Into the Mountains

The Athletics Carnival I planned for the last day of the first half term was a hit. It did not resemble the conventional thought of an Athletics Carnival but all the usual components were there: kids, staff, a lot of competitiveness and lots of enjoyment. I held it on the oval in the secondary campus. Well at least they tell me it is the oval. It is flat but resembles an unsewn paddock, especially compared to the field at Usa River which rivals the surface at Suncorp. So a few witches’ hats and some home made stakes and we had ourselves a two hundred meter oval track with a one eighty meter track and a long jump pit inside. The long race was the funniest. It was an all in start so as soon as you blow the whistle the competitive little buggers elbowed, pushed and trampled (literally) their way through the pack and all the way round the two laps of the oval. Awesome to watch. (Photo is of Jock anouncing the winners of the long jump for standard 6 girls)

I took advantage of the weeks break, jumped on a bus or really a glorified dulla dulla and headed to Loshotto for a few days. Loshotto is set in the Usambara Mountains between Arusha and Tanga or the coast. It was a pretty hairy but a picturesque drive up into the mountains from when you turn off the Masai plains. Upon arrival I booked myself on a three day trek up into the mountains that left the next day. There were almost no tourists in Loshotto as it was out of peak season which I rather liked. There were a few backpackers in the guest house I stayed so I had some drinking buddy’s for the evening. Just the guide and myself walked for 4 hours (which was meant to take 7hours) on the first day for part through a rain forest which with the exception of monkeys reminded me of the rainforests in Aus. It did have some awesome insects and spiders of which the kite spider was my favorite. Also walked through villages and farming areas and up to a peak of around 2800m which looked back down over Loshotto and out onto the plains. Stayed in a little village called Irente, which is right on the edge of the mountains where it drops straight out onto the seemingly unending Masai plains. There was a lodge but I chose to stay in one of the local guesthouses in the village instead. It became evident some time in the afternoon that most people usually stay in the lodge as everyone seemed to be milling and passing by the guest house showing a to get a glimpse the out of towner. It was fun though, I kicked about playing football with the kids and amusing them by taking photos and fumbling through my limited Swahili. The next day we walked around the edge of the mountains to Cutter’s Place. We walked through villages and farming areas stopping off at various view points which certainly did not get old. The scenery at time was so similar to Australia due to all of the eucalyptus trees around. So many of the villages are built on near vertical slopes, which you could see in rain season just sliding down the hill, it seems to work though. The crops are often also on the same near vertical slope, which reminded me of the winery’s on the edge the Rhine. We got to cutter’s place a little quicker than the guide anticipated. It was meant to take six but we arrived in three. An American guy built this little guest house which is literally right on the edge of a cliff. I was meant to stay the night there but even though this place was amazing we got there at 11am and it would have meant sitting around for the rest of the day. Instead I got the guide to just make our way indirectly back to Loshotto to fill up the rest of the day. Walking through the villages on the way people are so welcoming offering often to come in for food or chai. We took the offer up in one village for lunch which was funny. Over the two days we walked around 40km, although it did not feel like it. I caught a bus back the next morning to Arusha.

Have been back at school this week. It is such a quiet and different place when the kids are not here that you really look forward to them returning to change the atmosphere of the school. I had a meeting this week for an Athletics Bonanza which English Medium schools in Arusha compete in. It goes for four days. They seem to love meetings in Tanzania. This meeting went on four two and half hours of which afterwards all that seemed to be decided was that we will have another meeting the following week. It should be fun though. It is held at the Arusha stadium and has all sorts of events from 100m sprints to three legged race to football. The PE teacher from the other campus who is Tanzanian had never been to the stadium before. He was so exited to be there he just wanted to sit in the stands for a few minutes after the meeting.

Last weekend I came back a day early so I could attend the trial weekend for the Tanzanian Rugby team. I have been training with the Arusha team but players from Dar and Moshi came to Arusha for the weekend. They were to choose a squad of 30. 29 players turned up so I managed to make the squad. The team is taking part in the Bamburi Super Series. Five teams from Kenya and one Tanzanian team. This is the first year of the comp and two Ugandan teams were entered but pulled out after everything that has happened in Kenya this year. They are trying to make an East African version of the S14. I managed to find a place in the 15 and today we are playing the Nairobi Lions. All of the teams will have some of their sevens players in their team and considering Kenya are ranked higher that Australia in sevens they could be quite good, who knows though. We have five Tanzanian’s in the team and the rest except for a kiwi and myself have either grown up in Tanzania or have been working here for 3 or more years. In the backline we have an American, Kiwi, Dutch, South African, Tanzanian x 2, Australian. So should be some fun anyway. Come on the Twigas!!