Usangi

It all started with a 'lets go on a hike down this mountain' not knowing it will be a journey of 5 hours downhill. 14 kilometers downhill from Usangi to Mwanga on a newly inaugurated tarmac road in 2015 by Magufuli. It's the best hike I've ever been on. Remarkable landscapes and great people. I have a new found respect for the Pare people who have conquered these lands centuries ago by foot before any man-made technology.

These lands have a history of German colonization and other European settlers with a recorded history of first German missionaries settlers in 1865. Here they built schools and churches. The remnants of their past colonial rule is still present. The schools they built and churches are still standing and in use to this day.

I was here to visit my old friend Walter who is was studying at the Lutheran church school and my grandmother who is one of the remaining people in my fathers clan who still live on this mountain until now. Most of my family members have moved abroad and or into big towns like Dar, Arusha and Moshi.

Pink Rose and Red-hot pokers or torch-lillies, typically inhabit the high altitude montane grassland. These beautiful flowers are surrounding the Lutheran church property garden in Usangi, Kilimanjaro.

The people here are so proud about farming. Almost everyone grows food in their backyards.

Grandma looking for a phone number

There are many houses perched on the hills, most of them overlooking lake Jipe and onto the distance, our neighbor Kenya.

Going up in these hills has to be the best driving road. The road is curving around the mountains, drop dead cliffs and hills. The Pare mountains are part of the East African arc mountain chain running from Ethiopia down to Malawi creating an arc shape like a crescent moon.

On our way down the hills we were greeted by this stunning sunset overlooking Nyumba ya Mungu Reservoir. My short visit to Usangi has inspired a photo documentary project People of the Great Mountains.

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