Africa ! Here I am...

I opened my eyes.. “Wow.. I can’t believe it! I am actually in Africa !!” I looked around the room.. Ok, a hotel room could be anywhere in the world, but I knew that outside that door was Africa! And outside the hotel gate was the real Africa! “Right I better get out of this room and this hotel… I couldn’t wait to see what was out there…..

In the garden, there were many people rushing here and there and most had this nervous look on them, which was quite amusing. These must be the ones starting today. Some were being briefed by their guides, others running around trying to get their last minute items. None of these were in my group for sure!

Breakfast was in the same place as the dinner, but there were so many empty tables unlike the previous night. I sat at a table and guess who joined me? The two American guys. They continued with their funny stories of the climb and giving me all sort of advises!

“Don’t forget to drink lots of water.."

“Sure, I’ll remember.. "

"You have to drink 3 litres of water each day…”

“What? 3 litres? There is no way I can do that. How the hell am I going to carry that much water among my other stuff??!!”

“Don’t forget to take your Diamox…”

“hmmm… I don’t have any !!”

“Are you crazy?! Why didn’t you get some?”

“The travel doctor told me I don’t need them! Now, I’m confused! Do I really need them??!!” :)

“Make sure you have enough warm clothes. It’s freezing up there! “

“I’ve got my ski jacket…”

“Put on a couple of layers underneath it as well.”

“hmmm….”

“The worst part is descending… You have to walk down this loose gravel for 3-4 hours. And Take a bandana with you… “

“What for?”

“The dust coming up on that gravel will go into your lung. See I’m coughing. It’s because of the dust and I even had a bandana”

Yup, he was coughing all the time!

So we chatted and chatted until they realized they were really late and about to miss their tour. They were going for a 5 days safari tour.

With Moses outside the hotel gate

I decided to go and see the Moshi town. I could’ve gone by myself, but remembering Rwandan cities, I thought African towns could be a bit intimidating if you don’t know your way around. So I opted to go with a guide. I was asked to wait by the gate for the driver and the guide. I waited for about 10 min and still no sign of either of them. My patience ran out and I stepped outside the hotel gate. Aah, that was Africa for sure. The reddish dusty road, people walking up and down the road, some on bicycles, some carrying stuff on their heads, women with their beautiful colourful dresses… These were all too familiar… It took me back to Rwanda… It looked exactly the same…

I was standing there just taking in all these images when a young guy came up to me… He said his name was Moses and that he was my guide. He was gentle and had that innocent look in him… “Ya, right! And I believe you!” Then another guy slowly came towards us… “Here we go, this must be another guide!”… This one looked like one of those rough Jamaicans in the UK.. He had that typical Jamaican long hair and the colourful hat on… He was quite aggressive in his talks, but interestingly quite knowledgeable which I have to admit it surprised me! When he found out I was from Iran, he immediately talked about Iran’s nuclear programme! That was the last thing I was interested at that moment. He kept bombarding me with questions… “Do you think Iran has the technology?... Do you like Ahmadinejad?.. Do you think he will use the atomic bomb?...” and on and on… Then he immediately changed the subject and said,

“Are you generally a nervous person?”

“umm.. I don’t know..”

“You must know. Are you or are you not?”

“hmm….”

“Are you nervous right now?”

“I don’t know… do you think I am?”

“I think you are not. If you were a nervous person, you would’ve waited for the driver inside the hotel like other tourists.”

Was this supposed to be a compliment or was he trying to do some other analysis? In any case, I was relieved when the driver arrived at that time and was surprised to know that my guide was in fact the young guy! So he wasn’t bluffing after all. The driver dropped us off at the town centre which was about 20 min drive from the hotel.

The driver (left) with my guide Moses

My guide, Moses was a 25 years old local guy. He said he is a porter as well. We walked around in the town centre. I was very much amazed to see a church, mosque and a Hindu temple located in the same area in the centre of the town. This place must be quite tolerant. Moses said that there is no tension between various religions. He said he is a Christian himself but is very much interested in Hinduism and sometimes goes to the Hindu temple!

There were so many subjects that I would have loved to take a photo of, but somehow I did not feel comfortable to take my big camera out. At that time I wished I had taken my compact camera with me. When we went into the market, I tried to take a photo. Then suddenly a big African mama stood up and shouted, “No photo, no photo!!!"  Ok, I got the point! They don’t like to have their photos taken and if you do, you are expected to pay them some money. I told her not to worry and that I won’t take her photo. I then quickly turned back and took a photo of some women sitting on the floor selling bananas. I did this really quickly before they had the chance to see me. After that I decided to forget about the photos and simply save them all in my memory! :) But really, there were so many interesting scenes, like many people wearing Obama shirts… or this old, run down café called, “Obama Café”… a few steps down the road, “Obama hairdresser”…. They simply love Obama here…

Local market in Moshi

Eventually we ended up in a local restaurant for lunch. I clearly didn’t feel like having dinner at the hotel among the boring tourists. I wanted to stay in town and experience more of the local life. Of course there was no menu and of course people spoke very little English. Even my guide’s English wasn’t good enough and at times we had problem communicating. So we ended up having chicken with rice. Before they brought the food, the waitress came with a bowl, a jug of water and soap. So I washed my hands right there which was quite funny. The interesting bit was that the waitress let the guide wash his hands too, but only with water. She didn’t give him the soap! The chicken stew was in fact the tiniest chicken drumstick I’ve even seen, drowned in its sauce. It wasn’t anything special and I wasn’t really hungry. What I enjoyed was the atmosphere of the café/restaurant. It was packed with the locals and no tourists… :)

With Moses at the restaurant

Did I say anything about those African men?! How can I forget that?!! When you walk in the street, some of them just come directly towards you and start conversation whether you want it or not. They even walk along with you and keep walking and chatting with you. . One of them told me, “What are you?! You’re not really white and are not black either!! “ :) I didn’t really have anything to worry about, specially that my guide was with me, but I was thinking if I were alone, this could be rather annoying and at times intimidating. That day I found it amusing and just played along and got rid of them jokingly…

Bus station, Moshi

Back at the hotel… 5pm was the time to meet the guide and the group… Ooops, I had forgotten to take my Malaron (Malaria tablet) in the morning.

5:00 pm

I went to the garden where we were supposed to unite with our groups and meet the guide. There were already a few people waiting by the tables and I started studying their faces… “I don’t want this guy to be in my group… that one is ok… this girl is acting weird… hope that one is my own group”.. I even tried to find my ideal guide… One of the guides started giving all of us an overview of the trip and how it is arranged… Then someone called me and took me to another place to join my group! Oh, so I had analysed all those people for nothing!!!

There were 4 people sitting around a table, 3 tourists and the guide. I had joined them in the middle of his briefing. I looked around the table and scanned their faces in a quick move. Ok, at least now I know how they look! All three of them Canadians, a father and son (Scot & Ryan) from Halifax and Eitan from Toronto. For some reason, the guide (Wilibard) seemed to be more lost than the rest of us. He kept forgetting to mention some important things and we had to remind him. He asked us, “Which route are you taking?” We all looked at each other and then someone said, “Lemosho!”. He then said, “7 days or 8 days?”.. Ok, this made us all a bit nervous. Didn’t he know anything about our group? Someone replied, “What do you think?”… This one definitely wasn’t like ‘Chad’, the American guide that I met yesterday!! Then he went over some vital items that we should have with us and the fact that we should carry and drink 3 litres of water every day! 

He then asked how many tents we want to have and if we wanted to share or not. "What?!!! I'm not planning to share with anyone!" Ryan said he could share one with his dad. Then Wilibard looked at me and Eitan and Eitan immediately said that we want separate tents! Ok, at least that was sorted..

I had a feeling that the group was ok and at least it seemed that no dodgy or grumpy person was among us…

I was a bit peckish and decided to go for dinner. They made me sit down with a group of 4 people. Two American guys and two British girls. None of them even bothered to look at me and say hi. Fine, I wasn’t in any way interested in them either. Ah sometimes I can’t stand some of these stuck up tourists…

When I closed my eyes that night, I could see all African images, Moshi streets, people, the red dusty road…. And I still couldn’t believe I was actually there…

Tomorrow is the big day…… :-) …and I couldn’t wait…..