Tloma Mountain Lodge

Today is primarily a break day to relax after going for 2 weeks. This morning we walked through the coffee plantation and on to a Iraqw village. The Iraqw are primarily farmers. We immediately came upon an elder playing a zeze - 2 strings with a calabash gourd sound board with a hide stretched across the open end. Just like yesterday, lots of people, especially the kids would wait for a "Jambo" and then break out into a smile and wave. We passed by the local primary school and then a dispensary and the Lutheran church. In the distance we could see t

he town of Karatu, where we had strolled the marketplace yesterday and on our right hand side was the start of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. As we walk, we can see where elephants have crashed through the bushes lining the road.

We stop to visit with Martin, who speaks English. He first shows us how they make bricks. Mixing ash with the local clay and water, David, a young man uses his feet to mix the water into the clay. Then with his 2 brick mold, he trows the clay into the mold, flattens it on top and removes the mold. They let the sun dry the bricks for two weeks. After the sun drying, they build a kiln from the bricks, fills it with firewood and bakes the bricks for a day. All this brick building occurs during the dry season from May to October.

Carrying water in calabash gourds

Martin takes us to his home. We take a seat in a circular open hut with a thatch roof, the equivalent of a family room where he entertains guests. Here he explains how they make corn beer and we get to sample this strong home brew. Then mama shows us how the women

traditionally carry water in kalabash gourds - one gourd hung from the back and a second balanced on her head. Flo gets to try it out. The most interesting thing, however, were the goat skin wedding skirts - made from four goat skins and decorated with bead work. It takes about five months to complete one. Mary and the other women get to try them on - Mary thinks she needs a five goat skin version.

Mary and Flo in their goat skin wedding dresses

We also went into a traditional Iraqw house, which is built near a drop-off so the roof can be flat with the land. This was useful, because the opposing warriors could be heard on the roof as an early warning system. They could fight them with bows and arrows when they left the roof. We ended our visit with a small meal of traditional foods: rice, potatoes, carrots, spinach, and lamb. We walked back to our camp and had afternoon free for snoozing, swimming, or reading.