Sunday Slowdown

We noticed that we were all really tired at the end of the day on Saturday, so we made the collective decision to stay in bed and just sleep as long as we could on Sunday.  We checked into church services to attend, but when we heard the choices were 2.5 hours long or 3 hours long, we decided to organize our own form of worship and get some sleep.

As it turned out, church kind of came to us, as some church not too far away broadcast its service on a huge PA system that easily reached our tents.  Most of us started straggling out either due to hearing the service or due to the heat in our tents that immediately follows the arrival of the sun.  In any case, we all gathered on a beautiful sunny morning and enjoyed a breakfast of pancakes (from mix we brought from home, plus syrup we brought from home), as well as sweet potatoes and porridge for the non-pancake people.

We talked through the rest of our stay, as we know that it is going to go by fast from this point on.  We leave for our safari next Saturday, so this week is all we have in our Mweka home.  We will easily finish the kitchen at the school and get some reforestation work done.  On Friday we will have to strategically pack to leave lots of gear behind when we go on safari so we have to really think about which things we need and which things we can live without.  We plan to re-wear the same clothes on safari, so don't be surprised if our pictures look the same even when you know the days are different.

Today we are going on a long walk in the area to see things we haven't seen before.  A few more of us have joined the head cold club so we are setting up a situation where we can peel off in an hour or two hours if needed.  Tonight we are having a barbecue at our camp and right now a small group of us has gone to watch the goat being slaughtered across the valley.  We talked about it quite a bit and many of us believe it is only right to understand the whole process that comes along with eating meat.  Some are not convinced.  And a couple are pretty committed vegetarians who have no interest in the whole subject.  Don't worry; they won't put anything graphic in today's video.

We'll check in later after our walk . . .

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Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  This walk was everything.  Of course it was beautiful. How could it not be in this setting?  We walked down the road above our camp and into parts of Mweka that we haven't seen yet.  Along the way, we ran into school kids whose names we actually knew and who came running out to greet us and hold our hands.  It was like those times when you are in a city in which you don't live, someone asks you for directions, and you actually know something useful to tell them.  We didn't feel like total strangers but we were still in awe of all the new things we were seeing.

We then cut down into some ravines that afforded us amazing views that we will never manage to represent in pictures.  We crossed the water a couple of times and walked by a range of different dwellings, including some built of sticks and some pretty luxurious houses with real glass windows and locked gates. We hear that the fancy houses are mostly owned by people from out town who come here for holidays.  We went by schools and churches, some still in the throes of their very long services, and passed lots of well-dressed church-goers sharing our path.

At one point we broke into a clearing and encountered a massive European-style church that was built by "the Germans" (whatever that means) in 1900.  Based on our recent construction experience here, we all marveled at the engineering that would have been involved not only in building this massive and apparently perfect structure, but also just the logistics of getting all of those materials up to the site.  From one side, it appeared that the church was closed but then we found an open door on one side, so we got to go in.  We all fell silent and joined some folks already inside in prayers and solemnity, and marveled even more at the huge coved ceiling, the exposed beams, and the electric lights that had clearly been added later.  For those of us who really wanted to go to church this morning, we got an acceptable substitute experience.

From the church, we started cutting back up the mountain and we could really feel it.  We slogged away and made it back to the river where some of us have bathed and swum before, then hiked back up to our camp.  Kenja had a pasta lunch waiting for us, which we needed.  Some of us went back to the river to cool off after lunch, while most of the rest of us did Simon's permaculture tour where he explains all of the facets of his interrelated properties and how they fit together to help him pursue his zero waste dream.  Like the first group, this group was entranced by all the Simon is doing here.  To say they admire him and his dreams is an understatement.

Evening is falling and we are witnessing another amazing sunset as our cooks are preparing our goat for roasting.  We are about to do a couple of world premiers of our new videos, which will make them ready to post for you to see.  We also intend to watch a movie all together tonight, assuming we can figure it out.  We'll let you know!

 The trees in Tanzania are incredibly diverse and help provide protection from the intense afternoon sun.

 During the DIRTies' six-mile hike with their incredible SENE host they crossed an impressive bridge.

 This German Catholic Church built in 1900 was one of the main highlights from the hike.

 As the DIRTies crossed the bridge returning from the Catholic Church, they were very impressed by the locals scaling the valley in their Sunday best.

  For a fun Sunday activity, the DIRTies are having a BBQ with local goat meat and food.

 Two sisters of the church were setting up mass when we visited on Sunday afternoon.

 A shot of the bridge we crossed on our 6-mile hike this Sunday.

 The world map was painted on the side of a school in Mweka.

 A shot of a building we passed on our hike.

Hakuna Matata – Aidan’s description of this

 For our “lazy” Sunday we went on a 6 ½ mile hike through the forest behind our camp.

Goat intestine, brain, and lung soup. Much to some peoples’ dismay, this was our dinner for tonight. (Along with goat meat)

 We found the cutest baby goat and just had to hold it. After picking it up the mother made these sounds that will haunt us forever.

 Camille’s bug bites seem to swell to immense sizes. Simon suggested lathering it in honey. We will find out if it works later.

Chug it! Paul’s stomach was hurting so Simon made him chug homemade honey.