We started our day just like any other day, but instead of going on three different buses to go help out at the orphanage, preschool, or the secondary school, we walked into town for 8 o’clock Mass. We started our adventure after breakfast but we left in separate groups because after Mass we had the opportunity to walk around town and do a little shopping. When we reached the Cathedral where Mass was being held we had to wait because the 7 o’clock Mass was still finishing up, just from that we thought that it was going to be a long Mass. Mr. McMorrow had run into an old friend of his whose name was Edward. Edward is a boy our age who comes from a very poor family, and he met McMorrow and the group four years ago. When he heard we were coming back, he made sure to come to the Mass so he could see us again. It was really inspiring to learn his story and see and meet him.
We finally had the chance to walk into the church and it was really beautiful. The Mass started off as an English Mass but that changed really quickly because there were more Swahili speaking people there and I don’t think they wanted to waste their breath on us. Aliina was falling asleep but then a cute little boy who kept pointing at her and laughing kept her awake. The music for the Mass was really different from ours because they had children singing during the Mass instead of older people but they over sang every song by 2 verses. They were also only accompanied by a drum. During Communion we had to walk up to the front of the church and kneel at the altar to receive the Body of Christ. After Mass they had a little celebration because their Mass won a competition between churches and they received a trophy. Aliina met some more cute children, named Harriet and Stella, and took a bunch of pictures with them.
We finally went our separate ways to eat lunch and go shopping for a little while. The first place we went was to Reagan’s shop. The owner (Reagan) started out as selling paintings on the street, and he managed to work his way up in the world and now he owns the biggest art shop in Moshi. We went at separate times and hardly saw another group. Quite a few of us bought a lot of stuff. After shopping we walked through town to our lunch destinations and ordered food. Devon went to the Indo-Italiano and ordered something delicious and Aliina went to Union Cafe and ordered savory coffee and the best strawberry milkshake ever. She also ordered pizza with a lot of cheese, egg plant, and salami on it.
After stuffing our faces, we went to the post office where we all got surrounded by fly catchers trying to sell us touristy stuff. It was absolute chaos. It took us quite a while to say no to them and for them to finally realize that we weren't in the mood to buy anything at that time. When we got on the bus we headed to a tour of a coffee farm outside of town. It was a really cool and interesting tour and we got to make coffee and drink it. It was super delicious! Our tour guides were the sweetest men. When we thought that the coffee tour was done they pulled us back in with some more facts and interesting information about the Chagga tribe and how they lived during the civil war. We even got to go into another cave, like the ones we saw on day 2. After we went in the cave we went to a little tourist store and looked for some souvenirs. We were standing around waiting for the ok to head to the bus, and Aliina saw some more kids named Denise and and, as usual, ran to them like her life depended on it. When the tour came to an end we said our goodbyes and spent the rest of our night hanging around the lodge, talking to friends and having a good time.
Hi - from Devon
Hi Dad, Jeremy, Josh, Maija, and everyone else that I love! Mom and I miss you guys. We are having a great time. Love you lots.
P.S. Dad I met Brightness and Constelatha. Juma really is the man and Jessica is so sweet. Happy June 26th :-) <3
and to Ramona’s parents… she finally got her pizza :-)
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