Home - The Most Enduring of All Earthly Establishments by Festo Patrick Kavishe

Sunset captured from our Dar es Saalam home

A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with Love and Dreams – those are my homes in Dar es Salaam and in Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, where I stay with my family. The name Dar es Salaam means “The Haven of Peace” in Arabic. Kilimanjaro is derived from the words “Kilima” (Kiswahili for mountain) and “Njaro” (the Chagga name for Shinning).” I love both meanings because they mean that I live in the “Haven of Peace” and on the slopes of the “Mountain that Shines”.

Festo at Makongo Juu home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with Mum Celina (centre) and Wife Colleta

My home is blessed with spectacular sunrise, sunset, and cool breeze, making it a serene place to cool down from the ferocious heat that has characterized Dar es Salaam in recent years, due to climate change. We have a lush valley where we can relax and talk, and we can even grow okra. We also have ample space for playing football with children of the neighborhood.

Festo & Colleta taking a break.

Harvesting Okra

Football with the neighborhood kids

My second home is a banana farm in my birth village located about 2,000 meters on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, about half a kilometer from the Kilimanjaro National Park in Rombo district, Kilimanjaro region. Our home is surrounded by great neighbors and lush vegetation, some of which we planted ourselves. Our main food crop is bananas. Arabica coffee used to be the main cash crop, but because of very low prices that do not even cover production costs, we no longer grow coffee, like many people of Kilimanjaro! The lack of an alternative cash crop or other income generating activities has resulted in high youth migration to urban areas and increased poverty. People who have stayed in the village even those with secondary or higher education seem to be poorer now than when I was growing up.

The front of our home in Kilimanjaro. We planted the trees you see behind
about 30 years ago on the flank of river Nana.

Despite having grown up on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, I have not been to the summit for a variety of reasons! However, when I was young, along with my elder and younger brothers wearing our normal clothes, we would climb until we passed the forest and the “volcanic ash desert” reaching Horombo Hut, where it became too cold for us to go any further. At 5,895 meters (19,340 feet), the majestic snow-capped Kilimanjaro Mountain is the tallest in Africa and highest free-standing mountain in the world! Our attempt to climb the mountain in 2019 was thwarted by prolonged heavy rain. We can try again using the Rongai Gate if any reader would like to join us next time! About 50,000 tourists climb Mt. Kilimanjaro every year! The other gate is the Marangu Gate, which is used by most tourists.

With my wife and friends at the Rongai Gate

While in Kilimanjaro you can also arrange to visit Olduvai Gorge, arguably the most important fossil site in the world, famous for evolutionary discoveries of some of the earliest signs of human development – the early human species of Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis from which Homo Sapiens (the first modern humans) developed between 200,00 and 300,000 years ago. It is said that it is from Olduvai Gorge that all modern humans in the world originate, including yourself! Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens (modern humans) began migrating from the African continent, first populating Asia and then spreading across Europe only about 40,000 years ago.

Olduvai Gorge Monument- models of Paranthropus boisei and Homo Habilis

While Ngorongoro together with its caldera crater is famous for being among the natural wonders of the world, the Serengeti National Park is famous for its huge herds of wild plains animals (especially wildebeests, zebras, and gazelles). The annual migration during December to March of giant herds of these plain animal grazers across Northern Tanzania and Kenya through the Serengeti and Maasai Mara ecosystems, is a spectacular event and involves over two million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles.

As you can see, we have many places at home to retreat to, reflect, calm down and enjoy life while we can, not forgetting to give back to society! You are welcome to enjoy them, now you have more time for leisure!

Festo Kavishe may be reached at festo.kavishe@gmail.com or festokavishe@icloud.com