London, Cairo, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Kisongo

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In case you hadn't noticed...I'm in AFRICA!!! YAY! Here's a whistlestop account of my travels so far.

Firstly, Michael Jackson has died. Tanzania found out yesterday. Bad times.

We met at Heathrow on Sunday to get our plane to Cairo, which was delayed for an hour and a half before take off, given that our connection in Cairo was 1 hr 45 mins we'd already planned missing our flight and having to stay in Cairo until the next one on Thursday, argh the pain!!! Unfortunately they were very efficient in Cairo and we never got to see the pyramids of the dead sea or anything! I'm still upset. It was SUPER hot, even at 11pm. The second plane was one of the small ones and I think I managed about 4 hours sleep after a meal at 1am before we landed in Dar at 5:30.

Dar was again VERY hot! I had the best ever cold shower. We went to Sunrise Beach south of the city which we had to get a taxi, ferry and another taxi to get to, the ferry cost 100 shillings, LESS THAN 5P! The money here is so confusing...2000 shillings is 1 pound, 10,000 a fiver. I'm starting to think 10,000 for a hotel room, HOW MUCH...oh a fiver. It is also worth mentioning that the money is very cool, with pictures of lions, hippos and other animals on all the coins and notes!

We left Dar on Tuesday pretty early on a 12 hour bus to Arusha. I fell asleep on the bus when the landscape was dusty and full of scrub and woke up when it was hilly and jungly and soooo green, I took loads of photos I will hopefully upload depending on the connection... About an hour before Arusha we saw Kilimanjaro, the mountain which has given its name to the beer and water. (Other beers available include Safari and my personal favorite Tusker) We were all scanning the skies, all eyes peeled to the max until someone pointed it out far far higher than we'd been looking. It was absolutely amazing!!! I couldn't believe how big it was and the snow on the top was at its largest extent, what with it being winter here and all. Mount Meru was a bit further along the road and we got a really good view of the sun setting over it too. A successful bus journey I would say!

Arusha is a lot cooler than Dar, probably about mid 20s in the day and really chilly at night and in the mornings. It's a lot less westernised than Mexico, I've still not seen a McDonalds nooooo! It's quite hectic though with dalladallas (minibuses) and people with barrows full of fruit and carrying things on their heads everywhere. The roads are crazy, I'm suprised more people don't die with all the bus vs bicicle headons going on. We nearly had 3 cyclists at least on the 20 minute ride into town. To make matters more interesting the roads are bordered by open ditches and random holes in the pavement so I'm always scared we're going to go tumbling into the ditch. On the ride from the airport I noticed loads of bicicles piled high with egg boxes, I just cant believe the balance people must have!

On Wednesday we went to Kisongo to settle into our house and see the school. Our house is the biggest and yellowest in the village, subtle I know. I keep stressing we only have one floor! It's right by the market square which was in full swing when we arrived selling corn, fruit and veg and second hand clothes and shoes on the day we arrived. Everything was spread out on blankets on the floor and the Maasai people from around were all wearing the traditional dress which was so colourful. Their footwear is made from recycled tyres which is cool, I don't know if I'll be buying any tyre sandals though!

We did our weekly shopping in the market and then went to the school which was really shocking. They have absolutely nothing, no paint on the walls, dirt floors, only scraps of paper and stubs of pencils. They've given us a list of their demands...we must look like walking stationary shops! We looked closer into their magical cabinet this morning and found a lot of books and pencils and other things they've put on the list and obviously don't need! Last year they were given money for a toilet and to paint the walls, none of which has been done...BUT, the kids are lovely! It's really difficult to tell if they're boys or girls as they mostly have their heads shaved so we have to rely on girls wearing skirts to give us a clue. Their school uniforms are all tattered and holey which is sad. On Friday when we were doing PE in a "field" next to the school some children who were on holiday from government schools crept up towards us and were trying to join in, there was one little girl sitting behind us picking things up from the floor and eating them, literally eating dust.

Meat is a bit dodgy here, I tried to become a vegetarian on Tuesday but only made it till the evening when we went out for a chinese. Apart from that I've hardly had any, in our house we're trying all the different ways we can think of of cooking tomatoes, peppers, onions and carrots with rice and pasta. Tonight we have some eggs so it's going to be vegetable stir fry with egg fried rice, yum! We have a rota for cooking and washing up and doing the shopping (tonight my turn with Gemma, last Thursday Laura and I cooked a rather splendid pasta!), the rota is on the wall along with several other lists (Lewis, our resident man has banned us from making any others...mainly because one of the lists is a list of man points and chick points for him).

Back to the events...on Saturday a cleaner came to change our beds, which didn't need doing, and wash the floors and things. We didn't want to leave without locking all our doors because then we knew we could leave the main door open and noone could get in anyway. We waited ages for her to finish then left to go to visit the others at Snake Park. There were loads of snakes, some had photographs on their cages of snakes of the same species which had eaten people, ugh. We held one of the little snakes, as well as a baby crocodile and a big and tiny tortoise. The crocodile weed on Sophie which was highly amusing! Bahahaha. Later on we went to KCEM, the adult education centre in Meserani which was built in 2005 by Nottingham Uni students, and the reason why we're here now. It was amazing in comparison to our school! Everything was painted nicely and they had a library and computer room and a kindergarten which had numberlines and murals painted on the walls.

On Sunday we made batiks with a man called Filix, who also happened to be the waiter at the restaurant we went to on Saturday night. At first it seemed so complicated but it was really fun and actually quite easy! Mine is a sunrise with 2 elephants and giraffes and a tree silouetted against it. The batikists cunningly got out their own, better, batiks so we all bought some of them as well to take home. Sunday evening we got a dalladalla back to our village and our house was locked with a new padlock!! Lewis gained himself a man point by calling the number and saying in Swahili from my phrase book "I'm locked out of my yellow house".

Today was school again. The bus the school bought, seemingly with the money they should have built a toilet and painted the walls with, keeps breaking down so none of the children turned up until after 9 when school normally starts at 8. After school the bus had been relocated so the children all got on it to be taken home, we walked past them a while down the road with 3 or 4 men rummaging around in it hopefully! Oops! So I think that is all my news...I'll try and put some photos on and will let you know of a waterfall adventure and National Lewis Day (Wednesday) events shortly! (No photos sorry I don't understand how to!!)

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