Kidia!

Heyyyy! Have been at Kidia for over a week now and have got about 5 days left. It's really different to everywhere else we've stayed; in a house like a youth hostel. But everything is so so basic. Only have electricity for about 2 hours a night (run from a generator) and that's a bit dodge at the best of times. But it's all good 'cos this is supposed to be living in like the middle of nowhere with no comforts so it'll probably do me some good!

Have been plastering all week basically, think i've found my new profession (no jokes, i'm rather amazing at it). We're finishing off a kitchen for the local school. Really good fun cos you get a lot more involved than at Mbokomu. And there's more variety... been working with the Mamma's a lot too: have helped pick coffee beans and prepare them, cooked a local dish with them... bean and banana stew (hmmmmm... not too yum) and helped them with the tree nursery quite a bit too. Me, Laura and Hayles have begun teaching too. We're taking a year 5 English class of about 30ish kids? Their ability really ranges from pretty awful to much better than kids at home their age. Really fun and rewarding and they're so adorable. Much much nicer than English children who i think would slaughter 3 girls attempting to teach them a foreign language... And we taught them the macarena... woo yeah!

Can't believe it's only 3 and a bit weeks until i'm home now, has flown past. Can't wait to see everyone though, take care! Love soph xxxx

Safari!

ahhhh, such a good week! Went on a 5 day safari and visited: Tarangire National Park, Serengeti, Ngoragora Crater and Lake Manyara. Was awesome!

We saw all the Big 5 - rhinos (in the distance), loads of buffalo, cheetahs, leopard and lions! We saw like every other animal too - elephants, antelope, gazelles, giraffes, hippos and loadsss more!

The best bits were as follows:

• When we were camping above Ngoragora crater an elephant came into our camp!! Twice! To drink from the water butt, hehe. Was literally like 1 metre away from us and like 3 from our tents. Really cool but mega scary. SO funny, it started to charge @ Hayley and she's got in on camera!!
• Also @ the same during the night animals roam around free cos there's no barrier between camp and park so you're not allowed any food in your tent but we heard so many warthogs sniffing around the tent. I didn't get 2 sleep until 5 am!! Had to put my ear plugs in cos it was so scary! And then a herd of zebras galloped past our tent. How amazing?
• In the Serengeti (which by the way is huuuuge!) we saw a cheetah metres from our car munching on a Thompson gazelle which he'd just caught. There were like 20 vultures surrounding him so we got amazing photos!!
• Drove right up to 2 male lions which are really hard to find usually so that made our day! We saw 27 lions all together and 6 cheetahs, really really lucky!
  
• Oooh and we saw hundreds of monkeys and baboons which are fascinating to watch, sat in the car for like an hour watching them. So violent to eachother, even the little babies! We were really lucky with seeing so many baby animals too, some were just 3 days old! monkeys, giraffes, lion cubs, elephants, baby hippos are adorable!! but don't half smell bad!

Awesome week and we had perfect weather too which made it even better. We're off to Kidia on Thursday this week which is on the foothills of Kilimanjaro for 2 weeks of different project work which will hopefully be good fun! Time's flying past so quickly, have been away over 7 weeks now!! Still spending far too much on local handicraft, just bought a beautiful leather holdall for only 35quid!! And after internet am going to pick up a hoodie, pair of trousers and 2 bags I've had made out of local tradtional material! How exciting!

Hope all's well in England, missing you all a lot. Love Soph xxx

The dreaded Kilimanjaro climb...

Ah! How to start attempting to describe the pure agony and hell which we all endured...

We started the climb on 4th July and it started off pretty shitty to be honest! It was pouring it down so we had to get out of our coach thing and scramble/fall over & slide all over the place trying to reach the Machame route gate!! Good start to the trip... The first day you climb from around 1000 metres above sea level to 3000m all through the rain forest. It was a really tough day! It was an 18km hike too which was exhausting! Properly shocked me as to how hard the actual climb was, immensely steep and really long too. The porters are actual champions and just run off ahead whilst you struggle, so our camp was all made for us by the time we reached our target with popcorn and hot chocolate too... yum!

2nd day got even harder, was realllllly steep!! Only 9km walking though but boy it was awful!! And we only went to 3800m so altitude wasn't particularly bad thank god! The terrain was through moorland which was pretty harsh cos the soil/gravel would just fall from under your feet with every step you took!

3rd day was our acclimatisation day from 3800m up to 4600m and then all the way back down again to around 3800m. At the time it seems really pointless but so grateful we had it in hind-sight cos people who didn't were amazingly sick on the summit night! The terrain was moorland/alpine desert. It was so bizarre going from such different environments in such a relatively fast pace... well i say fast. We were bloody slow! Suited me just fine!

The 4th day was awesome, did some actual rock climbing up Barrango Wall. Really dangerous and scary cos we had no ropes or anything (Africa style!) and if you took one wrong step you would plummet to the bottom. Fun times!! The days seemed to be getting longer and longer even though the actual walking was reduced quite a bit from the 18km at the start of the week. Some people did the summit tonight but we had another day, thank god. We were all so knackered that I don't think I'd have made it if we had had to do summit on the 4th day.

5th day = summit day! Ahhhhh, what an awful & miserable experience!! I was really sick at the base camp (4600m) just hours before we left for the final ascent so I was pretty nervous about making it. We went to bed, after a day of hiking through desert, at around 6pm and got awoken at 11pm! oh my god, it was horrible. The summit took us from midnight to 6.30am! I was in tears at various points of the climb, as were most of my group. This one part of the climb was horrendous, Shira Plateau... It was practically vertical and made of shingle so every 2 steps you took you fell back 1. By the time we made the flat section people were collapsed on rocks and some had passed out and gone asleep literally in seconds! That's the second highest point of Kilimanjaro so lots of people stay there due to altitude sickness but we all ploughed on. My group were relatively okay-ish with altitude sickness... we had dizziness, hallucinations, and difficulty breathing basically. At some points during the climb I remember I just closed my eyes and kept walking, I swear I was practically asleep. But when we reached Uhuru Peak (highest point in Africa - nearly 6000m) whilst the sun was rising... amazing. Everyone was in tears. Hilarious looking back but definitely justified!

Then you'd never ever guess what... we had to turn around and walk back down to the base camp. Was pretty scary though because this man was being dragged down by 'mountain rescue': 2 porters basically. Luckily our guides had some oxygen and gave it to him but it as awful to see. So scary. Later on that night at the final camp a further 3 people got stretchered down from summit. Anyhow, we walked all the way back down from summit to base camp and we realised why we had to walk in the dark... there would be no way you'd ever ever ever do the final ascent if you saw the gradient of the mountain. Words cannot describe! Once we all got back to base camp we had to pack up and hike back down to 3000m! An awfully long day... 3 hikes with like 3 hours sleep. Was so exhausted it was unreal!

The final day was pretty boring because you just want to get off the mountain after the summit! Your feet/legs/arms/body/everything aches and you've reached your goal so we all walked pretty damn quickly!! Am really proud of myself to have actually reached the summit of the highest free standing mountain in the whole frigging world :] !!!

(am trying to upload a picture of me at the summit but it's not working!! boo!) ooo think it worked...

am off on safari next week so will inform all about that soon too! so excited for it!! 5 days seeing animals, amazing!

lots of love to all xxxx

Jambo! (Hello in Swahili)

This week's been rather similar to the past weeks so probably be a short post as not to bore you! Basically been doing plenty more project work with the 3 monthers whilst the 1 and 2 monthers were at another camp in a ranch about 2 hours drive away. Really jealous of their movements at the moment; we're all getting a bit tired of doing project work with just 7 girls. It's really hard work but you do feel proud when you actually complete a section so that's a positive.

What else... still got amazing food! Plenty of cakes, burgers etc... yumyumyum! And we've all been working on our tans at every last opportunity. The weather's much better than when I first arrived as it was the end of the rainy season, so fingers crossed it'll just continue to improve!!

Less than a week until the Kili climb now... really excited but as I sit here with a god-awful hangover feel rather nervous too. Will be awesome though and realllllly cannot wait to get going! I leave on 4th July and it's a 7 day climb, so I'll be back down (providing all goes well) on either the following Thursday or Friday depending on our reactions to the altitude.How scary!? So my next post will probably be after the climb!

Hope all is well back home, love Sophie xxx

A quarter of the way through!!!

Ah I actually cannot believe I've nearly been away from home for 3 weeks... it's flown by! Am really loving it here. All the 3 monthers are lovely and we all get on so well. Food has been a-mazing since the others went to Kidia... like really good!! Having cake for breakfast, home made burgers and chips for lunch and pancakes and chipatis all the time... oh dear! Tommie says everyone turns in to Hippos... can seriously see this coming true to be honest! Oh well!

This week we finished the beam for the roof which was awesome and started on some brick laying. Think we've all found a new profession as builders now!! Is such hard work cos the bricks are amazingly heavy to carry!! But is wicked cos you get to see like such a quick progress compared to the beam which took 2 weeks to make and use!! Managed to get money out okay now! Am buying lots of goodies, things are gorgeous here. Really really pretty things!! Have bought about 6 bangles... oopsie.

2 weeks until Kilimanjaro now... literally today! Whenever I see it it makes my stomach flips. It's huge! And the photos I've taken don't do it justice. I mean it's huge!! The summit is taller than Everest base camp which is a little scary as people train like mad men to reach that... But saying that; me, Meg, Hayley, Emily and Kat have been doing 1 and a half hour walks in our boots trying to break them in and get fit quick. Glad that I've got another 2 weeks of project work to get a little fitter, never done anything like this at home so think it's the best training I could do!

Out again tonight to a club, hopefully it'll be as good as last weeks. We're off to an orphanage tomorrow as well. Am gonna give the children some of the goodies I brought out cos think they'll appreciate them more than the kids at the school. Really looking forward to it but think it'll upset us all quite a bit. There are babies to 17 year olds there so should be an eye opener.

What else happened this week... lots of people have the dreaded tummy bug but so far, fingers crossed and touch wood I'm okay. One girl, Laura, got tested for malaria cos she's been so ill but thank god she was fine. Think that's all the drama of this week so far. Really am loving it here, ooohhh except all the frigging power cuts... had 4 this week all at night. So you get used to sitting in the dark looking uber sexy with your head torch on... haha! Makes it more fun I suppose... somehow!!

Off to buy some more goodies and trinkets now... glad I can still get my shopping fix out here :] love to all xxxxx

Project Work!

Hello all!! I wrote an amazing blog some time last week but it didn't publish which is rather pants but never mind, I'll try to remember what I wrote...

Basically for the past week we've all been getting to know one another and everyone's so nice! People have started to bond already, especially once the project work started...

Project work is mega mega hard... building some huge school canteen and they said it'll take another year for it to be finished. At first I thought they were exaggerating but everything takes so long to do... like a 15/20 minute job at home will take at least half a day here! It's crazy.

Rough outline of the work I've done so far (we're making beams for the roof):

• Had to cut up a hugeeeeee piece of thin wire which took a WHOLE DAY! We were given a pick axe and a hammer to cut it up... really hard work. If anyone had pliers it would've taken an hour max!!
• Sieved sand: 4 people had to hold the huge sieve whilst others dug the sand and shovelled it. Took a day and a half....
• Me, Hayley and Meg spent a bloody age sawing wood! My arms are getting rather buff now!
• Helped to make 'scaffolding'... hmmmm not too sturdy.
• Made all the brackets for the beams and connected them to 4 pieces of thick metal with the small strips I'd cut on the first day. Everyone cut majorly cut up which was not fun but hey ho.
• Made loads of concrete from scratch. Was mixing it with 4 others for half a day to stop it setting. You just mix it on the floor. It's really fun but tough work.
• Helped to put the concrete in the beams which was soooooo much effort. We had people mixing the concrete, a chain of about 10 passing the concrete and 3 people putting the concrete in the beam on top of the roof... using the makeshift scaffolding. Ah my arms were killing cos I had to lift these huge bowls of concrete above my head cos I'm so small!

Really pleased with our work though! There's only 7 of us left now because the others are 1 and 2 monthers and so go to the Kidia camp earlier than us. To send them off we all went out clubbing on Friday night. Was frigging asweome... after an eventful game of ring of fire we grabbed a bus into town with Tommie and all the Camp Tanzania workers and had suchhhhhhhhh a good night!

Really enjoying myself out here cos it's so sociable, out for meals quite a lot and there's always something to do. Yesterday all 7 of us lounged by the hotel opposites pool! It was boiling... tan is coming along rather nicely!

Weather is soooo bizarre here though! Had a huge storm last night, sounded like the tent was going to fly away! So our plan of doing some clothes washing is being postponed... cutting it fine with clean clothes now. Well not tops but most other things.

Hope all's well back home, ta ta for now! Love Sophiee xxxxxx

My First Week!

Hi all, am here safe in Tanzania as no doubt you all know. Managed to grab a computer which was hard work as there's only a couple.

First week has been bloody difficult! Was so lonely at the start and didn't have too much to do to be honest. Saw the town, local market and used the hotel opposite for their swimming pool! Started project work on Wednesday until Friday on my own at the local schools: Mbokomu and Neville school. Was painting maths equations in Swahili on the class room walls outside! Was quite fun whilst I got into it but hard as no stencils or anything for the shapes. Children are lovely and am really looking forward to getting stuck into the project work. Start on construction work tomorrow; we're helping to build a canteen/dining hall for the 600 kids as their one at the moment is so dangerous and tiny.

People began arriving on Friday and absolutely everyone is lovely. Really nice group of people, mix of ages from 18 - 23 which is really cool (both before and after uni). It's weird but so nice sharing my tent with other people now. Have to get used to having short showers, they're basically a dribble now there's 23 of us!! Food is tasty, although I did eat in the hotel breakfast, lunch and dinner until Friday!! Homesickness has also subsided now which I'm so happy about, it was frigging awful! Just looking forward to all the exciting stuff ahead!!

Will keep you all updated! Love to all and miss you lots xxxxxx

Counting down the days...

Ahhhhh!

Only 2 days till I bugger off to the continent of Africa...

A somewhat emotional drive to Heathrow, 9 hour/4263 mile flight to Nairobi, followed by 50minutes air transfer to Kilimanjaro airport and I shall arrive (no doubt knackered and a little scared) in Tanzania!! :)

For the 3 months I'm away I'll be living on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and the itinarary is summit like this:

1 month working in a local school
Kidia project for 1 week: working with locals
Ndarkwai Ranch project for 1 week: dedicated to wildlife and habitat rehabilitation.
Visiting and living with local Masai tribes
5 day safari
Climbing Kilimanjaro - taking approx 9 days
Zanzibar Island to finish the trip off!

I'll hopefully be able to use this blog regularly to keep you updated and to no doubt bore you with my stories :] so keep an eye on it.

Lots of love,

Sophieeeee xxx