Mnabe (Land of the Father)

Saturday morning seven of us went to a coffee farm. Near the farm there is an incredible waterfall called Mnabe which six of us trekked over to. (One in our group is not too fond of heights and much of the path over to the waterfall looks over steep ledges.) When we got to Mnabe we were completely blown away, we had already been to one beautiful waterfall but Mnabe took our breath away! At the bottom of the fall there is a shallow pool where a lot of people go swimming...the water is very cold and I was the only one in our group who was brave enough (or crazy enough) to go swimming!

We sat and had our meal enjoying our view of the waterfall and Oscar, whose father owns the coffee farm, gave us a little of the history. First, he explained that his tribe cannot go swimming in the pool or in many other rivers because water is considered there holy place. This particular spot, Mnabe, is especially sacred because it is where the tribe first offered sacrifices. It is called Mnabe, land of the Father, because their tribe believes that anywhere that sacrificial blood is split, the Father's presence remains. (Our other guide, Mussa, was teasing Oscar and says that he only tells this story because he cannot swim while Mussa, "swims like a fish." However, this "fish" was too chicken to go swimming in the pool with me despite much assurance that he would be "in in a minute."

After we enjoyed our meal by the falls and I enjoyed my dip... we headed back to the farm to make our own coffee.  (After this tour I will never look at coffee the same way again!) Thanks to my Ugandan Gold friends, I knew that ripe beans are red and even though it is past the harvesting season, Oscar showed us what some ripe beans look like. After the first level of the bean is peeled off they are soaked in water for 7 days and the beans that float are discarded while the others can move on to drying. The beans are sun dried for a few days and then they have to peeled again. (Oscar uses a wooden basin and long stick that reminds me of butter churning. Without the basin,  it would take all season just to peel the beans! ) When the final bean is revealed it has to be roasted before it can be ground and made into coffee. Interesting fact: the less you roast the bean, the more caffeine it has.

After the long process, all of us took a turn at each step, we got to enjoy the delicious coffee! This is probably the smoothest coffee I have ever tasted, nothing beats having it fresh off the fire! Oscar also made us "coffee candy" which is just sugar and coffee grounds but it tastes wonderful. He even shared some with his young nephew, apparently this is pretty common on family coffee farms.

Sunday was a big day in Moshi...it was the day of the Kilimanjaro Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K. Three of us decided to register on the way back our coffee tour. Saturday night we made Team Mzungu shirts "pole pole" (slowly slowly) and tried to pump ourselves up to wake up at 5AM the next morning. Around 3AM we woke up to monsoon like rain and Zeus-like thunder. Again, I was the only one brave enough to, and crazy enough, to participate so I represented Team Mzungu and ran the 5K solo. It was an incredible experience, Moshi was packed with people from all over the world, I met a French women, a few Canadians and several Africans. I also get to come home and brag about how I ran in Tanzania!

We're all a little sleep deprived so hopefully this blog makes sense but I thought I needed to post since it had been a while and I had promised a new one...

Nawapenda!