To Same - Friday, January 20

This morning, I was first awakened by the sounds of Islamic prayers from a nearby mosque, and shortly thereafter, a rooster near my window. I was eager to get up to explore the area, so I got up shortly after 6:00 a.m. to see what was around the Uhuru (Freedom) Center. Alex and I walked around for a while and came upon a stunning view of Mount Kilimanjaro just as the sun was rising on the mountain. Shortly afterwards, we went for a delicious breakfast in the dining area.

After changing some money and exploring Moshi for a while, we piled into the van and headed to Mwanga to drop off medical supplies. We met the doctor there and saw the many women and children waiting to see him. It was difficult to see the low standard of health care in this rural area, but it is fortunate that there is at least this care, to which people walk from the surrounding area.

After stopping briefly in Mwanga, we drove to Same. The drive was beautiful and pleasant, even crammed into the back of the Land Rover. In Same, we are staying at the Amani (Peace) Lutheran Center (ALC), which is a series of rooms/meeting spaces surrounding a beautiful courtyard. The rooms are not as nice as the Uhuru center in Moshi, but compared with the vast majority of structures in Same, it is opulent. The ALC has plumbing hooked up in the rooms, but there is no running water because when the well was drilled, it was dry. It is difficult to imagine how much more complicated daily life would be with water as scarce as it is here. They do have a small amount of water that can be retrieved from a large tank in the courtyard, but it is limited. The lunch we had at 3:00 p.m. was delicious – rice with some sort of beef/carrot stew along with fresh bananas and a delicious type of flat bread, chapati. The hospitality shown to us was excellent, and it was interesting to see/experience the way Tanzanians wash their hands with a pitcher of water and a basin before meals.