We spent all day today working again, the carpenters finished all the work that the school had expected of them. They quickly brought out a wish list of additional items to be constructed, so they could take advantage of the skills of the apprentices. These included the design and construction of cupboard doors for the large kitchen in the dinning hall, book trolleys for the library and shelving for the office. A lot of time was also spent training Alfonse the “wood fundi” (Swahili for carpenter) on how to make and assemble these items after the team leaves in 4 days. [View Full Entry]

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In the morning we drove to through the park and saw a lot more monkeys as it was heavily forested in places. It was very lush and green and pretty and it was on the edge very high cliffs that went on forever and was known as the Great Rift, which runs all the way up into Kenya forming the Great Rift Valley. We went back to the lodge and had lunch before driving back to Arusha. We got home around about 4pm, but our truck got a flat tyre just as we got into Arusha. We drew a large crowd [View Full Entry]

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The next day we drove down into the crater which was an experience in itself, the road is a very narrow track with a sheer drop on one side. We then headed out along the crater floor along dusty bumpy roads looking for animals. Unlike the Serengeti the animals tended to be a lot further away from the road. We did see a rhino, but he was about 1/2 a kilometre away. I managed to get a half decent photo that lets you see that it was actually a rhino. The scenery around the crater was very spectacular. We saw two [View Full Entry]

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After another game drive in the morning, we had lunch at the camp site, then packed up everything and headed towards Ngorogoro crater, on the way out we took a small detour and found two cheetahs, they were laying down on a large mound and no more than 20 feet from the trucks. The crater was vastly different from the Serengeti, we camped on the rim which was very cool at night. We had zebras grazing around our tents during the night. This camp site also had caged rooms for cooking and eating. There were a lot of people staying at [View Full Entry]

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Today we begin our break from work and head off on a safari organized by St Jude. Richard, Gemma’s husband, organises safaris for visitors to the school. We set out first thing in the morning in 3 vehicles and headed to the Serengeti which took all day just to get there. It was dusk by the time we arrived at the camp site. We saw a lot of animals on the way in and stopped at every one to have a closer look. We even saw a pair of young male lions snoozing on an anthill about 50 metre from the [View Full Entry]

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Today a seven of us went with Gemma to church. We all piled into her little High Ace 4WD van. There was a very large crowd just leaving as we arrived. Gemma explained that they have 5 masses each Sunday, 4 in Swahili and 1 in English. It was pretty much like any other Catholic church service in Australia, except the choir was very impressive and we all sang happy birthday to the priest. Even the non Catholics, such as myself, enjoyed the experience. One thing that really stood out was the great trouble that everyone went to, to get dressed [View Full Entry]

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Everyone spent the morning working on their specific projects. Just after lunch we went for a 5 minute bus ride down the road to visit a local orphanage. We took a large box of donated goods that St Jude had provided. The kids were all very well behaved and very affectionate. The orphanage appeared to be very well run, unlike many in Tanzania, where very little of the aid provided actually ends up being used on the kids. Several of the children at the orphanage go to St Judes The youngest was just two months and she was premature, the oldest [View Full Entry]

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This morning the skies were clear for a change and we could see Mt Meru. The weather has been very consistent while we have been here. Almost every morning there is heavy low cloud, which burns of by midday, at which stage it can get very warm. The humidity isn’t all that bad considering we are just below the equator. The fact that we are 1400m above sea level helps. At around 3pm thunderstorms develop, but they are very localised, some days we get a shower from them, other days we miss the storms. By around 6pm the skies usually clear [View Full Entry]

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This morning we visited the United Nation Headquarters in Arusha. This was set up to put on trial all those who allegedly participating in genocide that took place in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994. An estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in the 1994 killings by Hutu extremists. The problem started when the president’s plane was shot down and the existing Hutu government blamed the Tutsis. The three months of slaughter ended after Tutsi exiles invaded and took over the government. There are 3 different buildings that make up the complex and it i [View Full Entry]

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The carpentry team stayed at Moshono and continued to make furniture while the rest of us piled on one of the schools many colourful buses and went off to landscape the new school that had just been finished at Usa River. The school gave us two traditional African 3 prong hoes and 4 dubious shovels to do all the planting. The shovel blades were worn well down and in some cases the handle was no more than 2 foot long. We decided that this would not be suitable for our delicate western backs. On the way to Usa River we called [View Full Entry]

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