Waterfall Hiking

This Saturday many of the students decided to go out on a Waterfall hike.  One of the exchange students from last semester who decided to stay a few extra weeks has a friend who is starting up a business where he guides people to the waterfalls, so we went with him.  I knew this hike would be challenging for me, but I had no idea just how challenging.

At the beginning of the hike we were walking thru a small village on the outskirts of Arusha.  This village was much more like the Africa you see on television and in documentaries.  The road was not paved and the houses and shops looked sort of slapped together out of materials the people could find.  As we moved further up the very steep hill, the village became more and more rural and the houses smaller and more rickety.  It was very interesting to see this side of African life.  Many of these people surely don't have electricity or running water in their homes.

Throughout our hike upward we met little children who were living in the village.  Some of them said hello to us and smiled, while others ran away from us.  My friend Robert from Uganda, who came on the hike with us, said that he could remember the first time he saw a white people as a child and how he was afraid of them.  I had never really thought about the fact that we might be the first white people some of these children had ever saw.  Later on in the hike while we were resting, we talked, or at least tried to talk, to some of the children.  Most of them only spoke Swahili, so much was lost in translation.  One of the children came up and touched my fingers with his and then scuttled away.  I think he was just amazed at my paleness.

When we got out of the village we started hiking through the forest.  We had to walk down the steepest hill ever to get to the river, which was pretty scary.  I thought that would be the worst part, but little did I know that getting to the waterfall would entail jumping from rock to rock over rushing water and climbing up huge boulders.  Try to get over one rock I fell and landing in the water.  I had to walk the rest of the way in wet hiking boots and jeans.  Ultimately the water fall was worth it though.  It was gorgeous.  Look up at it and the plant life around it made me feel like I was in the movie Tarzan.  Despite the exhaustion and bruises I suffered from because of this hike, I wouldn't trade this day for anything.  This was truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.