This morning we woke up wondering how we were going to get back to Arusha. Communication is different here. A simple question involves a long answer that sometime doesn’t even come close to answering the question. It’s hard to follow sometimes or perhaps an answer still being worked out but either way it’s teaching me to be more patient and be less of a control freak. I realize that I am a pretty detailed person and not knowing details makes me feel uneasy.

We went to meet another friend of Moshi’s who run’s cultural tours in MTO wa MBU. It’s a region that has 120 different tribes living together and we walked around the village looking at the irrigation system that the Japanese helped to fund and the different houses. There isn’t a place that let’s you forget about the poverty here. We went inside one of the homes and it was so tiny and dark and dirty and this village is luckier because of the water. The cultural program that they run split all the profits between each of the villagers. It’s good to contribute to these programs.

Then Moshi found a friend of his who was heading back to Arusha so we all went together. On the way back we were stopped by the police looking for a bribe but Moshi said “we have no money but here is a banana” and they accepted it.

We were heading down the dusty road and one of the Massai kids yelled at our car asking for water so Moshi threw his bottle full of water out the window. I felt so guilty holding mine and handed it to Moshi to give away. We passed 2 massai women carrying sticks and we slowed down to give them the water (and bananas). The people and the land are thirsty.

We ended up in a small hotel in Arusha tired and dusty and ready to head back to Dar. Tomorrow we have a 10 hour bus ride and the next few days will be conferences and planning for Kondoa. I am really excited about heading to the village and seeing the well.