Day One of the Kilimanjaro Trip: To the Archbishop's House We Go...

February 18, 2019

Day One of the Kilimanjaro Trip: To the Archbishop’s House we go

Archbishop, you ask? Yes. Catholic Archbishop. The dude who overseas all things Catholic in Tanzania. We stayed at his house—his giant 6-bedroom house—in Uru Shimbwe, a little bit of a ways outside of Moshi. (If you know where that is.) This is one of the places where John and Janet brought students back in the day, so that they could have an authentic African experience.  And that is what they/we had. Oh, the archbishop wasn’t there… but, we saw a picture of his mug.

We left Kundayo on Monday, February 18, a little after 9:00. The good news is that we caught the bus just down the road.  It was kind of full, but there were seats that folded out into the aisle so at least we could sit down.  It wasn’t too bad. And we got to watch show after show on the TV—they were all scenes of Africans dancing in uniforms or choir robes while singing traditional African songs. As we went through villages, we saw furniture and other goods for sale in front of little shops; we saw groves of trees; and, gardens and fields and row after row of crops. I couldn’t take any photos because I was sitting a bit down on a seat between the seats.

We arrived in Moshi at about 10:45 am. We were dropped off in front of the Mosque, so while we waited for the call to prayers, we waited for Richard to pick us up. He was in the area waiting for us.  Richard is Victor’s brother and Victor was unable to meet us like he’d planned. Ah, who is Victor you ask?  Victor is the archbishop’s nephew. He is the one who manages the archbishop’s house which is a kind of inn or … bed and breakfast. Victor is one of the most interesting young men I’ve ever met…but more about him later.

We arrived at the Archbishop’s House and were shown to our rooms.  OMG! The view from my window was awesome.  It faced Kilimanjaro, and although Kili wasn’t out at that time, I knew I would see him peak through the clouds (or is Kili a her?). Outside of my room was the door to a veranda along the back side of the house, which also faced the mountain.

OK, let’s get the pics of the house out of the way right now. Take a look.

The second floor veranda was just outside my bedroom door.

My bedroom with fresh flowers. There was a bathroom too.

Me in my bedroom

The veranda with Janet and John

The parlor. The Archbishop's photo is above the TV

An amazing table in the shape of Africa.
It was handcrafted out of Eucalyptus wood by a local carpenter.

Now for the outside of the house:

This pic is taken from the veranda into the courtyard. The buildings to the right are the Dada houses. (A dada is like a servant or a maid or a helper of some sort.)

I stood between the two houses for this picture.

I also took a photo of the pet rocks in the courtyard. I call them Zeb and Rocky.

…and some flowers.

Victor said he needed more rooms so this is the construction where a 3-story wing is being built. I wonder if the archbishop knows what Victor is doing to his retirement home. (If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that I have a fascination with everything construction.) Take a look at this scaffolding. Scary!

After we got settled, we had lunch on the Veranda.  Alex, the cook, brought it to us… ON HIS HEAD!

It was a kind of stew. Very good.

After Lunch, John and I went for a little walk up the road to see a bit of the area. Before I get into those pictures and observations, let me explain about how the land is laid out. Here’s the visual as John explained it to me.

Put your hand flat on the table and spread your fingers. Your hand represents Kilimanjaro and your fingers represent the ridges that are formed at the bottom of the mountain. Imagine that water runs off of the mountain between the ridges. The villages are along the tops of the ridges so buildings are lined up along the road—most often one main road—and the houses are d-o-w-n on the slopes of the ridge. In order to get from one village to another, one must go all the way down one ridge and up another—even though you can see the villages on the surrounding ridges.

Back to our little walk up the road…or was it down the road? Here’s the road. This is why UP and DOWN applies to our walk.

Here are 2 pictures of the ridge opposite the one we were on. You can see the terraces where the food is grown. In the first photo, you can see a house down the ridge on the left side. (Look carefully.) Houses are hidden everywhere.

We passed a house that is only a little d-o-w-n the ridge. The pic shows the old house, an outbuilding, and the new house.

We met a friendly woman on the road.  Since she didn’t speak English, I don’t know what she said but she and John had a short conversation in Swahili.

Drinking is quite a problem, I’ve been told, and here is an empty liquor packet littering the road. It's about the size of the palm of my hand. We saw several. 

Of course, the local pub contributes to the drinking problem….and so does Bemge ….but more about that later.

Children play u-p the ridge. I took this photo from the road.

Speaking of coffee…. Coffee plants (trees?) are interspersed among the banana trees like you see in this photo. Although it’s not coffee season now, I did manage to see some coffee on one of the plants. (You'll have to look closely, I think.)

Not far from the Archbishop’s House is the Coffee Doctor. (See? There’s something for everyone. Even those who need help with a coffee addiction.) Apparently he does quite the presentation about coffee which is meant to be entertaining (can we say cheesy—so I’ve been told).

Notice the Cofee Experie......nce

The sign is on the left...the Doc's house is down the road.

This shop caught my eye…and then I found out it belonged to Victor’s mother, who was recovering from surgery.  The sign says “London—Grocery and Garden—Enjoy Coca Cola.” The blue sign says “Map Suppliers Limited.”

Back at the house, we had time to relax and read (or whatever) before dinner.

mixed veggies, pizza, banana, avocado, greens
(yes, I'm gaining weight!)

We ended the day with the sunset, as seen from the veranda.

And, speaking of sun, it’s about to set as I sit here on the veranda of Kundayo so I’m going to post this, Day One of the Kilimanjaro Trip, and continue on tomorrow. I know that I’m behind in these blogs. I have so much to write about with my daily life but I’m so busy with the daily life, that I’m pressed for time to write about it. I have 2 more days of Kilimanjaro so check back tomorrow.