May 13 2011

We left early in the morning for Songea - a mere 4 hours away by car. The road between Njombe and Songea is beautiful, black top, two lane highway. There are many plantations and tree farms (even evergreens). The temperature is cool because the hills have enough altitude. All the Tanzanians consider the region very cold.
Songea is a market city, many stores restaurants, schools. We saw a political demonstration by an opposition party, that was lively attended. Pick up trucks full of political supporters drove up and down the main street blaring music and rhetoric. Armed police surrounded the perimeter of the crowd.

After lunch we started the drive to Maguu in the Mbinga region. A six hour drive on a narrow, rutted dirt road. This road is the highway between Mawali and the Tanzanian coast, so there are many trucks driven by professional truckers. Somewhat like Route 95. On many of the turns we saw trucks that had failed to negotiate the corner, and just toppled over onto the side of the road. Not an easy road to travel.

We arrived at St. Luise's Secondary School at around 5:30. This is a O (and most recently A) level school at the end of the dirt road! It is a beautiful school, well maintained with a brand new library. The girls are responsible for the gardens that surround the school, where they grow the fruits and vegetables that they consume. Apparently, it considered one of the best girl's schools in Tanzania, and the students score highly on the national exams. Sister Janeth is the principal. One of the reasons that Joseph had traveled to this region was to attend the graduation ceremonies at the school; he was friendly with the PCV teacher at the school. Sister Janeth was able to tell us about meeting Joseph, and how happy he had been at the graduation. How he had danced with the girls, and spoken with all of the students and how comfortable he felt on campus. I spoke about how Joseph had gone to a Catholic high school on a beautiful campus in the middle of the Bronx, and probably he had felt so comfortable at St. Luise's because it felt very much like Fordham Prep.

On the night of Joseph's death, Sister Janett, and many others, had coordinated the retrieval of his body from the rock.

Our Safari

Travel Schedule to Mbinga:

5/12 Dar es Salaam to Njobe. Lunch in Veta Mikumi (night at Agreement Hotel);
5/13 Njombe to Mbinga. Lunch at Heritage Hotel Songea. (night at St. Luise Secondary School);
5/14 Visit Mbuji Library in Maguu. Visit Hagati Secondary School. Visit the Rock. Night at Heritage Hotel, Songea;
5/15 Songea to Morogoro. . Dinner with Thomas and his wife in Morogoro. Night at ARC Hotel, Morogoro
5/16 Morogoro to Dar.

40 hours in the car in five day. The Heritage Hotel has ten rules; the first is that there are no refunds, the second is that check out time is 10 am, the third is that ammunition and explosives are not allowed in the room.

I dreaded this trip, and what we would find. But our visit to the Peace Corp office in Dar had notified us that we were about to visit the most beautiful area of Tanzania. I have asked myself for 18 months why Joseph felt that he had to visit this area where there is no information on the internet. When Tanzanians described as the most beautiful area of Tanzania, I understood why he had to visit.