The trouble with not writing every other day or so is that then there's SO much to write about! I'll try to be a bit selective so that you're not straining your eyes.
Last Thursday morning we left Arusha bout 7.30 a.m. heading east and south. After taking some time to get out of Arusha with the morning traffic, the first town we passed is Moshi, which is at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was completely covered with clouds, normal for that time of the morning. It depends on the time of the year as to what time of the day the mountain can be seen with all its splendor, and it is a magnificent sight when it does appear.
The road is quite good, and after travelling east to Moshi, before reaching the Kenya border the road starts going south. It's pretty much south and east all the way then until Chalinze. If you want to follow on a map, the road goes south at Himo, then passes Same, Hedaru, Mombo, Korogwe, Segera and then Chalinze. Between Himo and Mombo there are continuous mountain ranges on the left, first the Pare Mountains and then with hardly a noticeable break, the Usambara Mountains begin. So on the left of the road are mountains, and on the right the plains. I noticed a few different things: The towns seem bigger, more people, more buildings. There are also more trees. It seems that there's been a real push toward more tree planting and I think that it has succeeded. There are also many, many sisal plantations along that road, and they appear to me to be in better shape, so obviously there has been an effort to revive them. Most look well cared for and hopefully they are productive. At many places alongside the road there are folks selling their produce: mangoes, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, pineapple, honey, live chickens, baskets -- anything that they have that someone going along in a car or bus might need. I was also noticing the different farming methods. Because the rain has sort of started in some places, there was a lot of plowing being done. Some of it is done by tractors, small ones pulling two and three disc plows. Other times you see single disc plows pulled by oxen, but more often the plowing is done by a person and a hoe. Obviously those fields aren't very big; that's really hard work. All the seeding was being done by hand.
At Chalinze we headed west, and nine hours after leaving Arusha arrived in Morogoro. We did stop to eat our lunch after passing Mombo, so my estimation of eight hours wasn't too far off. There are two Maryknoll Sisters living and working here, Gladys and Janet. Since I was to stay on after our meeting, I was privileged to get a bed at their house. The others from Arusha, Sisters from Iringa and Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Nairobi, all stayed at Amabilis Hostel, run by the local Tanzanian Sisters. That was where we had our meeting on Friday and retreat/seminar on Saturday and Sunday. During the retreat we were joined by seven Tanzanian friends, so the mix was wonderful and the days very helpful and inspiring. The heat made the days a bit uncomfortable and sometimes made us all sleepy; the heat and humidity reminded me of my days of living in Dar es Salaam, and these are the months that are the worst, as we wait for the long rains to really begin.
Let this be enough for now, and I'll soon tell you more about the town of Morogoro. There's a lot to write about....
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