Mbea Tanzania

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Mbea Tanzania

TBA

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Things found on the way


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HAIKU


a lone Maasai
herdsman in the dust--
dry wind




piles of stone--
dry grass rustling in
dusty wind

round hammock--
the winding dusty
road

his akala sandals
sinking into hot dust--
herdsman



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Longitudo

For a long time since I started my Arusha trips in 2007, I had not understood a certain phenomenon at one of the places along the way. This place is called Longitudo. There is a small mountain here which is very dry right from the slopes to the top; so are the expansive plains around the mountain. But during the rain season, when I was there in April, the plains were green and swampy. The puzzle is how can this mountain and all the swamps that I saw in April be so dry, forming the dustiest spots in the vicinity?

Well, I don’t mean as in the grass is missing and you can see the dust. No. The grass is right there, but it is brown dead and very dry. The other puzzle is there is no human habitation within so many kilometers surrounding this mountain. It was Aisha, the Tanzanian lady in the car who unraveled this puzzle for me:

Mount Longitudo is an active volcano whose tremors cause earthquakes as far as Nairobi as it happened in 2007.



Longitude plains--
a carpet of dead brown grass
covered in dust


a grey cloud
hangs on the sleeping crater—
Longitudo mountain




Barren Longitudo Plain, Mbea



Look at more
. PHOTO ALBUM from Patrick Wafula 　



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Related words

***** WKD : Reference


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