The kilimahewa hill.

 

ENLIGHTENMENT FROM A HILL.

(A PERSONAL MEMOIR)

  

     By far Morogoro is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, the air is so pure that every breath is a blessing, the land is surrounded by high rocky and green mountains scarred by paths made from waterfalls that had passed through them. I remember my first time there, just a naïve teenager and thinking to myself “why did I come to this backward land?” but little did I know this was where I was supposed to be, it was my destiny.

   Accustomed to life in the city at first all noticed was how the houses weren’t like back in Dar Es Salaam, or why are women riding bicycles and I resented every second there, I longed to go back home, but it was a cause with unsuccessful end, for I was to be there for two more years I had no choice to evolve to adapt to the place. I spent the days locked in my room as well as my nights but all this was about to come to an abrupt end.

  On one September day, Julius-a friend of mine who had been in Morogoro for a longer period than I was- knocked on my door and just like him to shout his cliché statement whenever he finds my door locked “what is your hiding in here?”, It always made me smile for I found it funny. That day Julius was to introduce me to a place that still has my heart to this day, it’s not a beach, a castle or the Great Wall of China, but it was the Kilimahewa hills, we walked for a few minutes from my place and I was very much surprised how close it was. And at the moment we reached there I knew I will be coming here every day for the rest of my stay in morogoro, this was my silver lining it was home away from home.

(Some Old photos)

  The hills were nothing like the city, they were quiet, filled with nature and life a huge variety of flowers grew all sorts of colours and for the first time a young man learned to appreciate silence and some time alone from the world, in my case it was my phone and computer, I found myself with plenty of time to read, I read everything I could get my hands on, I read widely and closely from books by famous yogis to local writers from Tanzania. I spent hours on that hill it became a part of me.

  After my stay in Morogoro and the grand discovery of Kilimahewa hills, it was later that I understood what was happening to me, I was open to a new kind of awareness it was almost mystical, I had begun a journey towards living mindfully, I grew more aware of what was going on inside me and outside me, it was like waking from a dream, the time I spent among the plants, the recurring sunrises and sunsets I was able to witness on that hill filled me with joy and wisdom, I was no longer the naïve teenager who went to Morogoro, but I was something else, I was something that I can’t explain to this day but I am happy to be that.