Mto Wa Mbo is a village that is one of few with every tribe in the country living together. The name in English means ” River Mosquito.”

This is believed to be the only village in Tanzania where all 120 tribes live together. There are 18,000 people living here.

The red banana is a major crop here. We will walked through the town market here after a ride in a tuk tuk.

We are in the Great Rift Valley between Karatu and Makuyuni. Can you find that on your map?

After purchasing a few items for lunch in the market which was full of many interesting things, we went to a family home for a meal.

We all chipped in with making lunch and had a good discussion about the country and ours as well. We asked questions about Tanzanian life and the locals asked us about living in America.

We had a fine meal of vegetables and a tortilla type bread or chapati. The Indian culture from India, dot not feather, is very prevalent here. All the food for lunch was grown organically near by. We had a luc of chiken curry, beans and spinach.

We have settled in a wonderfully beautiful hotel with large colorful gardens called, The Tioma Lodge. Tioma means mountain and we are surrounded by green, tree covered, mountains. It is composed of bungalows and large structures with several rooms together. Flower beds are blooming everywhere around us. The garden supplies many of the vegetables we will eat later.

We are a few kilometers from the highway down a bumpy, dirt road. That is no surprise. Everything seems to be down a few miles or kilometers down a rough road in this country.

We stopped at a Tanzanite store on the way. It is a beautiful stone and in short supply. oit is only found in Tanzania and only in one area. it is very rare.

There was a fake mine to walk down into in the large store. The stone is cooked in an oven for hours to dry it out and harden it. It is then cut like a diamond. I think it is a seven on the Mohs Scale of hardness.

We are not good customers as we use our financial resources for travel and not for gold or jewels.

The weather and the people have been wonderful.

Remember that “Sunrise, Sunset,” my book of short stories and “Kazu, son of Oshita Kamasaki,” my Asian adventure romance novel are now available on Audible. I think you will find them very interesting.

We have two trips planned for next year so far. We’re off to Central America on one trip and then up the Mississippi River to Mark Twain land. I am a big fan of this great American author. We will then head to the Twin Cities and then a flight to Chicago. We will drive home from Chicago to L.A. on Route 66 with several interesting stops along the way.