A Week in Kilimanjaro: Mountains, Weddings and a Sweet 21st Birthday

Just got back from a week up near Moshi, in the region of Kilimanjaro. We were staying with a family friend of the guy on our trip and enjoyed relaxing, hiking around in the beautiful green hills and seeing fantastic views of Mt. Kilimanjaro from her road! We also got to go up to the National Park and walk around a bit, seeing where the porters and climbers were starting the long trek up and such.


Around the mountains we were staying on.


The village of Kiboroloni, at the foot our the mountainous road up to our house. Notice Kilimanjaro in the background!


At the National Park.


This is also the region where the Tanzanians live who I met last year in Norway so not only got to visit them, but one, Benjamin, was getting married so got to go to the send off party for Lily, his bride, and also the wedding and reception. A really cool expereince. The send-off is to introduce Lily to all of Benjamin's family and give her away to them. It is a big deal, a hundred or so relatives there, her and her bridesmaids all dressed up, singing, dancing, drinking and eating. There was even a brass band.


The wedding itself was also fun. After we all went in a procession inside, we sat and it was a fairly familiar wedding setting, just a brass band instead of an organ. But they exchanged rings, said their vows, the usual. The fun part was that when each said "I do, with God's help" (in Swahili though of course) the band would let out a long loud note and everyone would cheer. The reception was equally upbeat. Benjamin's mother danced around and soon all his family joined for some pretty spectacular dance moves (Benjamin is from the Haya tribe which is apparently known for their dancing).

Procession into the church.

Benjamin and Lily after the wedding ceremony.


The most interesting part of the wedding was the cake cutting. They had a regular European-type wedding cake, but that took second fiddle to the 'meat cake,' which turned out to be one large, dead, propped up skinned goat. They did the whole ceremonial cutting together and fed each other a bit of the meat before sharing it with the family members and then set at the food table to be carved up for all the guests.

The 'meat cake' at the wedding.

The day we left was the 22nd, my birthday which was pretty sweet. The night before they had thrown me a surprise unbirthday party and given me fresh-baked banana bread which was delicious, a book on traditioanl Tanzanian music (we all got one which I though was more than fair) and most meaningful, a kanga from Mama Macha. These are the pieces of cloth that all Tanzanians wear and have Swahili expressions on them. This had extra special meaning since it was the style that all her family wore at her husband's funeral. Definitely will treasure that. In the morning I got a spectacular view of Mt. Kilimanjaro at sunrise before our bus ride back.



Birthday sunrise over Kilimanjaro.



Traveling up and down the mountain in the back of a Land Rover - that is a classy way to travel, let me tell you!

Since it is my 21st, I did have a beer with dinner back at the University as well - fittingly a Kilimanjaro. A good trip and birthday, that is for sure! Up next is registration for classes and figuring all of that out!