Tanza Week 1

Hi - I decided a blog would be a good way of letting everyone know what I got up to out in Africa. Firstly, it was the best thing ever. So amazingly beautiful and an experience that I'll never forget so thank you if you sponsored me in any way to go. This is going to be long so I'll do a conclusion at the end if you don't have long!... :o)

Day 1 Monday 4/7/11. The journey out from Godalming was a bit of a disaster for me as I had a nasty stomach upset so spent most of the available time in airport toilets etc. But we all got there in one piece! 13 students and 2 teachers from Godalming College and 1 leader from Camps International who are the travel company we went with. The flight was 8 hours to Nairobi then an hour from there to Kilimanjaro but unfortunately a bit of a wait in between flights. Interestingly, the clocks at Nairobi were 3hrs 10mins ahead of our watches but in Tanzania they were just 3hrs... Strange!

Day 2. Still pretty poorly but the excitement of being in Africa took my mind off things for a while as we travelled from Kilimanjaro airport, at first along dead straight roads then for an hour along a sandy track with vast expanses of wilderness surrounding us, to a place in the complete wild to the west of the mountain called Ndarakwai. It is a camp in the middle of an open ranch where all the animals are free to roam etc. It was amazing. The camp staff were all really friendly Tanzanians who welcomed us to our new accommodation of three man tents, drop pit toilet and bucket showers! Was still very ill so stayed in camp as the others went exploring and looking for fire wood and collecting elephant dung for a task the next day. While I was sat reading I saw some bright blue and orange birds, baboons, vervet monkeys and then giraffes came up to the camp too! Amazing!

Day 3. Woke up in the middle of the night needing the toilet. I only mention this because of the experience of being out in the pitch dark (also gets very chilly 800m above sea level). The sound of the insects and animals was very eerie and spooky but the stars were incredible! I stayed out just staring at them for ages. Like nothing I've ever seen. So many to see and it just felt like I was in the lion king! That day we went to work down at a watering hole. It's a half hour stroll from the camp through the plain so we had a ranger with us. On the way we saw wild giraffes, waterbuck, impala and zebra! At the waterhole our task was to remove the loose rocks and try and make the edge safer for animals to drink from. It is on the main migratory route for the wilderbeast etc and is often used as a back up watering hole for the sick, pregnant and injured animals so hence the need for the safe edges. There was an awesome two storey tree house that the owners of the ranch had built which looked over where we worked and beyond. From there you could see the beauty of the place to a greater extent. mountains in the background, vast plains with animals roaming and flat topped canopies of the trees. I went up there and watched my new friends hard at work. (Still feeling poorly and by 11am the sun is back in business to a good 34degs) Feeling a bit better we next cleared the furrow/stream which fed the wateringhole from the mountains. A better flow of water will help the hole increase in size naturally. We all got very muddy and saw lots of cool things like vulture eagles and lizzards! Went back to camp for a big lunch of pasta bolognese but still no appetite for me. Played a bit of  frisbee and badminton. Got some pills off Charles (The guy in charge of the camp) to settle my stomach. Then we went up the road to make some elephant dung paper with the dung the others had collected the previous day. It had been boiled overnight then we had to clean it, drain it, pound it, mix it with shredded scraps of paper and wood glue and water. Mix then filter with a mesh to create a sheet. It was good fun and nice to be in the shade. The process is helping prevent elephant poaching as the by-product can be sold on so locals can make money in an alternative way to ivory. That night we had a party for Georgie's 18th. I made an improvised birthday cake from Werther's Originals, cereal bars and found a few candles! Made a crown of shame for Josh as his forfeit for being generally daft (That's our 'leader' by the way) He had done a good job of wearing a police hat all day and clothes inside out to be fair... Soup then stew for dinner. The beef tasted a bit lamby and stringy out there according to Gwyn anyway. Spoke to some of the other staff there, Mike and Smasha, both a really good laugh.

Day 4. Feeling lots better by now! Had a bucket shower in the morning with the warm, rusty and leafy water! (Warmest shower all trip though so don't knock it!) We went to a school which took us a while to get to on the back of a truck through all the sand. Everyone got nice and dusty and scratched up by the thorny trees! Anyway, at the school our task was to dig a big trench so they can lay water pipes for a new kitchen to be built. It was very hot work. The ground was hard so it required hoeing the top soil and grass then pick axing the ground to loosen then shovelling it out. After about 5hours we had a big ditch about 2ft deep and maybe 100m long. We were pretty chuffed. Everyone got really stuck in and we got to engage with some of the local men and kids who joined in. Played a bit of 5-a-side at lunch with them. Everyone was covered in dust and mud by the end of the day. There's a great picture of my mud-tan lines when I took off my shoes! Soup then chicken for tea then we had a proper party for Georgie round the camp fire. A good fun night!

Day 5. Hiked to a nearby Maasai village. It was very windy that day but warm already for the morning. The Maasai ladies had all gathered to greet us. 8 of whom were the wives of the tribe leader! It was pretty fascinating seeing their culture first hand. The clothing so boldly coloured and such intricate jewellery. Lots of kids wandering about (both human and goat alike) The poor guys had lots of flies all over their faces and things. I guess they're just used to it but the flies got very annoying for me. We asked them some questions via our two translators (English to swahili - Swahili to Maasai then back again) It was good fun. Then the women grabbed each one of us individually and took us into their home. A tiny mud hut but complete with kitchen, bedroom and living area... just super small. And pitch dark! There we made beaded bracelets. Well she tried getting me to do it but didn't speak any English at all and I couldn't see a thing so she just made it for me in the end. It was when she was hunched over the beads when I realised the whole time she had a tiny baby strapped to her back under her tribal dress. Amazing, it was like she didn't even know it was there! Anyway, I then bought some things off her but had no idea how much the currency was worth at that stage so gave them a lot more than everyone else managed. We joked that they'll be buying Ferraris etc with all the money I gave them! It was worth it though, fascinating people and culture! Taught them the hokey kokey and they all did some singing and dancing of their own which we joined in on. Back to camp for some lunch (Japati bread and bean sauce - very filling) We then went back down to the watering hole and dug out a lot of mud increasing the area of water. That was good fun. I loved it out there, just being in the wilderness with the zebra and warthogs just staring at you but also the fact our digging will be helping out the animals was a nice feeling too! Collected fire wood on the way back to camp then had a nice last evening at camp Ndarakwai. I would have liked to have stayed there longer!