Moshi ~ Last Day

📌 August 11

Back in Moshi; last day in Africa

Restless sleep between Grace coughing and roosters crowing at 4am

Back porch breakfast and a hike through the cornfield. 

Dorothy collected some produce from her garden and made a delicious couscous dish. 

(many interesting flavors including cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and coriander)

Enjoyed walking through the neighborhood to meet up with Doug, Mary, and Betsy.

Still surprised at how friendly is toward us-- especially the women. Having a baby strapped on usually entices a smile as some of the women have a baby of their own strapped to their front or back.

passing a GIANT termite mound

On our walk we passed a 1-room schoolhouse. 

This seemed to shed a little more perspective on Ben's teaching situation and how things could be worse...

Believe it or not, Mt. Kilimanjaro was directly in front of us.

Unfortunately it was behind the clouds the the duration of our stay. 

father & son

The vanilla factory was a highlight of the day. We enjoyed learning about the business-

how vanilla is produced, manufactured, and sold.

drying racks

Thus far this industry (EFTA) has provided 1500 Tanzanians (mostly farmers) with work as vanilla farming is extremely labor intensive. Getting to tour a vanilla farm would have been a fascinating addition, but we decided that 2-hour round trip in addition to our (24-hour+) flight that night would be too much confinement for the kids.

Learned: on the farming end each vanilla plant needs 2x3 meters of growing space and has to be pared with a tree/place to grow up. The plant needs at least 3 years to begin producing pods AND all plants must be pollinated by hand.

This is where the Moshi business comes in.

Once harvested, green pods are graded and purchased from the farmers and brought to the factory. Here they are blanched (hot water?) and then placed in a fermenting box for 3 days where the pods turn brown. They then cure (?)

Eventually the pods are all sorted by hand according to their length and then assigned a grade (A, B, C).

Some are sold this way, while others are split and turned to vanilla extract (another process).

All = very fascinating.

fun fact: old wine bottles are sanitized and repurposed for commercial quantities of extract.

Getting to see more behind-the-scenes

In addition to making vanilla, cacao, and orange extract they are working on a formula for a banana extract among other experiments.

Went to lunch in downtown Moshi at Union Coffee Co., a place that roasts beans harvested from the foothills of Kilimanjaro. Dorothy drove us to one more place to gather a few last souvenirs-- by far the best place to shop as the owner was quiet and fair-- no hassling or starting with outrageous prices (thank you, Dorothy)... much more relaxed than Stonetown the previous day. 

Favorites: new coffee mug for Ben, painting for our bedroom wall, and a new pair of funky jammie pants. I was proud of Kaden for getting an animal souvenir for Luke in addition to the shirt he picked for himself. Owen decided that he didn't need anything (also a proud moment).

One last round of play with Ali and Abdi.

Dorothy suggested leaving any older clothes behind as a parting gift for the two little boys.

Baths and clean clothes for all for the final push home. Dorothy giving Ms. Grace a bath. 

When booking the tickets I was slightly concerned that we were making such a LONG flight and if, perhaps, we should have spent a few more days. BUT I think we all were ready for home when the time came. We did a lot and saw a lot WITH (small) kids.

With that said, we would definitely return to Tanzania/Kenya if the opportunity arrises in the future... so many more things to do/see with bigger kids.

Kilomanjaro to Amsterdam via Kigali (Rwanda). 

Kids= champs as they watched a movie & slept most of the way during the night flight.

Not sure if Ben or I slept at all...

I found walking on the tarmac in (the dark) somewhat amusing. 

Couldn't get over how dark night became in Africa without all of the street lights everywhere. 

📌 August 12: (up in the air)

Amsterdam to Dallas-Fort Worth

T I R E D

Kaden all rested and ready to go... unsure about the rest of us as we waited for our 2nd flight in the Amsterdam airport.

Fortunately Deann and Norman taxied us to/from the DFW airport.

Originally (when we were well-rested) we planned on driving from Dallas to Amarillo right after our flight. In reality we were exhausted and were so grateful to have a ride, a hot meal (lasagna!) and shower, and soft beds to collapse into.

reading Dr. Suess's new book, What Pet Should We Get?