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Published: August 1st 2008
Wednesday was a brilliant day of reminiscing. We did the same things that we did last year when we went to visit Moshi waterfalls. We had a lie in & woke up at 8. We ended up leaving at about 9. Everyone in the new group came to the waterfalls. It was nice to have a day off work although I missed the children loads; it was good to break the week up. We went to the batik place first. We went there last year, everyone reading this from CCS Arusha 07 will remember. It was a little garden & house. The garden had ornaments & souvenirs in & the house had batik paintings all over the walls. I didn’t buy anything as I got a huge elephant painting last year that’s still on my wall. The painter man was the same one as last year & he gave us the same talk about how he made the paintings. A few people ordered a painting that they wanted especially made & it should be here next week. I think sometime next week the same man is coming to the home base to give us a batik course, might pass on that, mine would look awful! I did buy a few souvenirs for people at home though, can’t wait to show everyone what I got. Everyone from last year; do you remember the really cute baby boy that was just sat on the steps? Everyone took pictures of him because he was proper cute. Well he was still there! Got a picture of him in the same position as last year, he’s grown up loads. It was a shock to see that I remembered his face. We stayed at the batik place for a while as people were giving their orders in & buying stuff for people at home. When we eventually left we all boarded the 2 vans & went to the volcanic caves. On the way there we stopped at a huge tree called a Baobab. We took loads of pictures of it; it was like sacred to the African people. They dance around it if they need rain in a drought. Me & Trev went down to the back of the tree & took pictures. We were there for a while then we realised everyone was in the van waiting for us ready to leave. We ran back up but on the way I stepped in shit. I don’t know what animal it belonged to but it wasn’t the nicest thing. It absolutely stank & I didn’t realise I stepped in it until I got in the van & no one could breathe. The other van went off & we were just parked on the side while I was trying to get the mess off with baby wipes. We eventually were able to leave once it was all off & we headed towards the caves. When we got out I was very confused as I hadn’t seen the caves before. I thought everything we were doing was all a repeat of last year but the caves were different. It was nice to see something new. It was like a huge pit, a few people walked down & had a look around but I was too scared I’d fall. We saw women with no shoes on walking up a really steep hill with 3 bricks on her head. We asked how much they got paid & Ibrahm said $4 a day. That’s £2, I was so shocked. When I go back home & work in eezee play I’m going to get paid £2.80 an hour. I thought that was awful, but now I’ll never complain about that again. I couldn’t get over how little they get paid for doing such an intense & hard job, it proper upset me. We stayed at the caves for a while. Although there are caves there we didn’t go inside them, a few people just like, walked down to get to the entrance of the gates. The walls had writing engraved on them & we got some good pictures. Once we left the caves we headed towards a blacksmith. On the way to the blacksmith we passed the town Ibrahm was brought up in & we bought some water to go with our previously prepared packed lunches. We didn’t go to the blacksmith either last year, I loved it. The front was a gate & behind it were lots of men working. They were hammering metal to be made into another hammer. They had bellow like things that they sat on & pumped to make the fire go up. Susie had a go at doing it, I got a video of it, & it was so funny. I can’t wait to upload all my videos to YouTube; I’ve got some really good ones. A few people bought stuff from the blacksmith too like knifes they made & spears. After going to a grubby toilet & saying goodbye to all the men we walked to a chagga cave. Chagga is a type of tribe in Tanzania & the cave we visited was where they lived in times of war. It was a different entrance to the cave from last year but I think it was the same cave. I took one look at the tiny entrance that you had to crawl through & decided I’d pass. About half the group went down the cave, apparently they had to crawl the whole way & only some parts they could stand. Trev went down while Sheila & I took photos. I’m far too claustrophobic to ever be able to go down there, I would have loved to though. A local man gave us a quick talk on the caves & told us about how families used to hide down there during war. After taking many pictures we boarded the vans back up & left. We then went to a local market. It was one where they mainly sold fruit however we could see clothes & shoes for sale. As we got out of the van the driver told us we had 7 minutes to look around. 7 mzungu minutes, not Tanzanian ones so we couldn’t be late. Trev & I wandered around on our own for a bit then got bored as all the things you could purchase were the same so we went to the van. The van was locked so we bought “Spar Letta” & Fanta from a local shop. No one said they had heard of Spar Letta, must be African or something, tasted lovely! After 7 mzungu minutes of looking round the market we got in the vans & headed to a traditional Chagga house. As we pulled up I recognised everything. I had been there last year & remember it well. There were tables & chairs set up for us in a garden with a white house in front. I’m not sure what the building was, we didn’t go in there last year either. I vividly remembered the toilets as I walked in them. We sat on the chairs & they gave packed lunches out to us. They were actually the same as the ones from last year, chicken, egg, peanut better & jam sandwiches, a cake & a banana. I just ate half the cake & the egg, I wasn’t that hungry. After lunch they took us to the Chagga house. It was a hut made out of manure & sticks & they took us inside to see how a Chagga used to live. It was a tiny room that animals & a large family lived in. After we had a talk about Chagga life we went behind the house to a “garden” & Ibrahm told us about what they used the plants for. I then went to the toilet & got changed into my swimming costume. We got all our things out of the van & headed down to the waterfall. It was even a slippery walk just to the van; it was a wet & rainy day. Ibrahm went down to see what the floor was like & he said it was too slippery for us to go down. I was so gutted; I really wanted to see the waterfall again. After some persuasion he said that we could go down but if we didn’t want to we could just stay in the van. Everyone ended up coming down & he told us to be very careful. The walk down there was so much harder than I remember last year being. Either I’m unfit or the weather was too bad. My dad would have been appalled at the amount swear words coming out my mouth. I was so scared that I’d fall & die. The views as we were walking down were beautiful however so that put my mind off dying a little bit. It took about half an hour to walk down, we were going very slowly. I must have slipped at least 20 times. We finally got to the bottom & I ran to the waterfall. I was so excited to just jump in the water. The floor was more overgrown than last year but the waterfall was still flowing. I put all my stuff on a rock, took my clothes on top of my bikini off & ran to the water. Everyone else was just staring at the waterfall, it’s so beautiful. Sheila warned me about the strong currents in the water & I just stayed in the middle. It was a rainy day anyway so the water was so cold. I found it hard to breathe but it was amazing. Once Greg came down & saw me in there he dived in & swam right under the waterfall. It looked a lot more dangerous than last year so I didn’t go under it, just very close. Greg said he couldn’t stand up there & I remember I could last year so it must have been because of the rain. Trev then joined me & we stayed in the water for a while. More & more people joined us as they saw how amazing it looked. I laughed as I remembered what my mam said to me last year, “come on Caitlin, come in! You’re never going to be able to do this again.” What a liar, haha. There were 6 of us in the water in the end. People not in the water started to get a bit bored so they headed on up. I didn’t want to get out but Ibrahm told us we needed to go home in time for dinner. I shivered as I wrapped my towel around me & put my clothes back on. I wasn’t looking forward to the steep walk back up to the van. Trev ran up to get warm & Sheila & I were at the back complaining the whole way up about how steep & slippery it was. We finally got up to the vans with everyone waiting in them for us. We sat in our wet clothes for the 1 hour drive home in the van. We got home 20 minutes before dinner. Trev showered, I went on the internet quickly then I showered. It was so good to feel clean. I felt so dirty after going in the waterfall. I put my pyjamas on & went to the front garden of the home base to eat our “surprise meal.” It was probably to make up for the horrible lunch we had. We had a barbeque on the front lawn. It was amazing, proper filled me up. There were veggie kebabs there so we were fine. After dinner I played a few games of cards & went to bed really early ready for work the next day.
Thanks,
Caitlin : ) x
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Melissa
non-member comment
Waterfall!
Good job going in again! I would have gone in this time!