Dam Day!

After a nice relaxing sleep and a very much needed hot shower, we were off to the dam on Sunday to hang out with the local ex-pat community and meet some of Kayla’s friends here in Njombe; the town she lives in. Since this weekly Sunday event is potluck style, Kayla had prepared delicious buttery croissants, phenominal passion-fruit cookies, and fresh guacamole. We left around her house around 10am where we were then picked up by a Dutch family to head to the dam which is about 25 minutes away from where Kayla lives.

 Curvy dirt road that we traveled to get to the boat house.











To get to the dam you drive straight through the middle of town and then on a long, curving back road where you finally arrive at the boat house. Roads here are not paved. Instead it is composed of a red dirt that is very compact. The boat house is a simple wooden structure. Located by the boat house is a large lake that is just next to a expansive lumber field owned by a local company that grows trees that will eventually be made into poles for power lines. It is called the dam because after you take a small hike, the lake is a result of a small dam that is used to help power local properties but also creates a picturesque swimming hole.

 Inside of the boat house. 

View of the lake after the daily rain storm.













We spent the entire day at the dam where we had a pot luck lunch, water skied, and took an adventurous hike throughout the property. I wasn’t as adventurous enough to go water skiing but I had a chance to watch some real pros do it. The lunch was a delicious collection of tasty treats. We also took a hike which turned into quite an unforeseen adventure. Our hike was lead by a fearless 10 year old, Sam. He took us off the beaten path where we saw stunning exotic flowers, several frogs, a gorgeous moth, and lots of tropical plants. Something you really have to watch out for here are biting ants. They are huge. A lot of times you find them when you are gardening and they act like normal ants except for they bite you and it’s apparently very painful. Kayla told us a story about how she found a colony of them in her front yard when she was gardening and went to go get some lighter fluid to kill them. Once she poured the lighter fluid on the colony she thought she had to light a match too! We all had a good laugh at that story.

Once we came back to the house, two kids came over to watch a movie with us, Sam and Lykke. Kayla entertained them while I took a nap. I slept for a long time and got up around 8/9pm.

 Front side of Kayla's house in Njombe.

Front entrance to Kayla's house.













Front road of Kayla's house. 













Kayla and I had movie night and luckily the power did not go out tonight. The big thing to do here is movie night. We had been religiously watching several episodes of Brothers and Sisters every night.