We spent the whole day riding uphill, or at least it seemed
like that. The central highlands are beautiful. Dotted with chartreuse tea
fields,
women carrying baskets full of
tea leaves is a common sight. We stopped by one of the weighing stations where
the pickers bring their full loads. Before the leaves are weighed, they are
inspected to make sure most of them have two leaves and a bud. If they do not,
the picker needs to try again before she is paid. A big truck comes to pick up
the tea, stuffed into large burlap bags, to be transported to the factory.
There they are graded, processed, and packaged. The hills are so steep, there is
not a tractor (or any other type of machinery) in sight. All plowing, weeding,
and picking is done by hand. We only made it as far as Gatura today because of
the topography, but tomorrow we will get an earlier start. We hope to be in
Nyeri by Saturday night. We stayed in a small hotel that cost about $5 per
room. We even took hot showers and washed our clothes, which is something to be
celebrated. Most hotels of this caliber tend to be a bit “rough”, mainly used
by creepy men and rented by the hour.
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| tea fields in Central Highlands |
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| Woman carrying a tea collection basket |
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| a truck comes to collect the tea at the weighing center |
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| Kim and Stefanus in front of the many tea collection centers that dot the countryside |
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| Two leaves and a bud: if the picker doesn't have a majority of these, she/he will not get paid |
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