A Slow Friday on the Hill

The morning was a little grey and chilly, which seems to have slowed us down just a bit.  Two of us (Shawny and Paul) seem to have picked up Olivia's head cold from a few days ago but we are hoping they will shake it off as quickly as she did.  They ventured to the worksite after a breakfast of porridge and eggs but called it earlier than the rest of us to go back to camp and nap.

The rest of us found ourselves largely idle until it was time to teach English, where again Olivia and Anthony were the stars of the show.  We moved on to between, beside, and across, also reviewing our prepositions from yesterday.  We also did the old DIRT standby and taught them "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."  Things fell apart a bit on the "eyes and ears and mouth and nose" part but otherwise, they were with us.

The construction project today was focused on installing the metal mesh windows, and we could hardly help at all. We made some mortar for the masons but didn't accomplish much else.  So we decided to follow not too far behind Shawny and Paul and go home and get organized.

We cleaned up our tents and moved them again (well, most of us did) and enjoyed a lunch of garbanzo beans and guacamole.  Some teams worked on their videos (go back and watch the one from The Falls of Mbahe!  It's finally up!).

Four of us went back to the worksite to help build the lenta, which we are finally getting a feel for.  There wasn't enough work for all of us so most of the rest joined Simon for a permaculture tour of his property.  He has really established a resilient, stable system here and has thought about how everything fits with everything else.  He is really going for a "zero waste" system and if we weren't here, he would probably achieve it.  Our Clif Bar wrappers and bandaids might be the worst scourge on the region.  They have trash receptacles that separate items into "food," "paper," and "nylons," the latter of which includes every plastic thing that is neither of the former.  That bin is always full when we are around while the others are not.  Hmmm.

We are excited because today is the opening of Simon's "Bank of America" branch.  There is not really a bank opening here and it's certainly not from America. Instead, it's a pair of fancy new composting toilets that have been built into the shower house but that have not yet been in use.  Today's the big day.  The toilets actually divert the liquid matter out in one direction toward particular plants that thrive on that particular form of liquid. The solid matter gets combined with organic matter and serves the needs of other plants, including banana trees.  The DIRTies in the Amazon have seen the impact of septic systems on banana trees (huge fruit!) so we think we get the picture.

We are going into town tonight to eat out and hear some music.  We won't stay out terribly late because we have to work in the morning, but we have earned some R&R.  We'll let you know about the food and the music, most likely tomorrow . . .

 While most of the students are walking down to town, we pass our professor Jesse who is returning from Moshi.

 Matt and Nate walking amongst students who are walking back home from school.

 Matt, Allie, Lindsey, Megan, Camille, and Maddie talking to students and learning their names.

 Students working hard at school. They continue to work on prepositions.

Alex relaxing in one of our three hammocks after a hard day of work

 This is Barnabas, the head of construction for the project at our school.  Here he is sawing wood beams to support the drying cement walls

 Max trying to tan his pasty white legs in an interesting fashion.

 While mixing cement, the group got antsy waiting for it to be used.  To pass time, we had a tic tac toe tournament.

 Ali practicing her surfing skills while in Tanzania!

Anthony showing off his true colors after a long day of DIRTy work. 

 One of the many beauties of Mount Kilimanjaro is the plentiful vibrant flowers.

The strength of the women in Mweka is unbelievable. They carry buckets full of water on their heads.

 The roads from Mweka to Moshi are very bumpy, but the roads are no match for our sturdy bus.

 Jesse, Simon, Barnabas, and Henry discussing the plans for the stove in the school kitchen.

Mount Kilimanjaro has a wide range of biodiversity including wild mushrooms.