Red, Red Wine

Again, it’s long overdue, so I’m going to do a little re-cap of the past couple weeks in this post.
Two weekends ago, we went camping at a campground near Msosa village. When we first arrived, it started torrential down pouring, so we spent some pumzika (rest) time in the tents until it passed. I never mind having nothing to do because anything is fun with the people on this trip. Chris pulled out her little portable speaker, which we’ve made great use of multiple times, and we just sat around singing. After the monsoon passed, we started preparing our dinner of walking tacos around the fire. It was my first experience with walking tacos, which are just opened bags of Doritos that you fill with taco fillings: ground beef, cheese, beans, guacamole, and tomatoes. I just put beans, guac, and tomatoes in mine with some pili pili mbuzi (hot peppers), shook it up, and ate out of the bag; it was delicious! After dinner, we just hung around the fire (literally—there were U-shaped vines you could sit on) and enjoyed each other’s company and the nature around us.
On Sunday, we hiked to a beautiful waterfall. Since we were hot and sweaty when we got there, the freezing cold water felt refreshing (like our showers). Being under a waterfall is the best feeling in the world. It’s such a rush because the water is so powerful, not to mention a natural full-body massage. Pushing past the falling water and standing behind it, next to the rock is amazing. Everything back there is so peaceful, yet you can look up and see the water rushing over the rock with all other noise muted. I was wishing I had a waterproof camera at that moment.
This past weekend, we went to Dodoma, which is technically the capital of Tanzania. However, since our plans to see some government buildings fell through, our weekend in Dodoma was spent eating Chinese food, drinking wine, and having some serious pumzika time. Saturday morning, we went to a wine factory which was run by a Catholic church. The nuns sold us some bottles and we passed around one to try, which didn’t have a label and was very strong, but sweet. Afterwards, we went to a vineyard with a farmer who then brought us to his house, where he makes wine. He had one room with a huge pile of red grapes, which he transferred to buckets to rinse off before making the wine. Again, we were given cups to pass around and try—that was the most delicious wine I’ve ever tasted. There were two kinds, one much sweeter than the other. We all loved it so much that we bought 15 liters total, 10 of the less sweet one and 5 of the other. They were poured into two big buckets that we hauled onto the bus and divided up later.
The next day, we headed back to Iringa and stopped at a village on the way. At the village, we met some farmers who showed us their fields and crops (like peanuts!). I asked if I could help weed their corn field, because that is listed on our “Wazungu Challenge” (I will explain in the next blog post). The Mama took me to the field with hoe in hand and showed me how to scrape up the weeds which is, like everything else they do, a lot of work! Doing it for just five minutes was pretty strenuous; I can’t imagine a whole day. After resting from the  intense five minutes I spent weeding corn, I played some ball with the kids who were around the farm. They were shy at first but eventually had what seemed to be the time of their lives just throwing the ball back and forth with Bethany, Hannah, and I. I have so much fun playing ball with the kids here because they never get tired of it, no matter how simple the game might be. One little ball of fabric tied together can keep them occupied for hours, which I really admire coming from a country where kids are increasingly in need of the latest app or video game to fill any down time that might creep into their day. One of my favorite things about living here is the down time that I am not used to, which not only gives you time to relax and think, but foster relationships with the people around you—something I often think our country is lacking…