The Waterfalls of Mbahe

On DIRT trips, there are a lot of experiences that we all realize we can never possibly describe.  Today brought a whole day like that.  The vets who were in Tanzania in 2012 will have the best chance of getting some perspective on what we felt/saw/did today. 

Some of us got up before sunrise to get up the hill behind our camp to see Kili before the clouds covered it up and possibly see the sunrise from there too.  We were not disappointed (except that our drone wouldn’t fly for some reason). 

While we were up there, we saw someone walking our way along the ridge and realized that it was our main Tanzania liaison, Simon Mtuy.  He has been out of the country and just returned last night but he got up bright and early to make sure that things were going well for us. We stayed up there with Simon for almost an hour and then rejoined the rest of the group for breakfast. 

Soon after breakfast, we left for the day’s excursions. Our first stop was in the Marangu town center, where we met with our old friend Wilson B.T. Moshi.  Wilson was our main guide in 2012, meaning that we were with him all day almost every day. He is quite a character who loves to give speeches, so he got on the van and gave a speech right away.  He welcomed us and told us how much he appreciated our presence, along with telling us how surprised we were going to be when we revisited the sites of the projects from the last trip. 

And once we had Wilson in the van with us, the next stop was Mshiri, the village where the 2012 group spent most of its time.  The project that year was protection of a natural spring that sends water down to (at that time) 30,000 people, including five schools.  The issue was that people had started to strip the forest around the spring, which left it unprotected; further, the area had become a dumping ground for appliances, mattresses, etc. 

Simon proposed that we assist the village in constructing a chain link fence around a broad perimeter near the spring to reduce foot traffic in the area and prevent dumping.  Further, it would allow for regrowth of the forest to provide shade to reduce evaporation of the flowing water.  The SMC group was not wild about the idea of building a chainlink fence in the forest, but Simon convinced them that it was the thing to do.  It was a really hard job that took almost the entirety of that trip (with a few other side jobs thrown in along the way), but it also brought the SMC group together with the village in a really meaningful way. 

When we returned to the area, Jesse and Shawny could not believe what they were seeing.  The area inside the fence was lush and thick, and the water flowing out was much stronger than before.  The new village chairman joined our whole group at the spring and pointed out that the flow was much stronger even after being tapped by pipes running in two different directions.  Both the chair and Wilson talked at some length about the impact of the fence on their own community and on the many communities downstream who were benefiting from the work. 

We all walked the perimeter of the entire large fence and marveled at the hard labor that clearly went into its construction.  Shawny, Jesse, Wilson, and Simon talked about various stages in the process and the obstacles that they faced along the way.  And while we were looking at the fence/spring, some of the villagers who had worked with the 2012 group came by to say hello. We all had seen some coverage of the last trip by looking through the blogs but we felt newly attached to the project by seeing it firsthand. 

After a bit more speech-making by Wilson and the village chair, we headed to our next destination: Simon’s parents’ house in Mbahe.  Simon grew up there, and we are all amazed by the beauty and magic of the whole area.  Our van drove us part of the way, but from there we had to walk in.  The walk is glorious, with big vistas around almost every turn and incredible views of shades of green overlapping from the different forms of flowers and plants that are everywhere. 

We finally crested a hill and came upon the Mtuy property, which now functions primarily as a stopover for climbers who are going to summit Kilimanjaro.  Simon prefers that his clients spend three days acclimating before they start their ascent, and this place is one option for where to do that. 

We came into the dining area and found fresh coffee made from the coffee trees all around us, along with fresh roasted nuts and fresh juice.  From there, we sat down to a luxurious multi-course meal.  We won’t even try to describe it because we won’t do it justice.  It was fabulous.  As was the conversation.  Laughter rang through the room. 

After lunch we went to the waterfall behind the house and jumped off it into a (cold!) swimming hole.  We jumped individually, in pairs, threes, and fours.  Simon jumped too, as did Jesse and Shawny.  There was a little cave behind a secondary waterfall that we could swim into as well, but it was even colder in there than it was out in the main pool.  We had a blast.  When we had jumped as many times as we wanted, we went back up to the house and saw a demonstration of the coffee roasting process conducted by Wilson.  All the while, we were sipping fresh coffee and realizing how truly blessed we are to be here. 

When we realized that it was getting late, we hurried to get started walking back out to the van, even though it was hard to tear ourselves away from that magical place.  As we reached the bottom of the hill, we noticed some kids playing soccer and some of us wordlessly joined in on the game.  The kids were thrilled.  More people came around to see what all the squealing was about and suddenly we were a mini-phenomenon.  Both we and the kids were playing as hard as we could, and we were really seriously trying to score and get the ball from each other.  Those who weren’t playing were using their cameras to interact with the kids who weren’t playing, by taking pictures and then showing them the shots.  When we saw what a hit the photography was, we got out the drone (which works again) and REALLY caught the interest of the village, especially the kids. 

We needed to get going, but we were all (including the kids and the villagers, it seemed) experiencing such pure, unadulterated joy that it was hard to walk away.  As Simon finally convinced us that we needed to head for home, we heard many of us exclaim that this was the happiest we had ever been.  We suspect that there are many more happy days ahead of us, but for now, we are going to rest in the glow of this day and realize that we likely will hold it in our hearts forever. 

We got home after dark and had to navigate our little valley with flashlights and cellphones.  It’s already getting familiar enough that we didn’t have any problem doing so.  We had soup and some fruit, then stayed at the table for our evening reflection.  We talked about the whole range of the DIRT experience, from the monotony of bucket lines to the exuberance of jumping off waterfalls, and realized that it all makes us pretty happy.  We also reviewed our thoughts about representing ourselves and our hosts through photos and videos, reminding ourselves to be conscientious in our decisions. 

AND, we revived an old tradition: initiation into the Order of the Purple Bike.  A few years ago on a trip to the Amazon, the group used bikes to get around town.  They purchased all of the bikes in town (almost), which turned out to be lots of red ones, a few blue and green ones, and ONE purple one.  They decided then that people would “win” the chance to ride the purple bike by exceptional achievements on particular days.  Even though we don’t have bikes here (much less purple ones), we are keeping up that tradition with symbolic membership in the Order of the Purple Bike. 

Because we are a few days behind, we inducted three new members tonight.  First, we inducted Max, who, as we said yesterday, runs, hustles, and knocks himself out even when it’s not totally necessary.  He just works as hard as he can ALL THE TIME, which makes him a great DIRTy.  His little dance routine crawling across the log bridge this week (was that twerking?) also got him some accolades.  Max is a wonderful person to have on any team and we are grateful to have him here with us, whether we are on his specific team or not.  Thanks, Max!

Our second inductee was Josh.  Josh is super fun and happy, always thinking of funny things to do and always keeping a great attitude.  As we were traveling from SFO to here, we kept losing track of him for just a moment or two, then finding him again.  Someone joked that we needed a leash for Josh, which eventually led to us referencing him as our “puppy.”  He happily accepted that title and ran with it.  Besides his great personality, Josh is also a visual genius, who takes great pictures that are really impressive.  We are not the only ones who are going to benefit from his talents, as all of you get to see his great work on this blog and in our future projects.  Yay, Josh!

Our third inductee for tonight was Olivia.  She started to get a cold on the plane ride here and has fought it without complaint the whole time so far.  We all keep checking in on her and she just says, “I’m fine” and keeps going.  We made her rest one afternoon, which seemed to pay off in helping her get on the other side of her situation.  Additionally, today when we were jumping off the waterfall, she decided not to do it.  But she kept stepping up to the edge and expressing interest. We all made clear that she did not need to jump if she didn’t want to jump.  After many decisions not to do it, one of her times at the edge led to her choosing to jump after all.  We were glad to see that she pursued the course of action that she wanted, even if she had some fear about it.  She was glad too.  Congratulations, Olivia!

1.     A very joyous reunion between Simon, Wilson, Shawny, and Jesse at the fence they built in the 2012 Dirt trip.

 On our way back from Marangu the Dirties had the opportunity to play soccer with some of the local children and this girl was very excited about the cameras and photography.

1.     The top of Mount of Kilimanjaro at sunrise. The glacier and snow were extremely visible this morning.

1.     The beautiful hike up to Simon’s parents’ house included crossing a river. Wilson was wonderful and helped everyone across.

1.     The lunch spread at Simon’s parents house in Marangu was extremely fresh and delicious. All the food was grown on the property.

 Team Wakubwa picture jumping off the waterfall!
 

 Papa Wilson giving us a coffee demo.  We learned a lot about the different coffee flavors.

 Group photo at the waterfall before heading back to Mweka.  This waterfall was a few steps from Simon’s house, and everyone enjoyed swimming in the freezing water.

 Wilson teaching us how to make coffee. Close up of the beans before they have been cooked.

 Lunch at Simon’s house. Part of the delicious eight-course meal that was prepared for us.

 Simon’s backyard. We were lucky enough to take a dip in the river after lunch.