Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

July 7, 2008 – Enjoying Saba, Saba and Mt. Meru

Today is July 7, 2008 and it is a very special day here in Tanzania. It’s the 7th day of the 7th month and it’s called Saba Saba, it’s also a holiday called ‘Farmer’s Day’. This is really fortunate for us. The entire group woke up very excited this morning, early of course because their body clocks are still set at Texas time even though they’ve flown all the way to Africa and the daylight schedule is very different here. They also have a sense of awareness that they are finally in Tanzania and the trip is underway.

Saba, Saba was especially a good day for us because it’s today that BAI always does our Mt. Meru foothills hike to get familiarize with Tanzania and the landscape as well a the culture. We also get a chance to stretch our legs to get ready to climb Kilimanjaro. We walked up from the edge of the city into the beautiful villages that are surrounded by banana trees, coffee plantations and people’s small farms were they grow food.

Being a holiday there were children everywhere as we climbed higher and higher up towards the slopes of Mt. Meru. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming as we walked along. Simon, one of the five BAI guides that walked along with us today, was explaining to several of us some of the greetings in Swahili to use with the people as we passed. Of course we used Jambo which means “hello”. Some of the more fun sayings were, Mambo which basically means, “What’s up?” or “What’s Happening?” The response is usually Poa which means, “I’m cool!” We had great fun talking to people as we walked along. Most people speak English but it was more fun to try and speak Swahili.

We stopped for lunch at a Community Centre where there was a dispensary or a clinic, a small school and a Lutheran Church. The grass there was very neatly groomed, almost like a golf course and of course the slopes of Mt. Meru, at over 15,500 ft, rose above us. After lunch we dropped down into a wild canyon, took our shoes off, put our sandals on and we waded up the cool mountain stream. We came around the corner and were surprised to find a large waterfall that was really beautiful and very cooling as we stood under the misty waters.

Today the team looks great and very strong and as I’ve report a few times, they are very excited. We are just getting underway so please stay tuned with us day to day as we give you our reports of the adventures of the Huffines family in Africa 2008.