That settles it...

...I'm staying. Or at least coming back... more than once.

Today was absolutely incredible -- I think I may have said that about yesterday, but it really was. This was our group outing to a traditional Masai farm and the surrounding countryside where we were surrounded by beautiful forests, lush farm land, and an endless stream of small children and locals who were enthralled by the wazungu (plural of mzungu = white person).

From the compound, we took three jeeps toward Arusha, and soon found ourselves off the highway on deeply rutted dirt roads. The main road quickly gave way to a bustling market area with chickens and children and merchandise everywhere. The people were suddenly much more real and less of the insistent tour guides. Up the mountain we went as it got cooler and cooler, till we stopped just short of driving into the clouds. Here we met our two guides and were told that our drivers would meet us at lunch.

Once we began to walk, the cool morning opened up to us and we marveled at the lush greenery, the high hills still shrouded in mist, and even the huts around us with shy faces peeking out, looking at the wazungu. It was thrilling to be able to speak to the old women walking slowly, to greet the wide-eyed children, and respond to greetings of "habari" (what's the news) from the young people. I don't exactly know how to describe the incredible richness of the earth, except through pictures.

We quickly left the main road and ended up on single track dirt paths among the fields. Throughout the day we passed corn, bananas, yams, peas, red beans, lots of cabbage, and even some lettuce. The forest and farms are all somewhat on top of each other - we ventured our way down a very steep muddy trail to a beautiful waterfall, where a cow was enjoying himself entirely, only slightly perturbed by our photo antics and tourism.

And since I'm not so talented with manipulating a shoddy internet connection, I'm going to have to stop here and post a couple pictures in the next post. Thanks to Steve S for helping me find a way to upload pictures pretty easily. The photos include of a preview of what followed.