Another weekend has past with success

So as the weekend comes to an end I thought I would write a quick post about what we did this weekend to keep everyone updated on the adventures we are having.
Friday after placement I went to get my hair braided at Aubrey and Graemes house. I got there at two and the lady doing my braids spoke no English whatsoever. Luckily I brought along a good book and Sams laptop with some TV shows and movies to watch because the braiding process took four hours! I was sitting on a pillow on the floor so by the end I had a huge headache, backache, and was extremely glad to be done! Once I saw the braids it was definitely worth it. I have an entire head of little braids and it is hilariously awesome. Kasey, Sam, and Lara all decided that I no longer look white, good or bad? I dont know but its a good look for Africa. Right now Lara is at Aubreys getting her hair done too. It was only 20,000tsh so it was definitely worth it.
After that we ate dinner at the CCS house and then headed to town to check in. As Kasey said we stayed at the Buffalo hotel and it was ridicuously cheap. A large sum of 24,000tsh will get you a double room with a shared bathroom at the Buffalo. And split between four...that is a crazy cheap hotel rate! The room was pretty basic, two double beds, a finicky light, and mosquito nets. Not much else was needed though because we did not spend much time in the hotel anyway. On Friday night we just went out with a group of friends we have in town-Aubrey, Graeme, Eddie, Mussa, Hussien, Adam, and a few other people we have met living in Moshi. The night was very relaxed and nothing of worthy note happened, just a good time all around.
Saturday we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel-good food and again, cheap. After breakfast Mussa came to pick us up for our coffee tour. 18 of us went, all girls from the CCS home base. It was good to get to know some of them better. The coffee tour started at Oscars village called Merangu. The village is about 45 minutes from Karanga and the drive was fine until we started up the tiny, bumpy, pot hole filled, dirt road to Oscars house. It had rained earlier and the drive was terrifying. All I could see out my window was the huge cliff we would fall off if the car slipped off at all. The driving got so ridiculous that Oscar made the call we should just get out and walk..thank God for Oscar! So we all got out of the two vans and stood aside so they could turn around. They were both stuck in the mud so there were loads of people, mostly kids, helping to push them out. At one point I look over and one of the vans is about to go down the cliff. It was insane, I was so glad we had gotten out...and eventually the people were able to push the van back onto the road again.
So we started walking up the muddy road to Oscars house. It was so slippery and muddy. My chacos were covered in mud. We finally made it to his house and once we were there we got to see his home and meet some of his family. He has a little brother that has renamed himself Obama, he was absolutely adorable! I have told you before, Tanzanians LOVE Obama. So after introductions Oscar told us a bit about his families business of growing and harvesting coffee. They live at a higher elevations-in the cultivation area of Mt. Kilimanjaro so the coffee trees they grow are different than lower elevations. He showed us all of their plants and told us each to pick five red coffee beans off. We all did and then we continued the process and made our own coffee right there! It was really cool to see the process and once we were done we were able to taste our own coffee-delicious of course!
After we tried the coffee we ate lunch and then we got changed to go on our short hike to the waterfall near his village. The hike was nice, beautiful views of Mt. Kilimanjaro...and I think you will all be happy to know, I made it through this hike! haha. Once we got to the waterfall it was amazing! It is the biggest waterfall I have ever seen. We all got in and it was freezing! But we had to persevere because we knew that you could swim behind the waterfall. All of us agreed that it was so cold parts of our legs were going numb. So I finally worked up the courage to go. It was so scary! Once you get right in front of the falls you can barely breath and then you go under and I felt like I may not come up...but I did and then I was behind the falls! There was a little cave back there and it was the coolest feeling ever! Kasey had to give me a short pep talk to get me back through but we made it and I am so glad we actually decided to go behind it. Even if I lost my breath, once again!
After that we just hiked back to the village and then we were on our way back to Moshi. We ate dinner at the Panda Chinese restaurant and it was pretty good! I was definitely pleased with the quality for it being in Africa...We had dinner with the guys that took us on Safari-Abbas and Richard. After dinner we all got ready to go to the Miss Kilimanjaro show. I did not get to enter, sadly, but it was still a great time. The show was held at a local club we have been to and it was a bit different than Miss America. They started the show with this dance group and the girls butt could not have been attached to her body...her dancing was insane! After that they started with the formal dress competition where they all walked out and said their names and what they like to do and then model their dresses. There were a lot of locals in the crowd so I had to mostly judge if what they were saying was good by the crowds reaction.
I left at twelve and came back to the CCS home base because I wasnt feeling well but Kasey stayed for the whole thing and so she will have to fill everyone in on the talent show and other parts of the show. Today is just a lazy day in Karanga with no plans other than to relax.
This week is Sam and Laras last week here so we are sad about that but we are just going to enjoy the week with them and have fun!

The computer is being extremely fast today so we have just uploaded some pictures from all around...Lara has the braid pictures so we will post those later!

Miss and love you all!