Hills, Wine & cheese and Ohh so Many Laughters!!!

Ohhh my, where do i even begin! Okey let me take you back to the weekend before this trip, it was friday night a friend had me meet her up at a place in moshi called ” Bikers” quite cool, cozy, woord work on ofcourse bike themed i mean that is why it gets away with being called bikers right..? So we had planned to do karaoke but the vibe was a little low, my friend (don’t kill me if your reading this) was a little tipsy since i arrived late , that’s a whole other story in itself, yes i inherited that i am always late ish but being a Tanzanian as the saying goes everyone has a “Toyo” guy, in moshi most people also have a “Bajaji” guy (this translates to tooktook or the like) and mine made me wait forever and still didn’t show up smh , btw i am still beefing him at the moment. Anyway so where was i, anha so after a few drinks my friend/colleague texts me that we may have a few days off after monday, ohh my ohh my was i happy, i love what i do no doubt but everyone needs time out to recollect themselves, strategies a new and the like and we badly needed it after the year we are having anh, so a was thrilled and started making mental plans which include me texting my sister, she works almost an hour from Karatu and i have been saying i would go out there ever since forever and this seemed like the perfect time, FINALLY! A couple drinks and a delicious “chicken makange” later we thought we would move spots and so me my friend and the boo ended up spot hopping for the right vibe , this went on till later that night ……

Present Day…. So after work on monday a came packed and ready to go Arusha visit my mom for a day or two before heading out to karatu, that went well and i even got to hangout and have lunch with my friends and nephew, and then the day i was to leave as usual mama almost made me late, just by an hour she said, A WHOLE HOUR.. Anyway enroute i kept texting my sister how these people in the car just wont stop talking ugh, i could tell you in detail what everyone was saying but especially the man seated right in front of me, this man talked the drivers ear off and you could tell the poor guy was not interested but he kept going, ranting about a so and so bus station that was crap serviced and how he was looking for the owner of the bus and wont rest until a certain worker was fired, and he even goes to say unless she is pregnant and that could explain her attitude and all along i grunting and grinting i am so close to telling him to keep quit, or just saying he should consider that maybe he had a nasty attitude towards her and he got it in return, or just saying that between you two maybe she had a bad day why fire her but i am trying to keep quit and mind my business which mr man is making hard as it is, so before you comment under your breath or loud that i was eavesdropping, it isn’t eavesdropping if the whole damn bus can hear you ohh, anyway im runting aint i?…

Anyway back to more pleasant things, i arrive a little late so transport will come for me a little later, i meet really nice ladies at the stop and then later find my way to a cafe my sister had told me to go and wait, so this is LILAC CAFE look it up when your around those areas, thank me later.. The service was great the food even better , the scenery was what i loved best and there was a family that arrived a little after i did and they seemed to have been there way before and where happy to be back, they had a Maasai friends come in later so they went to hide and asked me to act like the bags where mine which i willingly obliged, ad when the fellows came in looking for them i had to act like i didnt know nothing, only for the family to jump in from the back screaming SURPRISE!! ohh you should have seen their faces so warm and happy..

Sooner than later, the transport i had been waiting for arrived and i reluctantly had to go, i mean you have seen the spot, who wants to leave after such?? Anyway paying my bill the waiter goes your her sister? am like whose sister..? and he’s mind searching for my sisters name i can tell and then he says a different name so im like ohh noo and he goes well i must have mixed her name, but then he goes ‘Rasta’ and i cant help but laugh, rasta is more or less saying ‘Locks’ the local way, and so i leave and getting into the car the driver stares at me a good ten seconds and im wondering do i have food on my face of something and he also goes ‘ohh your her sister sister, like blood related and all’ and i just endup laughing, funny enough i didnt think me and my sister looked that alike, anyone that knows us, we are somewhat different to start with i am the thickums as much as she complains she has gained weight i wonder what weight? where? clearly this girl is testing our ancestors

The drive from Karatu was fast, too fast so to speak and at this point, im acting all calm and collected but man that was the furthest from it, i’m holding my breath and texting my will and last words lol okey am exaggerating just a bit but hey it was fast, my sister kept texting me relax smh as if its that easy, on the way we stop for a lady that wanted a ride, its breathtaking the sight and even the fact that people still live that way with one another, helping and all, in town you have to worry about a few things like what if she ends up a con artist, a burglar and the like, but out here its as natural as anything, you have to appreciate that, and then we see a hyena and home girl is ready to scream only that everyone seems as calm as nothing, and i’m like ITS A HYENA FOR GODS SAKE ON THE ROAD AND THERE ARE PEOPLE WALKING TOO WTH!!! I am only thinking this but they assure me or think they are assuring me when they say ‘its normal out here sometimes its even elephant or so’ and am still stuck on the part they say its normal UGH!! Anyway we drive fast and i keep texting my family all these events sha you know just incase, we get to the rough roads and i remember thinking woow, i saw houses at a peak of a hill and i’m thinking how do people even get there, little did i know that was where we were headed ang, you guys the hills and steep slopes i went through anh anh na wao, at this point i am thinking If and when my mom detaches herself from town long enough to come along they should give her sleeping pills because she wont be able to CAN!, these days a little joke and she goes my blood presha guys, so this hilly ride would have her BP shooting to the skies ohhh. So first there was a lot of Hay! then its Maize farms! And the Coffee plantations, and its dark outside, lets not forget the hills, and then we arrive and its a whole home out there or rather upthere, amazing.

In the following days, time seems to speed up and i hate it, it feels like not enough time, but they were full of life, from meeting the kids that live there, they warmed my heart so muc, one reminded me so much of my little brother, but all together the way they welcomed me fondly, almost all of them knew of me before meeting me and where so warm and loving, just bless their hearts hey, and my sisters co-workers who were absolutely amazing and warmly welcomed me, from the gossiping or catching up as we call it, even into late late nights, random memories of our childhood or something we agree or disagree on, long long talks which my sister insists i was doing the talking enough for my mom and grandma, lol shes easy to point fingers and does not recognise she is exactly that way too hehe. I remember one night i had to narrate a part of Shopaholic & sister by Sophie Kinsella, it is an amazing Chick-lit guys i definitely would say you give it a go, anyway so there was this scene were “a merchant passed by as Becky was on an intense yoga session, the goal was to walk on hot coal barefoot, you were to reach a certain state of bliss so much that you wouldn’t feel the burning coal under your feet, then the merchant passed by the Chandra dismissed him, and the goes on to say the merchant wanted to sell gems, and becky is distracted because as the tittle goes she is a shopaholic, and she is thinking what gems, and she hears the man repeat ‘an aquamarine pendant with platinum chain’ and she is trying to focus on the yoga because the Chandra is saying at the level of bliss who cares about gems and everyone is agreeing, so she has to agree, but her inner shopaholic keeps remembering how she eyed one at a store before, and all of a sudden the merchant says at half price, and at the same time the Chandra asks Becky to demonstrate and as she gets up, the level of bliss isn’t there but she still hears the merchant say half price and so she sprints off and next thing people are applauding, and she is wondering why, turns out she run over the hot coals and didn’t feel a thing, as everyone is anxiously asking her what it was like, shes taken back and her husband laughs because only shopping can have her go through that…” Anyway read the book guys you will enjoy it, sp one night i was telling my sister about it and we laughed so hard into the night.. This other time i told her about this short stories book “The Goddess of Mtwara” my college/friend was reading, it is a compilation of several african stories, she had told me one or two and i though that this one dark cold night was the best time to tell my sister, one had a lot to to with shells and i had to because my sister loves collecting them anyhow by the end of it she was so freaked out i laughed, ohh and i might have told her the Hairy baby one, and let me tell you we almost slept with the lights on that night, stuck like glue and she skipped gym that morning hehehe, me and her have watched The nun together and chileeee lets not go there, all i can hint on was it was in the theatres in westlands, Nairobi and we somehow thought that we were the only ones in there, but lo and behold we weren’t, i leave the rest to your imagination…

I napped a lot, i am on break after all right, we shared meals and drinks, i visited the place they all hangout at often, nice place and chilled too, attended a cocktail function the cheese was amazing, we had a game night and it ended in happy tears as my sister decided we where going to sleep but no one was leaving so she chucked all the papers we were using for this game, inside her sweaters my ohhhh my we did laugh, We had an epic karaoke session we sang our lungs out well atleast i know i did, and sooner than later it was time to go back to my reality, i hate goodbyes, i am glad i had shades on because i was a little teary eyed when it was time.

Looking back… It was a wonderful experience all together, i needed that, i needed to let my hair down, enjoy the little things life offers, i needed some sister time, we could talk on and on, laugh on and on, think of how much a mess life can be and wallow in our misery together, dream a little out of reality together,and a lot of rosemary water or castor oil (i still think its sticky eew) those calls to mom who was jealous and said it out loud or with our little brother that is away at university, all of t was what i truly needed deep down, to show me i can go on, i can do anything and deal with anything life throws at me because i have people in my corner that matter so much that i can’t just give up, that’s a lesson learned every now and then find ways to refill your cup because you can’t keep pouring from an empty cup guys, never! ……

Until next time, KARATU you where amazing!!!