January 21 — It’s really helping us in maintaining our energy and stamina to get up in the morning and before having breakfast, go up onto the rooftop with a clear view of Mt. Kilimanjaro and do some exercises together. I lead Robyn and Lynn in some pranayama breathing and qi gong, then Robyn leads us in some yoga.
Today after breakfast we hiked down the road to climb onto a daladala which took us into Moshi in 1.5 hours or so, depending on how many stops. 
We headed right away to the shop where we had ordered all of the children’s school supplies. We checked the order and Joseph found us a couple of local men who operate a very large wheelbarrow to load up the many heavy boxes of school counter books, notebooks, pens, pencils, etc. Off we went following them across town (and they move at a fast clip!) to another shop where we could store them for the day while we did other business such as banking.
Banking is always an adventure here. The highest note of currency is 10,000 shillings and some of our fees to pay into secondary school accounts for several children can be upwards of 2,000,000 shillings! So, to cut a long story short we have to line up at ATM’s and withdraw our limit from the ABCD account in Canada and walk around with bulging pockets. Then line up with the other parents at the bank(s) to pay the school fees. First though we have to fill out a separate deposit slip for every child with all the details about the school, account number, currency amounts and on and on. Needless to say we’ll have to make one or more trips to Moshi to take care of this.
We managed to fit in attending the weekly Moshi Rotary Club Meeting and were welcomed warmly. Then of course, we had to pick up the school supplies in a big taxi and drive the 2 hours back to our hotel. Being driven on that potholed road up to our hotel in the dark is an experience not to be forgotten. The supplies were unloaded and we dove into our showers and beds.