wilds!

Hi all - just a quick note - woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise on Kilamanjaro. I'm in Moshi, a little outfitter town right at the base of the mountain. I came here for just one day at the recommendation of a friend i made in Dar. It is a very quiet town free of a lot of the street hustlers of Arusha and Dar - people trying desperately to convince you that their safari company is the best. It's been great here; I juat wanted one day free of being marketted and sold to - a day i can just chat with folks.


I walked down to the market and grabbed some corn on the cob, roasted on coals. Then proceeded to wander the market. I wound up sitting at a corner bar and perhaps it was the shock of a tourist in this local eatery at sundown but i couldn't really ever manage to order any food or drink. But i did talk with Muhamed Ali for a while. Somewhat unexplainedly he introduced me to his sister (who obviously had NO interest in meeting me) so i don't know what that was about. The language barrier is always interesting. And my grasp of swahili is limited to various greetings, thank you, and goodbye. Not the stuff of deep conversation.


My bus ride north was good; lush green scenery, dark red soil and thus dark red houses, colorfully clad and unclad people working the fields. I saw miles of yucca planted in rows, banana groves, coconut palmeries, scrub bushes, and finally in the north volcanic mountains rising from the plains.