Kahawa Shamba is in the beautiful Kilimanjaro Region. I stayed in one of the four dwellings built in the Chagga tribe style. Mine was set in a lovely garden and one morning I sat outside of the hut and watched Mount Kilimanjaro in the starlight and in the rising sun light.

The visit included delicious, fresh food including fruits and vegetables raised in nearby gardens. The women of the project have been trained in proper food preparation and sanitation at the local technical college and I felt entirely safe eating everything put in front of me.

The huts are lovely and comfortable with in-door bathrooms.

My guide, Charlie, introduced me to the village and took me down a steep path to the river where I got to see 7 waterfalls. Charlie introduced me to a local coffee farm where I learned how coffee is grown and produced. We visited a nearby village where we met Tom Ngowi, a local historian, who has built two replicas of Chagga huts and shared with us an interesting history of the local Chagga tribe and took us to see Chagga Caves that he is excavating (amazing constructions where whole villages and their cattle stayed during Maasai raids on the area).

I had time to walk in the village by myself and felt very welcomed by the friendly people that I met.

I wished that I had had more time to spend in this lovely place and recommend it to anyone. At the beginning of a trip when you are exhausted from travel or at the end when you are exhausted from safaris Kahawa Shamba is a beautiful, welcoming spot to rest and enjoy.