Amani means Peace - 01/08

Today we visited the Amani Centre for Street Children.  It is very close to our Home Base and can actually be used as a reference point for locals. 
We drive across it often but today was the first time inside for many of us. 
It was an impressive facility once you entered the main building, but it was the programme itself that blew me away.
The goal of the Amani Centre is to reunite children with their families and they have an over 90% success rate. 
Children are expected to follow the rules and schedule of the Centre while there and they have a team of social workers, teachers, staff and volunteers supporting them. Along with their education and basic needs, the children also develop life skills while in the programme.  Families of the children receive support to help achieve the goal of reuniting the children into their families - either immediate or extended.
After our tour we had time to hang out with the children.  There was a football match, some magic tricks and lots of selfie action! 
I am really interested in the 6 month English teacher/librarian position that's available... I'm just going to leave that there and see who actually reads the blog ;)

Pole Pole -30/07

In Swahili 'pole' means sorry,  'pole pole' means slowly.
Today I set out on a mission to hike to the first base camp of Kilimanjaro. For those of you who are not geography buffs, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa and the highest freestanding mountain in the world. 
We set off as a group of 8 volunteers and 2  guides but Kacie and I started hanging back a bit from the other group. At first we were busy stopping to look at monkeys and waterfalls but soon enough I was struggling to breathe at the altitude and Kacie was kind enough to wait with me.  Our guide, Dismas,  was great! He talked to Kacie and I, showed us things we would have otherwise missed and shared his wealth of knowledge about the Mountain.
Minus the asthma attacks, I had a really wonderful day.  The scenery was beautiful and the company was fabulous. I enjoyed getting to know more about Kacie while experiencing my first mountain hiking {walking}.
I should have somewhere in there mentioned that Kacie and I got dressed in completely different locations... the West Point group had spent the night at a lodge while Phoebe and I hung out at Home Base... this is important to note because we were both dressed in the same outfit!  So between that, the fact we hiked together and both struggle with motion sickness, we have adopted each other as twins!  We're pretty sure that a few people we passed on the hike thought we planned to match for the day lol.
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The Side Effects - 28/07

Did you know that the side effects of Malarone  (anti-malaria) medication can include nausea, upset stomach, loss of appetite or headache? But did you know it can also reduce red blood cells and cause nightmares or hallucinations?
Well today I had my first and hopefully last encounter with these side effects.  Last night I forgot to take my pill with dinner for the first time.  No big deal right? I remembered shortly after eating so I took it with water.  I have been taking iron tablets with the malaria medicine just in case the red blood cell thing was true (I'm anaemic) but since I don't always need them daily I figured one skipped iron tablet wouldn't make a difference.
WRONG WRONG WRONG.
I was extremely lethargic with anaemia body ache in the morning. I got up and brushed my teeth but felt too yucky to fake it through the morning.  I went to the main house and found Romana (one of the local staff). I let her know I wasn't feeling well enough for placement and I also let Virginia (fellow volunteer at my placement site) know before climbing  back into bed... where I stayed for the next 4 hours or so experiencing weird dreams!
It was an experience to say the least!

The Chagga - 27/07

Today we had a day trip to the Marangu area. We stopped at a Chagga Village for an informative tour.
The Chagga were brilliant.
Really.
The Chagga are the indigenous people of Mount Kilimanjaro who created an intricate system of life below ground as a response to attacks from other lowland tribes like the Maasai. The way they designed their cave dwellings and their plan of action for attacks was impressive.  I encourage you to read more about these interesting people.

Do Good, Feel Good - 25/07

Today I wasn't feeling 100%. You'd think after last year's experience with germy volunteers I'd have learned my lesson and carried some cold medicine. Alas, I didn't.  So after spending the weekend in a safari truck with someone who covered their cough only 70% of the time, and 80% of THAT coverage was done with the inside of her hand, I was bound to be affected by the cold that is going around the group.  Gross. I've been taking cod liver oil capsules and airborne in attempts to prevent illness and I like to think they've been pretty effective.
Last night I had a slight headache and sore throat.  I took some Tylenol and a Strepsil before bed.  This morning I felt like my health was fading a bit but I knew if I could make it through the morning I could pick up medicine during our afternoon town trip.
Today was my first day with the 4 year olds.  Our morning started with assembly outside next to the play yard. The children were too cute singing the national anthem!  They practised 'attention' and 'at ease' and sang more songs. The teachers checked their uniforms and general cleanliness before dismissing them to class. 
Today the 4 year olds reviewed their numbers to 100, alphabet song, long O sound and basic addition facts.  Their snack break is a little later because of the staggered times as the dining room is shared. It works out that my tea time is closer to their snack time. With our tea today we had samosas and a deep fried hard boiled egg... I tried my best to eat it but I am no fan of boiled egg!  At least I tried.
The children copied down a few addition sums and some consonant-longO combinations in their copybooks. By the time they had all finished that it was almost their lunch time and time for me to head back to Home Base. 
After lunch I took a quick nap during siesta time.  I still wasn't feeling great but I didn't want to miss our scheduled visit to a local orphanage. After a few reminders not to come back home {Bermuda} with a baby, I headed out ready to pick up some supplies for the orphanage as well as something to fight this sore throat before it gets any worse.
I filled up a shopping cart with things I thought would be helpful, practical and fun.  Joseph accompanied me and Teddy helped to provide some suggestions.
I also grabbed some fruit juices, Strepsils and all natural medicine for me.
Once my groceries were all boxed we headed out to the van and Papa John helped put the box in his van. 
It was a bit of a drive out to the orphanage so I got some rest on the way.  When we arrived I instantly felt welcome.  The children came out to meet us and took the donations inside to a table.  Then they sang a few songs for us.  It was beautiful.  Nixon, one of our local volunteers, (not to be confused with the safari driver) translated the story of the orphanage as given by the Mama.
The orphanage began when they found a little boy sleeping in the sewer drains. They had a small wooden house but they took him home.  It wasn't long before they had more children.  The husband is a guide at Mount Kilimanjaro and one day he must have told a tourist about their children.  In 2006 they received a donation from that tourist to start building a bigger home and by 2007 the house was finished. 
The first boy they had is now grown up and working at the Tanzanian Revenue Authority and another is a teacher.  Many of their other children are in university. They have quite an age range in the house now and two little ones with special needs. The other children interact nicely with the children with special needs.  You can see the love, patience and understanding they have.
After a tour of the property we went out to see their church where they sang a few more songs. We then played some games outside until it was time to go. 
It was great to see them all living happily as a family. They were so appreciative of our time and gifts but really I was grateful for the experience of being with them and getting to see how they live first hand. It sounds cliché, but I really did feel warm inside 😊❤.

Home of the Elephants - 24/07

Today we headed out to Tarangire National Park (the real park, not my bedroom at Home Base). From my pretrip reading I knew that this was the place to go if you wanted to see elephants - so obviously it was on my to do list!  In case I had missed that tidbit of information, there was a sign announcing we were entering the home of elephants as we approached the park. I later found out that Tarangire means River of the Warthogs and NOT elephants  (elephant is Tembo, FYI).
As a group we had a goal- spot the leopard, the final animal on our Big Five list. A few of the volunteers were also looking forward to seeing giraffes. I have to admit they weren't really on my list but they were beautiful to see. I snapped some good giraffe shots if I say so myself. 
Nixon and Hillary  (the driver for the West Point volunteers) spotted a leopard in the high grass and we could tell the giraffes were on alert but try as we may we could not find the leopard. Some of the West Pointers said they saw the tail though!  That's pretty cool. 
We had lunch in the picnic area before heading home. We were warned to watch out for the cheeky vervet monkeys.  As we were eating someone, I think it was Becky, wondered if monkeys actually like bananas or if that was just something people said. Not a minute sooner did a monkey scoot down a tree and grab Andrew's banana that was sitting on the table next to mine!  There was a brief moment of madness as we screamed, laughed and jumped out of the monkey's way! The monkey made his way to a branch near the top of the tree  and enjoyed his free snack while we continued to laugh and settle back at the table.  We were able to take a few monkey selfies before leaving the lunch area. Another cheeky monkey stole a chocolate bar from someone else's lunch as we were on our way out.  These monkeys must really enjoy the safari visitors!
After lunch we drove around by the river before heading out of the park and back home.  We didn't have any luck with the big cats, but all in all it was another beautiful day on safari.

Luck of the Maasai - 23/07

Today we departed camp just after 7:00am heading for our destination of Ngoragora Crater.  The crater was once an active volcano and is now home to many members of Tanzanian wildlife, including all of the Big 5. For those of you unfamiliar with African safaris, the Big 5 are lions, leopards, water buffalo, rhinos and last but never least, elephants. The other inhabitants of the crater are members of the Maasai as they will live peacefully with the animals without hunting them... which sadly can't be said for all humans. There are rangers patrolling the crater rim on guard for would be poachers.
When we reached the top of the crater we saw a few baboons. Nixon  (Nick) informed us that we should keep our windows closed because the baboons can be quite dangerous. While we were waiting for our park pass we also saw some ants working away at something.  They were huge!
It was quite a drive getting to the crater's rim and then driving down to enter the park but it was about to be worth it.  I felt the anticipation a child does when they're about to visit Disney for the first time - was it going to be everything I hoped?!
I'm pleased to tell you it was an AMAZING experience!!! The roaming zebras and wildebeest were abundant as well as the warthogs and gazelles. There was an enormous flock of flamingoes in a salty lake, stretching further than the reach of my fancy camera lens.  We saw an elephant on its own (guess who spotted that first?),  which seemed a bit strange to me. Nick said it's herd was probably nearby. One big highlight was seeing lions mate!  There could be 2-4 little simbas running around the park in approximately 110 days! We spotted some water buffalo and those things are huge! They were mainly relaxing, hanging out, not up and about much.
Like I said, it was an amazing day. I'm sure you can tell by my overuse of exclamation marks ;). On my first ever safari experience I saw FOUR out of the Big Five!  How cool is that? Wonderful. Seriously wonderful. The group of volunteers that safari-ed before us had told us they saw a rhino in the crater and since that I was hoping I'd get the opportunity to see it.  I know- you're surprised I didn't say elephants.  Don't get me wrong. The ellies will always be my favourites, but at the rate life/humanity/human-animal interaction is going, who knows how much longer rhinos will be found in the wild. When we entered the park I asked Nick about the chances of seeing the rhino and he said he couldn't promise any sightings but we'd need to be pretty lucky to see a rhino. I joked and said the Maasai told me my bracelet was good luck.  When we were finishing up Nicole mentioned that maybe my bracelet is in fact lucky. Either way, tonight I am thankful for this amazing opportunity to see these wonderful creatures of God's creation. Asante.