The Mountain, goodbye, and Nole

Actually, this post will have nothing to do with this little chicks at the Hanga chicken farm...but they are pretty cute aren't they?

Almost one week ago we made an expedition to the mountain with a cross on it a little way outside of Hanga (about 13 km) on the way to Songea. Anne, Lennart, Eva, Wilma, Francesca, Maria, and Clare all went on foot, and I came a couple hours later and met them at near the base of the hill with my motorcycle :)

I unfortunately left Hanga with only a few drops of gas left in the tank, so I had to find the "petrol station" along the way. I bought 3 liters...i think they poured it into the tank from old cooking oil bottles...but it smelled like gasoline.

Here is the crew at the church at the base of the hill.

15-2, 15-4, and a double run equals 12. Ahh cribbage in the afternoon.

As Clare was scheduled for departure early this week, there was a goodbye party for her! above is the beautiful cake...best one in Tanzania so far...with chocolate, peanuts, and mango icing. DELICIOUS. Below is the party back in the hostel. Goat meat included. mmmm. I also discovered that melted blue band vegetable spread is pretty good on popcorn! the low fat option to butter...

Br. Odo saying thanks...

The young women volunteers of Hanga

left to right: Anne, Patricia, Eva, Clare, Maria and Francesca.

On Tuesday morning we traveled by car with Br. Theodore to Njombe and then took another ride later in the day with Fr. Michael to Nole to see Hanga's "outstation" there. It is a larger complex than i thought. One of the projects there is the water bottling. the water is called Chemchemi ("fountain" or "source" in kiswahili).

This is inside the bottling room.

and some more pictures from around Nole.

Although it took an hour to drive to Nole, which was only a little over 30 km from Njombe, and although the road was in the worst condition of any i have been on, mainly because it is the rainy season, the trip was well worth it. Just the view from the road along the way would have been worth it. It was fun to see the shocked look on so many kids faces as we passed and they saw two wazungu in the car driving past their house (i dont think they get many foreigners passing down their road!) This site of the hydro-electric generator in Nole was one of the most beautiful places I have seen here in Tanzania as well. The landscape and climate (cool enough that i wanted to wear long sleeves and long pants the whole time i was there) reminded me of the Rocky mountains in CO...somehow it didn't feel like eastern Africa.

On our way back to Njombe to spend the night we stopped by Fr. Michael's home village of Uwembe. We visited his parents and siblings who still live at home. Though we only stayed for about 20 minutes, his mother gifted us with a beautiful chicken as we left! So, there was no debate on what we were having for dinner. It was probably the freshest meat I have ever eaten :)

On Wednesday morning Clare left on the bus to Dar Es Salaam, and later in the morning i caught a bus back to Songea, and then another back to Hanga.

The last two days I have been helping sort books (still a lot of them!) in the library at St. Benedict. Charlie ordered 10 sturdy shelves from the monastery carpentry shop and they were completed this week. It is fun sorting through the endless boxes of books. My favorite is the "suggested reading Great Books" collection that i am setting aside.

Tonight I will eat dinner in the girls cafeteria at St. Laurents and after dinner we will watch Sleeping Beauty together on the newly installed TV on the wall. Me, Charlie, and about two hundred 1st-7th grade girls. should be pretty exciting, and loud.

thanks for reading!