Day 6 – This morning we got ready for breakfast I had Nutella and crepes. We all had our suitcases and bags ready so we put them all on the van and started our journey to Kilimanjaro. When we arrived there a women spoke to us about the mountain and what activities you can do there. She explained that it takes about 5 to 10 days to get to the top and you can take 1 of 3 routes. You can also either camp or stay in huts while you’re hiking up. For lunch we had a lunch box that was made by our chef at Vijiji Lodge. It was a mix of different foods like a noodle sandwich, mashed potato balls, chicken, muffin, banana, watermelon and some cookies.
After lunch we headed to a college and spoke to one of the teachers about the courses they offer and what the schedules are like. They offer mainly wildlife conservation courses and tourism courses. Very student enrolled in the college also has to take mandatory military training every two weeks. The teacher gave us a tour of the college and showed us some of the classrooms. We also got to go down the Chagga Bolt Hole which is a tunnel pathway that the Chagga tribe used to use during the war. It was a set of stairs that led to two pathways left and right. The right one was blocked off by roadwork however the left pathway was still in use and could walk through it.
Once we had finished at the college we made our way to the Masai village where we were sleeping that night. When we arrived they sang us a welcoming song and dance. All of the men would jump as high as they could as a competition and also to impress the women to see who is the strongest. We got brought to our room, we were number 3. They were small mud huts with little lanterns lighting them up and wood panels as beds with thin mattresses.
Once it became dark they lit a big bonfire and put chairs all around so we could all sit together. We sat there for about an hour until dinner was ready. We had potato’s, chicken skewers, beef skewers, pizza, coleslaw and vegetables. The dinner was so good especially the chicken skewers. After dinner we all sat back around the fire and spoke to the tribe until we went to bed.