Safariiii

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Hello All!

Yes it’s that time again when I update you of all the fun I’ve been having out here in Africa!
It’s been an yet another interesting week. It is now coming into monsoon season here in Tanzania, much to Alice and I’s delight. We got caught in the rain coming back from the market shop we do for second chance school/orphanage and I can safely say I have never been so drenched in my entire life. The rain here seems to fall in buckets - you can’t glamorously wipe the water from your eyes it was like being caught in a twister or something. So along with the rain came cockroaches. We’ve had a minor infestation at Hostel Hoff which has been a source of much amusement for those who are not very ‘bug friendly’ mum you would hate it.

This week Alice joined my in working at Kili Kids as her project has finished for Christmas. I think she’s enjoying it. I don’t think my little angels are as well behaved as her girls but still it’s a nice challenge! It was quite strange as I was talking to mum on Wednesday congratulating myself of how I’ve avoided illness in my entire 5 weeks of being here. And wasn’t it just the luck that on Thursday I woke up with a stomache ache and nausea! So I wasn’t able to make it to work on Thursday or Friday which was a shame but you’ll all be glad to hear I made a quick recovery and am now fine and dandy! I’ve heard back from home that there has been some great fundraising going on so I would just like to say a MASSIVE thank you to those who have donated. I am planning to take the kids on a big Christmas day out ( I haven’t decided where yet) with food and drinks and get them some prezzies as they don’t receive anything through the orphanage. There are also plans to expand the orphanage (they have recently discovered 2 of the orphans have parents who are alive, and were bought in by uncles or cousins just so they could get food and an education) that’s how desperate it gets here. They want to take more orphans as of course there is a massive demand for space due to the whole aids epidemic. There are also plans to open a bakery near KYGN to help fund the school more long term so it has a sustainable income. There are lots and lots of things to do. All these things the money can go towards but if anyone has any comments or suggestions just let me know!

At the beginning of the week we decided to get out of the hostel with our Irish friend Niahm and we went to a local bar called Pub Alberto. The reason I mention this is because we met a load of Australians there who have come over here with an organization called AY..something I can’t remember. But they were here for one week volunteering and one week climbing kili and one week doing touristy stuff like Safari. We also met a group of American people who came through a company called CCS (cross cultural solutions) who do volunteering when they are here. As we were chatting we find out that these people who are doing exactly the same as us volunteer wise are paying up to one thousand pounds a week for volunteering. I find it quite bazaar as these people are paying a crazy amount to help out which lead me even more to believe these massive ‘gap year’ make these young people pay large sums of money for a bubble wrapped ‘experience’ of Africa which they don’t really get as they are restricted in everything they do. I also asked why they had to pay so much money and they explained that a portion of their money goes towards the project they stay at which is fair enough. However there was a girl from CCS at Kili Kids for a while and so I asked Sophia if she had received ant support from her and she said no. Hmmm I don’t think I like that too much!

I think in my last blog I explained how Alice and I wanted to see if we could do a cheap way of doing a safari. Well we had a stroke of luck when one of our friends from the hostel said she’d just met two German girls who wanted to do a day safari on Saturday and were looking for two more people to join to make it cheaper. So we texted them on Friday and by Saturday we were in the Safari car on the way to Lake Manyara national park! The girls were lovely, both 19 and doing the same as us - trying to get some traveling in before starting uni. We were told before we got there (by all the people who had done safari’s there before) that we were unlikely to see any cats as they generally don’t live in that area. This didn’t really bother me as the though of either seeing an elephant or giraffe was enough excitement for me! Lake Manyara was just stunning. Unlike the safari I had done before it was filled with lush surroundings, it almost felt like a rainforest as opposed to open plains. We were so lucky to see an elephant right up close. We also saw monkeys, hippos, giraffes, buffalo and …. LIONS! Right at the end as we were headed back we saw a car stopped in front of us looking at a tree far away and to our astonishment there was a lion family asleep. So we did a little bit of cheeky off roading to get a bit closer, but not too close to take some pictures we were so lucky! So all in all it was an amazing day and I am so glad we did it.

That’s about all for this week. I am so happy to have seen some animals and despite my illness it has been one of my favourite weeks yet! Untill next time…..


Lots of Love,

Meg xxxxxxxxxxx

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