Drama in Greater Moshi

Kigomboni Guest House, Computer and Car Shidas!

The days after arriving back in Moshi from South Africa have been slightly less hectic, but infinitely more complicated.  My gratitude at being in our A-5 house in Moshi is always a relief.  We could even forget how annoyed we were with Kenyan Airlines and Precision Airlines when we were met by Carol at the door, and driven home to the coziness of A-5.  Rose had even picked more Easter lilies for us so the scent in the house was perfectly sweet.

Carol Sangawe our wonderful project driver

Trish at mini waterfall

beautiful views

It became more fuzzy when we were asked to set a hash on the spur of the moment.  So, all focus was on the location, the supplies, cooking and preparing for this event. Our first challenge was that our “guide” in Kigomboni Freddy was very happy to rent the guest house gazebo to us, and to take us around, but he had a particular route that he was determined to take us on, and explaining the hash to him was not easy.  So off we went.  I tried to explain that we needed to make the path a bit complicated, not to stay on main roads (main roads means dirt roads that a car could travel (basically One car) but to veer off to paths that interlocked, went through coffee trees, banana trees or fields, up and down, across streams, etc.  Freddy was pretty sure that I really did not mean that, so he kept us on main road most of the time.  Each time we asked, he was like, “no not here, later” .  Eventually we gave up and at the end of the day the path was quite easy to follow, but very interesting and beautiful. 

 

finally on a path

 

One of the dearest parts of it was coming back through an old lady’s little nyumbani (collections of two or three small houses) and chatting with her.  We returned on Sunday to set the flour over the path.

last beautiful view we saw before car shidas

Just after passing this hotel, disaster struck

beautiful guest house

The drama began on Sunday when we set the hash.  The drive up to the guest-house was without any event until just before we turned into the guest-house. Suddenly John had a difficult time steering the car.  We thought it might have been a flat, but there was no flat.  But horrifyingly the right front wheel was tilted at a strange angle.  We limped the car inside the gate with no idea of what we could do.  Freddy offered to find a “fundi” (fix it man) once we had set the hash, and we gratefully agreed

For hashers, you know that you set the trail with flour. 

Flour marks the trail

 At certain points you make an X with the flour and that means that you have to search in all directions to find where the flour picks up. 

The X 

 The problem with this area is that people are quite suspicious of the motives of the white people, and you have to explain to them that the flour and the X’s have nothing to do with Their land, but only marking a path. So, you have to explain to everyone you meet that this is just a fun outing for a bunch of young and old walkers and runners where you are setting a pretty trail for them to explore the area with.  You ask their permission, they say “yes” and then the problem can be that after all that is agreed on, someone else comes along, sees the flour and is horrified and scruffs it out.  Or, even more likely, children come along and scruff it out, because that is what children do!  So, often, hashes are comprised of desperately searching for flour but it has been wiped out.  The potential at this hash was great for losing the flour.  But, everyone was very pleasant, as there have been several hashes at this area in the past.  Even so, John put a lot of flour down, and we decided to put only a few crosses.

Freddy talked with several people along the way about finding a fundi, and was given lots of advice.  When we returned to the start, he left to find the person, and we greeted the guests.  
 

Trish and John and William...what to do

fab place to party!

 Everyone was shocked at the appearance of “the blue jellybean” and agreed that it would probably have to stay for a few days in the mountains.  But as luck would have it, the fundi had been teacher for the government in mechanics for years and was now retired but teaching mechanics at the vocational school just down the road.  He agreed that one of the “tie bolts” had been sheered, and he would have to trie to cobble something together with parts that he had in his tool kit. He managed to piece together an old bolt that had no threads, a nut that was a bit too big, some sort of electrical tape, and put the wheel in the proper place.  He said to us “pole pole” (go slowly slowly) down the mountain” And hope for the best.  When we limped back to our house, John’s remark was “TOO MUCH DRAMA”.  I had no idea what he was talking about, until he explained just how badly the bolt fit on the car and how lucky we were to be both alive and down the mountain.  So there we are.  Drama. 

Fancy lady?  don't turn around because the slit in the back .....oops

My friend Terrie loaned me her saloon car for a day, and I got to be a “fancy lady” and now thanks to Deo our mechanic, the blue jellybean is back in operation.  YEA!

Our Car mechanic Deo with Terrie and Nikoli

Onto new adventures!