Day 30 - FAA

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So, I haven't been writing anything for nearly a month. I shall update by sections.

Kilimanjaro:

They usually wake us up at 6.30am with ginger tea and then we walk, stop for lunch then walk more. We would reach camp and have dinner there. Sometimes, we have lunch at the camps too. All 9 of us made it to the top. Me being so unfit, I struggled but managed to make it up to the top anyway. It was amazing, I still don't think it has sunk in that I've climbed the tallest mountain in Africa. This trip has made me want to be fitter, so hopefully when I get back to university I would exercise more. All the people I met on the climb are really nice and funny. The porters and guides are really nice too! I felt so lucky being able to make so many amazing friends!



First Aid Africa:

Induction was 4 days. It gave us time to know each other and also time for the leaders to sort us into different placements. I got sent to Njiro to live with one of the translators with another colleague. We had 3 different groups to teach: the nunnery, a girls' centre and a microfinance group. Occasionally, we taught in a school as well. We also managed to teach a group of people in a Maasai village. They are representatives of the subgroups spread across the vast area. The idea of us teaching them first aid was so they could go back to their village and teach the people there.

The house that we live in has a long drop and we use buckets to shower over the long drop. It took me quite awhile to get used to it. I've been showering 3/4 times a week because there isn't any water on some of the days. I feel spoilt because we get food cooked and our laundry washed for us. We got to eat really nice local food. We did try to wash our clothes in the first week. But apparently, we didn't do a really good job because they said that they would wash it for us. It was so embarrassing.

As I'm writing this now, we have 2 more weeks left. This weekend, we're going on a short safari trip. I'm really excited. Yesterday, we went to a fundraiser organised by the microfinance group that we were teaching. It was a bit awkward towards the end because the emcee expected us to donate some money and we didn't have much money with us. Anyway, we managed to get out of it by explaining that we were volunteers.

Also, last week, we went to a snake park. It was a very weird day for us.



06/09/2014 - Ate Ethiopian food yesterday as it was one of our colleague's birthday. We had a pancakey thing called Injera that tasted like thosai. Food was really good but it wasn't enough to fill us.

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