Where in the world is Sombetini Road?

A couple of weeks ago three of my friends and I decided last minute to travel to Tanzania for the weekend.  We wanted to see Mt. Kilimanjaro and experience Kenya’s neighboring country we had heard so much about!  Throughout the week before we left we tried many times to plan, but because of faulty Internet it was Thursday night and we still had to book our hostel.  We then booked a hostel called The Green House and bought our bus tickets without any other plans for the weekend.  At first I thought this would be good!  I am usually a type A person and need everything planned, but maybe a weekend without plans would be good for me!  After all, I had been in Kenya for about seven weeks and should be used to the go with the flow lifestyle…right??

            Ha, well the weekend didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped.  It all started at the Tanzanian border where we had to pay for a $100 Visa in American dollars.  We knew about this requirement, but some of us didn’t have any American dollars left and we were just planning on exchanging Kenyan shillings at the border.  Well, I had brought a $50 bill and only enough Kenyan shillings for the other $50.  Without boring you with all of the details, the border officials wouldn’t take my $50 dollar bill because it was too old (it was Series 1996). Ah! And my friend Leah didn’t bring enough shillings to convert because she thought there would be an ATM and of course, with our luck, there was no ATM to be found.  So we all had to pull together the little amount we had in Kenyan shillings to make up the equivalent of $150.  For about fifteen minutes, we thought we didn’t have enough money and we would be left at the border by our bus.  But thankfully, after double checking in all of our bags and pockets, my friend Kaitlyn found an extra thousand shillings to help us just squeak by!

           

      After that fiasco, we arrived in Arusha at around 3:00 PM ready to start the weekend. We got off the bus and decided to go find the hostel.  Being in Kenya for awhile, we figured we didn’t need to depend on a taxi and could navigate the dala dalas (like matatus in Kenya—the 14 passenger vans that serve as public transportation) ourselves.  After standing in the wrong place and waiting for 20 minutes for a dala dala that never came, we finally got on the right dala dala going towards Sombetini Road—the supposed location of this hostel.  The website with the directions said it would take about ten to fifteen minutes from town on the dala dala without traffic.  Half an hour later…we are still on the dala dala in the middle of rural Tanzania where everyone was obviously surprised to see four young American girls.  A man we asked for help finally turned to us and said “Sombetini Road” and so we got off.  Turns out the man had no idea where the hostel was and we were just dropped off nowhere near the hostel.  We quickly figured this out after walking with about twenty children holding our hands and following us around.  After five minutes of trying (and failing) to call our Arusha contact, we decided it was unsafe out in the middle of nowhere and we should get back to town.  So, all rattled and anxious, we boarded the dala dala back into town and continued to ask people if they knew where in the world was this Green House Hostel on Sombetini Road.  No one did.  Wanting comfort and a safe place, we decided to go back to the nice, fancy hotel where the bus dropped us off to figure out what to do and have a nice meal as it was getting dark.  After a nice relaxing meal, we asked the hotel for a reliable taxi and our godsend Masaai Taxi Man came to save the day.  He graciously drove us to a different hostel to only find they were booked (just our luck), drove all the way down Sombetini Road (it is a lot scarier in the night) to look for the hostel again without luck (of course), and finally drove us back into town and dropped us off at a cheap, clean hotel he was familiar with.  He even came in and helped speak in Kiswahili to the front desk lady.  By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous day we had just had!  Oh, and we all decided to give up on The Green House hostel as it obviously doesn't exist.

            On Saturday, we had arranged (the night before at the full hostel) with a local tour guide, a local Tanzanian named Joshua, to take us to Moshi to hike on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, see a waterfall, and make organic coffee.  Leaving Arusha early on Saturday morning we arrived in Moshi at around 10:00 AM.  Before leaving the town, we stopped at the market to pick up our lunch of avocados, oranges, watermelon, mangoes, and papayas.  We then made our way up the foothills on another dala dala.  The forty-five minute drive up through the hills was beautiful though a bit bumpy!  Everything was so green and peaceful.  After we got off, we hiked with all of our heavy fruit and water up the hills for about an hour and a half before we reached the waterfall.  The shear force of the waterfall was incredible.  The weather completely changed when we approached it.  It was incredibly windy, cold, and of course misty.  The sound alone was overwhelming.  We were originally going to swim, but we decided with the strong current and the cold water, we would pass!  We then ate our lunch of delicious fruit and prepared to make organic coffee from scratch! 

            Near the waterfall was a family owned coffee farm where they welcomed visitors to participate in the whole process of making coffee!  We first started with coffee beans that were still in their shells.  (Coffee beans are white by the way before they are roasted! I thought they started off brown…) We had to beat (twanga in Kiswahili) the shells off the beans and then separate the shells from the beans.  Next, we roasted the beans on the fire (dark roast).  Third, we ground and sifted the coffee beans.  And last but not least, we added the coffee grounds to water!  Before we drank our coffee, the boys (sons of the coffee farmers) had us hold out our hands for “coffee candy.”  It was just coffee grounds mixed with sugar.  On the count of three, we all threw it in our mouths.  It was so delicious!!! I definitely wanted more.  Then we sat and had our cup of coffee.  It was definitely the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had! I’m not sure if it was because we helped make it or because we were drinking it on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but either way it was delicious! This was probably our favorite part of the whole trip!  The boys were so welcoming and fun!  And they entertained us by teaching us an African song they sing when grinding the beans!  After our cup (or two) of coffee, we headed back to Arusha and just collapsed at our hostel (Arusha Backpackers) after getting something to eat.  The next morning we left Tanzania after a whirlwind weekend!  

Beating the Beans to Loosen the Shells

Separating the Shells After Pounding the Beans

Roasting the Beans!

Grinding the Beans!

Sifting to then Grind the Beans Again!

Best Cup of Coffee I've Ever Had!

Us and our Coffee Men!

         On the bus Sunday morning, we had all started to fall asleep when all of the sudden people on the bus woke us up to look out the window.  When we looked we saw Mt. Kilimanjaro very faintly off in the distance.  Though we were on the foothills and had visited Moshi, Mt. Kilimanjaro was hidden by clouds the whole day on Saturday. (The locals call Mt. Kilimanjaro shy because it's always hiding behind clouds.) We were all disappointed as that was one of the main reasons we went to Tanzania.  So even though it was faint, we left satisfied that we had finally seen the magnificent mountain!  (Look closely just above the clouds in the picture below and you will see the dark top of Mt. Kilimanjaro)