We all woke up at 7:45 and put on our hiking gear. I pulled on my new nikes, the always fashionable zip off waterproof pants, and my equally attractive teal PFG. Alex and I shared a pack with just water and a few other items. Then as the city was waking up we walked into town to meet our hiking guides. Baraki and Tosh were in their twenties and full of energy. Baraki was a friend of Nick's, a boy who is still living in our house who was a student last semester at Arcadia. Baraki quickly ushered us through the city bustle. Not too far off the main road we crossed the busy street and went down a dirt road lined with small shops and houses. We stayed on the same dirt road most of the hike. As we climbed higher the houses became more spread out and the dusty shops turned to green fields and banana trees. The town was starting to disappear from the horizon behind us and the air became a little cooler. While walking up we talked to our guides and said "Mambo! and Habari?" to anyone who would respond. The little kids lined the road to laugh and run away from our group as we approached. Baraki walked beside me a while and taught me new words and expressed his love for bananas and told me how determined he was to find the freshest ones by the time we reached the top. Sure enough as we reached the final fork in the road he stopped at a woman's house and bargained the purchase of twenty or so of the best bananas I have ever eaten. As he talked to the women I said as much swahili as I knew trying to convince her adorable and terrified son that I was friendly. Through the bushes he peered his head out and answered my elementary questions and then darted off into the yard with a timid smile.
We continued up the road and stopped at a watering hole. Tosh joked that we had arrived at the waterfall and I embarrassingly thought he was serious but didnt want to be rude despite my disappointment. Markani... so gullible.
We then went into the woods and started walking down. At the next turn we met a group of Tanzanians who warned us of the ants that had just covered them completely. Roger, the Ugandan in our class, told us that these ants "crawl to your hidden areas and wait and bite all at once." Of course everyone started jumping up and down and running around terrified of this idea. Soon we all followed our guides down a slippery muddy path. The path was extremely steep and everyone was sliding and stumbling through the brush. finally we came to the opening and into a clearing where a stream was and we began to use the path as our new path to the waterfall.
The stream was something out of a movie. There were vines strung from the overhanging cliffs, strange bird and frog noises, and the water rushing by as we jumped back and forth over the stream. We met more people along the way and had interesting dilemmas at certain places in the path trying to make sure everyone could get across. At one point there was only an option to climb a small waterfall and step on fallen branches slippery with the passing water. Finally we reached the waterfall. It was beautiful and stood almost 500 feet above us. The locals dove into the freezing water and were shivering when they emerged. After some time being there we started back to eat lunch at a quieter spot. Through the jungle we went again this time more confident leaping from rock to rock. After lunch we went up the slippery path again, which at some points was more like rock climbing because of the angle. Finally at the top we walked again on the dusty road this time with more of a skip in our step because our promised reward, a local banana beer, was soon waiting at a nearby store.
While talking to Tosh and a few other girls ten yards from the store I slipped down the side of road at a no more than two foot embankment. Rocks cut the side of my leg and quickly Tosh pulled out the bigger ones. Kendall, a girl in my class, quickly pulled out a first aid kit and helped me clean the cuts. I wrapped my leg in a bandanna and got the blood to stop dripping. When I looked up a crowd of children had gathered and were staring wide eyed at my leg. I mustered a smile and hopped to the store, where they tried to convince me to drink more beer to make my leg less of a problem. ....Banana beer is 10% alcohol I was not convinced hobbling down the mountain on more banana beers was the best idea. We sat a good while at the store and slowly were surrounded by kids, cows, and goats.
The beer kind of tasted like the fermented tea, Kombucha. It was okay but once I realized kombucha was the familiar taste I wasn't very excited. Azure, another friend, gave a few kids some candies. The youngest who couldnt have been any more than three sat struggling to open theirs across the road on a hill. I walked over and tried to help. Bariki had to tell them in swahili I was trying to help because they became scared I wanted the candies back. Slowly they realized and handed them back and were pleased to have some help with the confusing wrapper.
We decided it was time to walk back and started along the same road down back to the city.
PART TWO the hospital coming soon..( im tired im posting this unedited for now will fix and finish tomorrow)
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