Football Bonanzas and Mountain Climbing

My body is so sore.

Friday we had a football and netball bonanza in Kinole.  Kinole is a rural village about an hour and a half (depending on driving conditions) into the mountains.  We got up at 6am and headed to Faraja for 7 when we were supposed to leave.... should have factored in that Tanzania time thing!  Whether we waited an hour or two, or not, we finally arrived.  The drive there was quite eventful - really bumpy and tossy and turny... we hit our heads a couple of times!  The event took place at the local school and school children and community members alike were present - I would say there was at least 1000 people there, but probably more!  Football (don't forget, football is soccer here!) is really big here and that alone drew people in. 

The day was really successful once it all got started.  We had the Amkeni Sanaa drama group there with us who provided entertainment and MC'ed for most of the day.  We had little competitions with the school kids - a couple of dance offs, a chicken catching race, and some games that were fun and educational at the same time.  They also performed a couple of skits about Malaria awareness - prevention, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and medications, etc.  Did you know that there are completely resistant strains of malaria now?  So like HIV/AIDS, there is no cure for these particular strains right now.  Shit, right?

The main point of the bonanza was to present HIV/AIDS and Malaria facts to the football and netball teams, school children, and community members.  Although it was supposed to be mainly Malaria oriented it ended up being a lot more geared toward HIV/AIDS.  The four of us - Jenn, Tony, Dev and I - did a lot of condom demonstrations with a lot of bananas.  It was really good though because when we first asked the first football team if they have any questions (before going over any information) the first guy asked "Condoms protect against HIV but how do we use them?".  Get out the bananas! Get out the condoms!  And boy did we give out a lot of condoms.  During a demonstration Devon and I were doing together one of the girls asked about female condoms.  Female condoms aren't very popular at home and it didn't even cross my mind that they would be available here - but they are.  One of the school teachers ran to her house to get one... and they presented it to me (NOT Devon) and asked me to demonstrate how to use it.  I had never seen one of those things in my life before!  

The day went really well, it was really cool to watch the football games (no shinpads - ouchie!), but also the netball game.  Netball is played by females here.  It is a combination of European Handball and Basketball - but the nets have no backboard, just a hoop.  It was a really good game!

Although the drama club and MCs had been dancing around all day and we had been around, we weren't stepping up and dancing in front of everyone as the only "wzungos" there.  Well, boy did that change!  Toward the end they called us up to be introduced officially.  (Because the bonanza was completely off schedule there were no formal introductions done at the beginning eventhough we had been around talking to people all day). So they introduced us, etc, and then said they had a surprise for us.  Well, we all looked at each other with the "please don't make us dance" look.  BAZINGA!  Let's make all the white kids dance in front of every one!  Hahaha, it wasn't so bad - we just danced like crazy people for the hell of it.  And Magunda had my camera and so we now have a video of it - yaaaaay! 

Saturday sleep in to recover from the long day of the bonanza?  DON'T THINK SO! Up at 5:30 this morning to go into town, grab some mandaz (doughnut-y things) and chai to meet Frankie and Baisa who were taking us to the top of the Uluguru Mountains!! So in total we went up 1.6km.  That's a long way up!  And not counting the distance we walked, just the altitude.  And we did it in 4 hours - including a half hour break at Morning Side (which is about the halfway point), and numerous breaks that Tony and I took going up. 

It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  It wasn't that it was so steep but that I couldn't breathe.  So while we were all sweating and huffing and puffing, Frankie and Baisa (both members of Amkeni Sanaa) were singing and dancing and yelling and fooling around the whole way up - jealous!  It's funny how around town they all take their time walking places, nice and pole pole (slowly), but put them on the mountain and UP THEY GO, fast fast!  Haha, it's cool - Tony and I took our time.

Some places were really really steep going up and you used to weeks to help you up, others it was more like a steady incline.  We had pure glucose powder that we ate to make sure to keep our energy up - suga suga.  And the last two hours-ish were in the jungle!  Now I really felt like "I was in Africa".  It was so cool! 

When we were at Morning Side looking down at Morogoro and the crops on the mountain side we noticed the clouds starting to roll in.  They rolled in right around us and stayed with us all the way to the top!  When we were at the top looking off the side all you saw was white.  We were above the clouds, in between the clouds, but we couldn't see down.  In a way it was a little more freaky than if you could see down because you didn't know how far the fall was at that particular spot or if there was a ledge just under it.  So unfortunately we couldn't see down from the top, but it was still amazing to just lie up there!

At the top Frankie cooked ugali and samaki (fish) and we feasted! Haha.  We listened to music, sang, there was a little bit of a dance party, and a lot of just hanging out and napping.  But it was cold up there!  All the way up is pretty cold but you didn't really notice it because of how much you're sweating - but as soon as you stop moving you feel it!

Going down is a lot faster than going up - although it hurts your legs a lot more.  By the time we got down to the bottom, the sides of my butt and my thighs were on fire.  We hit up the supermarket for some more water and ice cream (yum!!!) and took a taxi home (so lazy!, haha).   It was so much fun!! But Sunday and today my body is yelling at me.  As long as I'm moving around for a bit I get used to it, but as soon as I sit down and then try to get back up I have to give my body a second to adjust.  This means going back to rugby when I get home won't be as easy - doing a mountain minus 5 weeks of exercise....... rugby minus 8 weeks of exercise! Wooooo.

Today is going to be planning and activity reports - this weekend Zanzibar here we come!  Then only one weekend left in Morogoro!  I'll be home in three weeks!! Time is flying.

<3
J