WODEF Road Trip to Same & up the Pare Mountains!

Jamie and I just landed in Moshi after spending the last few weeks gallivanting through Uganda and Rwanda. Blog updates have become few and far between and I’m going to sum up our adventures the best that I can (with the help of a few notes).

The week before we took off for Uganda we had a 2 day WODEF trip to Same (Sah-meh - the main town in the South Pare Mountains - part of the Eastern Arc Chain). We knew that we were off on our usual mission: entrepreneurship presentation and project visits. What we didn’t know was the long journey we had ahead of us to the top of the Pare Mountains!

Jamie, the GZA and I hopped on a 1.5hr bus ride and pulled into Same town and hopped right into a 4x4 jeep. We were accompanied by Mr. Stephen, the mayor of Same and the Same regional director of WODEF (what a jolly little sweet man). So we head “up the mountains” to visit our members. But first, a 2 hour drive beside Mkomazi Game Reserve and a 1.5 hour windy, dusty, and very steep ascent up to the top of one of the Pare Mountains to Mpinji village.

It was hard to imagine from the bottom of the mountain surrounded by desert that at the top of this mountain there was a luscious green, tropical, beautiful village with a thriving little community. I think it was the most remote, hidden place that we have visited to-date. We were greeted by warm smiles, fried bananas, utter generosity and undivided attention.

After lunch, we all gathered in the local church for the presentation and then proceeded outside for a little photo shoot (Tanzanians are blown away by the digital camera). We were then summoned back into the church were we were advised that the villages wanted to give “mama Kate” a gift in appreciation for our long journey. One of the mamas presented me with a beautiful black and yellow kanga topped off with a bear hug – I was touched.

Mpinji WODEF members

Jamie, the GZA and I, followed by the mob then took off through the hills to visit projects as well as take pictures for our website. The majority of the projects were ones that we have seen many times before and are now quite knowledgeable about, but there were several newbies: sugarcane shamba (farm), ginger shamba (the ginger was incredibly delicious when handpicked from the farm) and a fish shamba.

Mpinji Children

Ginger Shamba

Slicing up some sugar cane

Fish Shamba

The land was better than average and the people appeared to be very self sufficient and healthy. One of the challenges was their remoteness and vicinity to the closest town (Same). We were treated to our first piece of sugar cane – it has a soft, wood-like texture and is filled with moist pulp to be chewed for the juice (delicious). Night was approaching so we said our farewells and headed back down the bumpy mountain and back to Same for the night. Mr. Stephen generously treated us to dinner and we tucked in for the night in our lovely little guesthouse.

The next day the agenda was to present to the WODEF members in Same town, visit projects and spend the afternoon on a field trip to the local hydroelectric dam. The presentation went routinely and the projects were quite typical – main problem: capital. Same is nestled in the mountains and is a dusty, modest little town. Children play barefoot in the streets and chickens are beheaded in the backyard of restaurants – pretty much your average Tanzanian village.

Same (Sah-may) WODEF Members

Same Town

After we wrapped up our visits, we piled back into the 4x4 and took off to the hydroelectric dam. Because it is government property we were prohibited from taking photographs, but it was quite a sight. We drove to the opposite shore to take some photographs from there and visited the local fishing villages. Children shadowed us as we checked out the hollowed out canoes the fisherman use and then piled into them for a little photo shoot. We then headed back to Moshi.

That night we had drinks and played some cards with our fellow North Americans at the hostel and got ready to head to Uganda the next day.