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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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