Ndu Tea

Today we took a tour of the Ndu Tea Estate.  The fields of tea go for miles and are so beautiful.  The location near Ndu was chosen as a perfect place to grow tea because of the climate.  The first stop on our tour was a weather station:  the coolest thing was a ball of glass that marked the length of the sun for each day.  It had a strip of paper under the ball and as the sun hit the glass it burned a line into the paper, each night this strip of paper is collected.  Our second stop was the fields where the workers gather the tea and bring it to the road where it is picked up by a truck.  From there the tea travels down the road to the factory.  We were given a very thorough tour by a man in a shiny disco shirt.  The building smelled great too.  There are about 5 conveyer belts and heaters – each one different names but all actually the same tea.  The end of the road was the tea tasting office where we had a sample of the wonderful tea of Ndu.  Our guide’s name was Emmanual and he did a great job.  I had promised my artist friend Elisabeth Preble that I would bring one on her Doily Ninjas to Africa with me.  I chose to leave one at the tea plantation because I know that Elisabeth loves tea and it seemed like a good fit.

Workers in the field harvesting the tea leaves.