Weekend 1 in Tanzania!

I've figured out how to post pictures!! So I will add some to this post.

Anyway, this weekend was pretty awesome. First of all - last Thursday evening CCS took us to a traditional Tanzanian dinner and dancing show - which was awesome. Of course the got us all to join in the dancing - "shaki shaki" as they call it. And of course I was seated on the end so I wound up on on the "stage" most of the time. Bustin' a move with the Chagga people. Love it!

Over the weekend I went on a hike through the Materuni village to the Ngoma Waterfall. It was incredible. Materuni is a coffee growing village that is scattered over the hillside in the foothills of Kilimanjaro. It is a Catholic village and it was so interesting to learn how the missionaries divided the territories. Basically, they alternated the land between the rivers that come off of the mountain. One Catholic, then one Lutheran, then Catholic, then Lutheran and so on. Anyway, so we hiked through the village and learned about the traditions of the Chagga people (the tribal that the people here descended from). There was lots of scrambling across rivers and climbing up muddy hills, but it was SO worth it. We got there and the waterfall must have been 90 ft tall!! There was a pool there that we could swim in so a few of us jumped it. It was FREEZING. It reminded me of Barton Springs. You could swim behind the waterfall and climb up into the caves there so we did - what a crazy experience!!

After the hike back through the village our local guide brought us to his house and showed us the process of making coffee - from cracking the outter berry to using a mortar and pestle to crack off the inner shell to shaking off the shells, roasting the beans, grinding the beans and then making coffee. As most of you know - I do NOT like coffee but of course I had to try it. I can safely say that it was by FAR the BEST coffee I have ever tried. Amazing! I will certainly have to bring some home for you all to try!

Sunday was Palm Sunday so I was excited to check out a Tanzanian mass. One of the other volunteers came with me. She had never been to mass before, so I was constantly telling her what was going on - when I could tell! It was a Swahili mass and they do some things a little differently here! I was able to tell what was going on for the most part. The music was INCREDIBLE - just beautiful singing. The mass was at the cathedral and it was said by the bishop, which was pretty cool. They did a palm ceremony outside the church first and then we all piled in for the mass. It was PACKED - probably 600 people. Rebecca and I were the ONLY white people. Some of what they did was totally pre-Vatican II - we took communion at the rail!! But the priest sang the consecration to the exact same tune that they do in the US, so it was easy to follow along. All in all an awesome experience.

Next weekend is Easter and basically the entire country shuts down from Friday through Monday. Since our placements are closed my volunteer group is going on safari!! We are going to camp in the Sarengeti and at the Nygoragora Crater. It should be amazing!! I can't wait to share those pictures with you!

In other news - sorry the posts are so infrequent. Its difficult to get to the internet cafe and then half the time the power is out!

Also - some of you have been having trouble posting comments! BUMMER! Please post comments - they are so fun to read! I think the best thing to do is to just try to post as a guest! Otherwise you have to create a google account and be logged in to comment. Let me know if that doesn't work.... Anyone else out there that know what to tell people?? please leave a comment with instructions. THANKS!