Mt Rungwe and the Food

For our last full weekend in the Rungwe district, Monica and I played tourist and arranged some adventures through a local company to a few of the more scenic locations in the area. Our most exhausting expedition was to climb Mt. Rungwe this past Sunday. Monica will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro after our work here is done, so we figured this might be a good, inexpensive warm up for her.

The climb itself took about 8-9 hours round trip and was quite a tiring affair. The mountain is home to quite a number of animals with our favourites being the monkeys who, I believe, rather enjoyed seeing us struggle as they carelessly jumped from branch to branch. Another minor set back was that the guide basically had no idea where we were for the first 2 hours of the trip. I guess during the wet season there can be so much growth that it covers the path..or so they told us. Anyway, we managed to make it down with only a few scrapes and bruises meaning that I am about 2 weeks away from keeping my number of trips to the regional hospital to 1.

Now while Monica may take joy in paying copious amounts of money to climb a big rock, my energy is usually spent trying to figure out the quickest, cheapest, and most delicious path to acquire more energy. I would be lying to all our devoted blog followers (which by my last tally was just Monica) if I said that I was not concerned about the quantity and quality of food available during my time here. Well friends, you will be happy to know that Tanzania is home to some of the tastiest and more affordable meals I have ever had. As our daily routine began to evolve in the past month, it was clear that a stop at “The Lodge” was to be included. The menu is pretty straight forward as our options are rice and meat or chips and meat but what they don't tell you in the guide books is that cheap hot sauce is available everywhere and served with every meal. This has been my saving grace. Throw in the fact that Monica tends to only eat ½ a plate of food and I have really struck gold.

Another art we have perfected is the bus order. We spent quite a bit of time in the morning waiting for our buses to fill up which means we are the ideal customers for the various stand owners to approach. Bananas, doughnuts, ground nuts, as well as about 15 different styles of clothing with the word Obama printed on them, are all within arm's reach. And to think, in North America I was driving up to the window to purchase food like a sucker. We are definitely well taken care of in Tukuyu and this sort of in your face hospitality is something ,I for one, will sorely miss.