Apr 4, 10:32 AM
On Our Way to Mlalo, Tanzania
For the past two nights, we’ve stayed at a beautiful hostel run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in the lovely Usambara Mountain range in northeastern Tanzania in a town called Lushoto. Our hostel included our own bathroom with shower, a western-style toilet, and a balcony off of our room. Although I’ve been somewhat sick with traveler’s sickness since Saturday, we have weathered that storm well and still have been able to do many things while staying here.
For example, we have done two lovely hikes—one on Sunday and one yesterday. On Sunday when we arrived from Lushoto, we hiked up to a local spot called the Irente View Point. It was so amazing! The scenery was so beautiful it almost seemed fake to us and reminded us somewhat of the scenery in the movie “The Lord of the Rings.”
We met a fellow traveler, an American from Long Island who is volunteering for a year in a remote part of Tanzania and was taking a holiday to Lushoto for a long weekend. She tagged along with us and we happily hiked with her to the Irente View Point. She also joined us for a much longer hike on Monday to the Growing Rock area in nearby Soni. To the top of the Growing Rock mountain, it was about 6,600 feet and we had another incredible view of the surrounding lands from above. After Growing Rock, we went back to Soni to a waterfall that looked like chocolate, as the earth here is very red, so the run off looked as though it was out of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
The Usambara Mountains are very lovely and we will continue to enjoy them as we make our way to Mlalo, Tanzania, about forty miles north and west of where we will meet up with a family friend, Rev. Mbilu, and learn more about the work of his church in Mlalo. We are bringing him some gifts of lovely brown bread and jam from the local Irente Farm, where we had lunch yesterday. Mark’s dad’s church in Pennsylvania, a partner church to Rev. Mbilu’s church, has also sent us along with some lovely gifts to offer the congregation, so we have those with us as well and look forward to meeting the people, getting to know the kind of work they do, and offering them the gifts from God’s Love Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania.