Up to Monduli Juu

The road up to Monduli Juu

On Tuesday, Beth, her kids, the Short girls and I drove up to Monduli Juu.  Juu in Swahili means upper or higher; our town on the lower slopes of Monduli Mountain is usually just called Monduli (or sometime Monduli Chini, which means lower Monduli, if we need to specify), while the Maasai village up on top of the mountain is called Monduli Juu.  The school is along the Monduli Juu road, so we passed it on our way. The road quickly becomes quite steep just past the school as it winds upwards.

Sometimes elephants come down the Monduli Juu road late in the dry season as they risk coming closer and closer to towns to find water; they've been seen almost to the school in particularly dry periods, but we didn't see any.  Probably for the best, anyhow; while elephants aren't usually particularly aggressive animals, they are large and often nervous at being out of their usual area further from so many humans and have been known to charge at cars if they feel threatened.  

It's late in the rainy season, so there's been little rain since May.  The fields are dry and gold this time of year.

Farmers working in a field along the way.

The town of Monduli Juu, up on the mountain

The landscape up on the higher parts of Monduli Mountain.

 Our destination was the home of Ralph and Twyla Williams, a Canadian couple who are missionaries up there.  Twyla often teaches jewelry-making classes as well to help some of the local women supplement their incomes, as there is a lot of poverty in the village there.  Twyla often invites the kids up to do crafts together; they made some bracelets today, but made plans for her to teach the younger girls to knit or crochet sometime soon.  

They gave me the tour of their home; in the two years they’ve been there they’ve planted quite a few fruit trees and done several projects to improve their home.  

A beautiful plant in the Williams' yard

Twyla helping to get a thorn out of a shoe.

The view from Ralph and Twyla's front yard.

 I especially enjoyed the drive up and down the mountain for the views on the upper slopes (going up) and the views out over the savannah (going down).  As always, I took quite a few photos!

Almost back to the school.