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Trunky in Tanzania
(20 June 2013)
To all my friends at
Herries School,
I
hope that you are all well. You must be getting excited about Sports Day
and Speech Day! Here is a little update from our trip!
Trunky
is now in Tanzania. He is travelling a lot and loving it. After leaving
Ethiopia, Trunky took a plane to Nairobi. He arrived at the airport
in the middle of the night and only slept for three hours before taking a
bus to Tanzania early in the morning. The bus trip took 8 hours and so he
had plenty of time to look at the beautiful landscape, such as the baobab
trees. He also got to say “Jambo” to the local people. “Jambo”
means “hi” in Swahili. Swahili is the most widely spoken language in
Tanzania and Kenya. All the Tanzanians were over the moon to meet Trunky.
Some of the children fell in love with him and wanted to keep him
,but Trunky is on a mission and there is a long journey ahead. This is
only the beginning of the journey. Above all, Trunky could hardly wait to
see the Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.
When
we arrived in Moshi, all the people on the bus were peering through the
window to try to get a glimpse of Kilimanjaro. You won’t believe it but
it was so cloudy that we couldn’t see it! How disappointing! There
is always another day!
Anyway,
Trunky has been really overwhelmed by the warm welcome he has received
from the Tanzanian people. A few moments ago, as we were trying to get to
sleep, there was a loud noise on the roof. Trunky was very scared, so I
went outside to investigate what was going on. Guess what? It was a family
of monkeys. When I told Trunky, he grinned! He loves other animals!
We need to get some sleep now. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow as we are meeting some local farmers!
A DAY WITH
THE LOCAL FARMERS:
Trunky
started his day by greeting the monkeys from the night before. They were
still playing.
But
then, he started his working day. He wanted to meet some local farmers, so
that he could find out why they didn’t have enough water for their
fields. They needed to feed their families and send their children to
school, but without any access to water, there was no produce to sell, and
it was difficult for them to survive.
Next
Trunky started his journey into the mountains. They were high up, so there
was more water because it was colder, but the soil wasn’t fertile. So
the farmers had built a long canal to make sure that the water would go
all the way down to the valley where the soil was fertile. Trunky looked
at all this with great interest. He also met some farmers -all the local
people were really happy to see the water coming into their villages. For
them, water is as precious as gold.
Trunky
then had an early dinner with a local family. It was a life-affirming
experience.
In
the evening, he had to leave around 5pm to see the sunset over Kilimanjaro.
He didn’t want to miss Kilimanjaro this time.
After
two hours of driving, he got really excited. Kilimanjaro!! One of the best
moments in his entire life..
Trunky wants to climb it one day. It is so high - almost 6000 meters!
DAY 3: THE
DAY TRUNKY WOKE UP AND SAW KILIMANJARO
Trunky
didn't sleep very well. There was a lot of noise in his hotel. Moshi is a
big city and the music on the street was really loud.
Anyway,
despite only having e few hours’ sleep, Trunky woke up at 6.30 am. He
ran onto the roof of the hotel to see Kilimanjaro. Although he was
only half awake, he could not believe the beauty of the mountain.
Kilimanjaro was smiling down at him in the sun. There was still a lot of
fog around the snow cap. It is difficult to have a clear view of the peak
at this time of the year.
Our
little elephant has promised himself that he will come back to climb this
majestic mountain in the future. He will do some training first though
because it is really, really high, and he needs to be very fit!
Trunky
is now dreaming of this moment….
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