It's been a while since we were able to update this due to some pretty poor internet connections. We're now in Zimbabwe, but that will have to be written later! we crossed into Tanzania and headed straight for Arusha in the north of the country, it's the nearest town to the Ngorongoro Crater National Park, where we went for a game drive and saw plenty of buffalo, giraffe and elephants. The next day we went to the Serengeti National Park, again there were plenty of animals, we saw Lions stalking prey, Elephant herds wandering the savannahs, Hippos swimming in the lakes [View Full Entry]

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So I had a wonderful blog entry all typed and ready to post in the Amsterdam airport, only to have the connection fail just as I was about to post it! Great. I was commenting on my long ass flight that seriously showed the worse movies with the only highlight being Ryan Reynolds. I also finally realized the outfit I was wearing while in route and seriously have to question my early morning fashion sense. I had two shades of green on, how did Dianey let me leave the house looking like that? Devil Wears Prada I think not. At least [View Full Entry]

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Matt has almost finished his war and peace Kilimanjaro account so in the meantime I’ll try and come up to date with what we’ve been doing. This blog account is for Aug 18 to Sep 9th While Matt was up the mountain, I organized our Ngorongoro Crater trip. I looked at the camping option but after 7 days in a tent in the cold, I figured matt would probably want some comfort so we stayed in the Ngorongoro resort instead. The crater is about 4 hours away from Arusha and is hailed as a natural wonder as it contains a perfect [View Full Entry]

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So on my way home last night I decided to take a short-cut through the back of Masaki, an old fishing village now absorbed into the big urban sprawl of Dar es Salaam. The roads, predictably un-tarmacced (spelling?!?!) are terrible, which is great as it means noone else goes that way and I can escape the heavy traffic along the main road. Turning a corner I had to pull up short, as in front of me was something of an obstruction in the road. One of the egg-men (who carry eggs in trays by the hundred on the back of a [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Singida yesterday after 12 hour bus journey. It was a real experience! I firmly believe the main reason why the bus took so long was that it must've stopped about 20 times to allow people on the street to try and sell ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING to you... food/drinks/shoes/sunglasses/watches/bags you name it! And i was sitting next to the window and didn't really know what to do...so just tried to read my book. (FYI Chloe, finished No Time For Goodbye - couldn't believe how it finished, so many twists in the plot!) Also there is a problem with the busses [View Full Entry]

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Mambo marafiki wangu! (Some homework for you all…) Ok, so apologies again for taking so long to write this, I have no doubt whatsoever that my travel blog is the highlight of your days/weeks/months and therefore that I have failed you all with my lack of reporting, I am most sorry! So what’s been happening on this side of the ‘pond’? Let’s start with work! So strangely much of my time now seems to be filled teaching - not something I predicted I’d be doing at all but I’m actually really enjoying it! I’ve been doing sessions in 3 main seco [View Full Entry]

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What a week! So much has happened. First of all, I’m determined to become a member of the Kitongo Choir. I love to watch them dance and I have began to practice with them in the evenings. The other volunteers and I are the token “wageni” or foreigners. We pretty much just get laughed at, but I think I’m starting to get the rhythm. I got to see my first JBFC soccer (or football) practice! Ashley, Chris’ assistant, has started a JBFC soccer team which will play in a Mwanza league. The girls are super excited and practice with Ashley and [View Full Entry]

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On Tuesday my fellow volunteers and I visited the Kitongo Public Primary School which is about a 10 minute walk from JBFC. The school is made up of crumbling buildings that serve over 500 students. As we roamed around looking for the head master we gathered an entourage of Tanzanian children, holding our hands and examining our arm hair. When we finally found him we introduced ourselves and asked if we could observe some of the classes. In broken English he insisted on taking us on a tour of the school. My eyes grew wider in each classroom due to the [View Full Entry]

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Ate: 84 delicious curries in a row before being ill after opting for a ‘western dish’; guinea pig for 1 GBP; Christmas Day lunch at a street stall; luke warm bee grubs; steak with red wine for a month… beautiful Avoided: other travellers as much as we could; telling people what I did for a living; malaria… I hope; the worst of the recession… I hope; not a lot else! Canoed: through 5m flooded Amazon rainforest; in bull shark and crocodile infested waters; 1m away from giant mating green turtles; across, not along, hippo channels; int [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! I guess it’s been a while since I posted… I’ve been in the field the last several days where I got to chase a bunch of elephants (yay!), and also- just as fun, to take all my field assistants into the park, just as a thank you for all their hard work. These are the field assistants who collect data on elephant raids in the villages where they each live- one in particular is from a very remote village that is some distance from the park, but still gets elephant raids. Everyone was very happy for the chance to [View Full Entry]

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