Saying goodbye to Kilema Hospital

Another foggy morning!

It seems fitting that today we leave Kilema in the gloomy weather.

Alex and his team (plus Babu Markie)

We all managed to (again) take some last minutes shots around the hospital—our cook and his team, the beer room, the outdoor kitchen where all our meals were cooked and even the darn squatter toilet inside the visitor's Center.




Outdoor kitchen









Five team members are heading out on a day trip to the Kilimanjaro Base camp, the rest of us are heading into Moshi to stay at the Haria Hotel again. The others will meet up with us there and then we are all going out to dinner and then to a local bar for the night.



Group heading to Kilimanjaro Base Camp


We have decided to shop for the day in Moshi as we have no idea if we will have another opportunity. We were looking for gifts to bring back to Canada along with some art work, spices and coffee beans.

Finishing touches being added to Rick's sandals

Rick ended up buying a mask (surprise, surprise) and pair of Massai sandals—sandals made solely from the rubber cut from used tires. Many Massai wear them. They measured Rick's foot on some pieces of rubber and about 15-20 minutes later the sandals were ready.

Since Rick had very little clean clothes to wear he ended up buying a pair of button fly jeans. The button holes were not cut, so the sales guys cut the holes for the button with a razor blade—while Rick was still wearing the pants!

We managed to find an Internet cafe that was open (many were either full or their connection was down) and we ended up getting a couple of hours of connectivity.

Dinner that night was at the IndoItaliano Restaurant—mostly populated by Mzungas!  There was a great selection of Indian and Italian food. We had asked for separate bills, but I guess there was a miscommunication and everything was on one bill.

Served by "God"

While we were looking at the bill (to calculate what we owed) we noticed that the waitress's name had been filled in on the bill...God. We had seen some unusual names (at least unusual by western standards) but this one topped them all. We found out later that her name was "God's Voice" but she shortened it to God.

Back at the hotel almost no one was up to going to the bar as they were planning not to leave until around 11 to midnight.

Lise had surprised us with the only suite in the hotel-a king size bed!!! and the only room that has a balcony and in-suite shower & flush toilet (all for $35 US per night). We were thrilled to have a regular bed to sleep in and it was indeed a luxury after the last two weeks.