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| View of Kilimanjaro from the Marathon Stadium |
Ten Days in Moshi
I had every intention of posting a short blog every few days
of being in Moshi, but alas, it just didn’t work out. I seemed to have time, but I wound up not
having time. A big part of the problem
had to do with being attacked by a stomach virus, which slowed me down
considerably (in every way but the loo).
But, there was no dirth of excitement in Moshi, most of it having to do
with the Kilimanjaro Marathon.
I think the biggest shock of arriving and seeing the mountain for the first time was how quickly the glaciers are receding. I was stunned that so little is left. What a magnificient mountain and what a tragedy to see the snow disappear.
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| Hazy evening on Kilimanjaro, but oh the lack of snow! |
Shortly, after we arrived in Moshi, a tortoise appeared in a
neighbor’s yard, and came over to our house to visit. This tortoise is big and who knows what kind
it is, but it is big. It is not as big
as those that are on Zanzibar Island, but nevertheless is bigger than those we
have roaming around in the US. I was
very worried that this poor tortoise’s life would be very short if it remained
in Moshi, so I arranged to have him go to live in Machame with our friends out
there. As soon as he arrived in Machame,
he took off down the steps and headed out to my friend Sylvie’s garden and
there, hopefully, he resides incognito with water and lots of food all around
him.
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| Tortoise planning his escape from A-5 |
We have experienced a huge swing in weather, high winds, one
or two downpours, power outages, but in general it has been extremely hot. Since we just came from a cold North Carolina,
the change is dramatic for us. Honestly,
even beastly hot, I prefer this heat to the cold of NC. And, of course I really love the fact that
the sun comes up and goes down at the same time each day! On Friday, a huge wind came up, and I heard a
crack….so here is the old Flame Tree branch right next to our little car.
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| Our little Rav4 and the big Flame Tree Branch |
Life goes on and getting ready for the marathon took a great
deal of time. We registered an amazing number of people for the marathon. Our collaboration Community Advisory Board
(the Moshi CAB) had 48 sign ups for the race, and at the Wednesday meeting
talked in depth about timing and meeting places. Kudos to the CAB for giving up their bites at
their monthly meeting in order to save as much as possible to pay for their own
registrations. We came close! Thanks as always to my dear husband and Ema
Msuya for helping with the registrations, and for the handing out of
transportation money on Saturday.
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| 3 of my favorite people Benward, our CAB Chair Edna, and of course Ema |
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| Prisca looking like a model at the YMCA |
We survived the marathon and we survived the after party,
and managed to get a few hours sleep despite a 20 hour power outage that wound
our batteries down and kept us tossing and turning in the heat.
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| View of 5K participants |
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| 5K Start |
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| The International School's elephants to demonstrate anti-poaching |
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| School students spent countless hours designing these huge floats |
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| At the finish...5K's shouldn't be this easy (and they usually aren't) |
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| Happy to be at the end |
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| Happy ladies of the Community Advisory Board |
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| Fabulous CAB...about 1/2 of this great group |
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| Mowo our Vice Chair looking stern |
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| KCMC Executive Director Dr. Massenge--nothing about him is elitist! |
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| John eyeing the finish |
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| Finally, John across the line |
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| Bob K, Jan O, John and I....survived the Marathon |
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| Happy Couple |
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| Bob, Greg, John and Simon enjoy the after party |
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| Kids gobble at the after party |
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| Beatrice and Matt....hmmmm a beer drinker |
The week begins again and we are looking forward to more
business, more heat, and hopefully more power.
