To Matema and Back - Our Children's Perspective

Our children's thoughts on Matema, starting from oldest to youngest.

FROM CALEB:

This weekend we drove down to Matema Beach. It’s a beach on Lake Nyasa down on the very southern part of Tanzania. This is how the trip went.

Day 1(Thursday): we left Iringa at about 1:30 drove to Mbeya which is about a 6 hour drive. We slept in a hostel that night.

Day  2:  We left Mbeya at 7:30, then about 2 hours into the drive we turned off the main road to this very bumpy road that looked like a cow path that only 2 cows could fit on. The road was very rocky, and at the end was the trail going up to Ngozi Crater Lake.

Me overlooking Ngozi Crater Lake

The trail was pretty much all steep up hill, right in the middle of a rain forest! After that we got in the car again and another 4 hour drive to Matema Beach. We drove to Matema Beach in pouring rain almost the whole time

Day 3: It thunder stormed during the night and rained pretty much the entire day. We drove to the market and bought this pottery they make there. Then we got to swim and this lake is the 8^th biggest freshwater lake in the world. The water was so warm and there were HUGE waves! We would sit in the shallow water and waves would come and hit us and knock us over. It was really fun! One of the people we were with was named Gillman and he knew how to swim really well. He wanted to teach Tobie how to swim and so he showed Tobie how to kick and then he said,”You try.” Well, Tobie swam right to him, since Tobie has had 6 years of swimming lessons. Gillman said, “Tobie it took me 1 week to learn, it took you one day!”

Day4: well we left at about 7:45 and we drove for about 11 ½ hours home!

It was a fun trip, but we are all done with the car for awhile. 
                              

Caleb

FROM ANNICA:

Hello everyone we went on a trip this weekend to Matema beach. We went to a place where we hiked called Crater Lake witch was amazing but to get there we got to hike up a mountain rainforest for an hour. It was so cool and I never thought I’d do that in my life!  On the way back down the mountain rainforest I got the camera and I love photography so I loved to take photos in the rain forest. I came across a small group of bamboo and got the coolest photos ever! It was a very rough trail that was about two feet wide. We had to climb high and one place you had to climb a tree to get to the trail above. Some saw a monkey, but I did not.  My dad got a zoomed-in photo and it looked super cool. We walked up the mountain in a cloud the whole way. When we got to the lake it was surrounded by cliffs that were super tall but we did not know how tall. The clouds covered the top when we left, so we could not see any of the lake because of the clouds!

Me in the Mporoto Rainforest

When we got to the Matema Beach the lake was huge, almost like Lake Superior. It stormed that night, the waves where huge the next morning and it rained or misted most of the day. We were supposed to go on a hike on the ridges of the lake but the trail was too wet and we were supposed to boat to this place they make these cool clay pots but the water was to rough. We did go to the market nearby where they sold the clay pots so we did see them but not see them make them. The market was very different then the big one in Iringa. There were lots of kids everywhere, boats made out of trees and fish drying on the shore (worst smell ever!).  We walked back to where we stayed by the lake and we got caught in the rain at the end, but it felt sort of good!

We drove for eleven  hours and I was squished in the back seat-maybe the worst car ride ever.  But it was cool we saw rows and rows of banana trees as far as I could see. There were tea fields too! Everything was very green and we have not seen much of that yet.

Well, now we are back in Iringa it seems like home now. We are glad to be home and back in our not-so-normal life in Iringa.

Annica

FROM TOBIE:

Hi.  This is Tobie.  I went to Matema Beach and there were really big waves.  But before we went to Matema, we walked in the Mporota Rainforest.  All we saw for animals were funny looking monkeys.  There was this one place that looked like a rock climbing wall.  And when we got up to the view, we got there just in time before the clouds moved in.  You could see water, mountains – a lot and a lot of water!  They said it (the hike) would be 20 minutes but it turned out to be an hour and a half!  And then we walked back down.  That was only like 15 minutes! (so it seemed to Tobie).  Then we had to ride in a really long car ride.  And when we were on this really bumpy road in the jungle, we almost tipped over!  And then we went to Matema Beach.  Noel got a free Pepsi but I didn’t.  We bought about a hundred mangoes!  They are awesome!  And then we bought four pineapples.  And then we bought an avocado.  And then we bought a bunch of passion fruit.  Gilman taught me to swim even though I’ve had six years of swimming lessons.  It rained a lot, and a lot, and a lot, and a lot!  You wouldn’t believe your eyes!  So, guess what.  I ate my first sardine!!  We tried ugali.  You might not know what that is, but you couldn’t really taste it, but Heidi might like it.  I saw how they make flour.  They pound it with a big stick and then they strain it.  

This is when I was swimming with Gilman

And that’s my story for today, folks!  See you next time on the Tobie in Africa Blog Show!

Tobie