Roxanne Ransome

So here we are, the day before leaving. I have to say I really don’t want to - I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone back in England, but I also don’t want to leave here at all. The people, the weather, the location of our house, it’s all amazing. I don’t even mind that we never ever have running water any more! Also I feel like my projects are only just starting to kick off properly - the kids are making headway on the things I’ve been teaching, and we’re right in the middle of filming the HIV documentary. Ideally I would love to stay here until at least 8th September to make some real progress. I’ve made some wonderful friends here as well and I very much hope we all manage to stay in ... read more

I am now back from safari in the serengeti, Lake Manyara and Ngorogoro crater. It was spectacular - the group who went a couple of weeks before us had loads of problems but ours went swimmingly. We spent the first night in the volunteer house in Arusha, up in the north of Tanzania. The 10 hour bus journey was pretty good; it was an air conditioned coach and they made a stop for lunch, which meant I could happily enjoy the gorgeous scenery the rest of the time. On Friday we drove first to the campsite near Lake Manyara, then on to the national park itself. The park was fanastic, really lush and green with interesting wildlife verwhere. We saw a lioness in a tree, which is really lucky as Tanzania is the only place where ... read more

It rained this morning - did not expect that in the dry season! Yeserday was a very good day. I went to nursery in the morning and taught the kids tens and units in maths - well I say taugh, more shouted while they messed about. The kids are really sweet though so you end up not minding too much. My favourite part of nursery is definitely break though, because the kids are always so happy and full of life. Of course this does mean that you end up being used as a climbing frame - on girl can actually put her arms around my knees and climb up to my neck! She's about 7 years old as well so it does hurt! Teaching is good but a little frustrating; we're often left on our own ... read more

This is incredibly late but our internet room has been closed or broken since I arrived here last Sunday! This is going to be very rushed before I run off fto my afternoon project. Projects are going really well, I love working in the nursery and the HIV work is really interesting. I'm taking my first seminar by myself this today so I'm quite nervous! We ended up with an impromptu women's group last week - they were actually pretty clued up, but then believed a whole lot of incorrect stuff as well, which led to some interesting questions! It's a lot harder with the men to try to get them to believe that we're not lying - interestingly the women seem a lot more receptive. Mixed groups often lead to male-led debates with the women ... read more

Six days to go and we still don't have hotels for next week...perhaps I should invest in a very sturdy sleeping bag...?... read more

So everything is finally falling into place for our trip, and I though it was high time I started a travel blog, in order to simultaneously make you jealous and bore you senseless for the next month. I should warn you now that I have never had one of these blog-like things, so entries may well disappear for weeks on end, and spell checking is not something I habitually use. Ho hum. So I'm almost all jabbed up, we have flights and volunteering projects (almost!), I am equipped with mosquito net, insect repellent, First Aid kit and backpack. All that remains is to wrap up at work and pack at some point! I feel very much like Owen Wilson's character in Armageddon (yes, I'm sad and I've seen that film approx 101 times) - 98% excited, ... read more