Moshi-Pushi

Moshi-what a wonderful name..Moshi-ain't no passing place, it means no worries (sorry, I have the Lion King stuck in my head.  I don't know what it is about Africa, but I find myself singing more Lion King songs than ever before-shout out to my sister Casey with whom I sung to death every Lion King song for months and months).  Moshi is such a beautiful, but expensive city.  After climbing Kili I spent several days recovering.
 Sophie, Carole, and myself all still managed to have fun.  One such instance was when we attempted to take a scenic drive and view hot springs.  Instead of paying the appropriate price to see hot springs an hour outside of Moshi-we hired a taxi, for very cheap and made our way, clueless to where we thought were the hot springs.  Sadly, after taking our taxi driver on a wild goose hunt, down roads that more resembled mini-mountains plagued my cliffs and ledges, surely not the place for a small little 2 wheeled-drive taxi we decided that the hot springs would just have to wait until another day.  That day Carole and I had ice cream while Sophie used the internet.  This was a particularly fun day in that Carole and I had the chance to chat with a Rastafarian.  He had so much insight!  We learned, sadly, that female circumcision is still very prevalent in Tanzania, talked about the earth, mother nature, and life…by the way-if you haven't had the chance to talk to a Rastafarian let alone somehow who is properly high on something more than life…it was an experience.  And so there we sat, watching the sun go down while our new friend (actually an artist whose job it is to hassle tourists day in and day out so he can make a living) slowly talked himself to sleep.  The funny part was…whenever new mzungus (white tourists) would walk down the street where we were sitting all focus would then be directed to the new arrivals.  Before we knew it our Rastafarian friend would spring into life, jump out of his seat to catch up to potential customers. 

In Moshi, I also had the opportunity to visit a sugar cane factory converting sugar cane waste into electrical energy.  What I found out during this trip was that the Tanzanian government and Moshi will not allow the factory…which is run by the French, to distribute the electricity to the local areas because it would lower the cost of electricity for the area residents; thus, lowering profits.  How far and long can corruption continue to go on…I feel a good book is coming along appropriately titled-Seeds of Corruption.  

The last two days in Moshi were spent saying goodbye to the girls and booking my bus to Dar Es Salaam.  It was sad saying goodbye-I mean, we just climbed a mountain together, who wouldn't be a little sad.  Truthfully,  it was great meeting Carole and Sophie-they will be missed.