh, but i guess that when i was walking with the kids i became a teacher. as we were nearly the national park entrance, i began to wonder if the kids knew where they were going. but they continued thru the entrance, i explained to the guard that i was taking the kids to school then i would return. (it cost $20 for me, a white person, to enter inside the park, but God had made a way for me to enter without paying!) so we walked to school. i have a photo of the kids, along with some photos of the inside the park. God has a funny way of making me go places that i don't think i would ever get to go to.

now about himo. we've been here for 1 week. himo is the opposite of marangu, in that we have no water, except for the river which is about 1/2 mile away from where we are staying. each morning we make our trek to fetch water and to bathe. i'm the entertainment when i'm bathing since i need to keep most of my clothes on due to on-lookers. so friends laugh the entire time we are bathing, but i get mostly clean with the dirty water. the ground is very dusty and the plants don't grow very well here.

a story of himo. one day i was alone, sitting on a rock overlooking the river, when i looked up and saw the trees moving. as i looked closer i discovered that it was a family of black faced monkeys. that's was pretty amazing to see monkeys in the wild. for shottie and jackie, i'm sorry, but i was not able to catch them for you. i will try again later.

i'm not enjoying himo nearly as much as marangu, but we only have one week remaining there. after that we have one week off, so i'll have some time to update this blog in more detail. i'm sad that i don't have any comments from my last post - guess my faithful readers have all abandoned me. just kidding, i know you are all waiting for this post!