Today was a very full, but exciting day!

One of the local Roots and Shoots staff took us to a city called Morogoro about 3 hours away to visit a conservation site there that the Roots and Shoots club started. It was awesome.

First of all, there was some miscommunication and so the driver of the Roots and Shoots vehicle came to pick us up at 6am instead of 7am. Of course I wasn't awake yet, so I had to rush to get ready.

On the way there, the Roots and Shoots car driver was speeding I guess, or the cops wanted some money or something, so they pulled us over and said that we were speeding (it may have had something to do with white people being in the back), and so the driver (I can't remember his name) just gave the cops a bribe and they let us go.

The town was really lovely - slow paced (which was a treat), and we drove halfway up a mountain to the middle school where the conservation site is held. School is on break right now in Tanzania, so we were surprised to see a bunch of kids there. I guess they heard that the Roots and Shoots people were coming today, and so most of the members of the club showed up on their free time, which was quite a few.

We got to see this awesome nursery for trees that the kids have developed, with a pond for talapia, and children lead us around and gave us the history of each tree in Tanzania. I was really impressed. One of the kids knew everything, and he was a real leader of the club, named Salum. He was really inspiring.

The government of the village just gave the club a plot of land at a top of the mountain to keep as a conservation zone, and we were supposed to help advise how best to plant the land since it boarders on a National Park and is meant to act as a buffer for the protected area.

So, we climbed up an entire mountain. I don't think I've ever been so high up in my life. It was a hard climb (and an old villager that climbed with us had NO SHOES!!!), but awesome at the top - my pictures definitely do not do it justice. On the way down, we were supposed to see a little boy that was sick, and when we got to his hut, I noticed my foot was drenched in blood. So a bunch of people who live in the mountains came with water and helped me to clean up a bit. I'm still not sure what I cut it on, but I was definitely grateful for their help.

We were able to pick a lot of fruit on the mountain too and eat it - I especially loved guava and these little mangos that I'd never seen before. And there were a bunch of kids that I think have only seen 2 or 3 white people before, because they were super excited to see us and would laugh even when we just waved at them. I can't believe people farm and live up on these huge slopes, but the sense of community in the mountains really made me feel wonderful. It is truly a place of peace, and the general greeting we received was Karibu, Salama, meaning Welcome, Peace. As much as I love living in a city where white people are able to blend in a bit more, this is the East Africa that I fell in love with, and it felt good to be 'home'.

On the way home, the two Roots and Shoots staff members wanted to go to the markets to get some products you can get cheaper in Morogoro than in Dar (rice is farmed there, and they wanted a quail), but they had some problems getting good prices since they had two white people with them.

Jaffet (the R&S leader) said that I'll likely be doing much work at Morogoro, or at least once a month, and I am definitely happy about that. Realizing how much I felt at home in a smaller village, I may choose to do some of my placement at Moshi once other volunteers arrive in a few months.

Tomorrow we are taking a boat to Boyongo Island to relax on a beach with the other students in our Swahili class.