Shopping and a Group Meeting.

Before we went on Safari we had organised a day of shopping for Friday, as five of the volunteers were leaving within the next week so they wanted to get presents and so on. So we went on the hunt to get some material because everywhere you go you see this beautiful distinctive material, women wear it around their waists, children wear them as a dress for going for a shower, and you can use it to be made into anything you could possibly imagine. After going to lots more shops and markets, we headed home, but because we got to town separately there then wasn't enough room in Deo's car, so myself and three others decided to get a Dala Dala, which is their public transport. Having been warned to be careful taking the Dala I was quite nervous, luckily we found a quite empty on and got in, the Dala stops at the top of the road that leads down to the house, if we were to walk it would take at least twenty five minutes so we decided to be adventurous and take a Peki Peki down the hill, which is a motorbike, Linda took some persuasion but in no time we were each sat on the back of four motorbikes gripping onto the driver, it was such a thrill, going over bumps was fun, and we got to the house in no time. When we arrived back at the house we were greeted with the dinner table outside with chairs all around, we were going to have a group meeting with all the volunteers and Mama and David. They sat us all down and wanted to say thank you for all the work and effort we had put in with the children, they are so appreciative of the volunteers and there way of saying thank you was to get a chef to come to the house and put on a lovely spread of food. Mama shared some of the background stories of the children, we had read their files, but hearing them out loud was heart breaking, the trauma those children have been through is more than anyone could comprehend and to see them with smiles on their faces is the best thing you could ever hope for. 

Maasai Tribe

On our second day of our safari we were able to stop off and meet a Maasai tribe, this tribe was situated near the entrance of the Ngorongoro crater, which trust me when I say it is far far away from any civilization. We were greeted with a dance from the tribe and then invited into the 'village' we were shown the homes, which is a very small hut made form mud and dung, with one tiny window in so the smoke from the fire is let out of the hut. There were several beds in the hut the one I went into had a mother and baby in there and we were told that the whole family would sleep in the hut as well as their goats.The tribesman that was showing us around infromed us that they only eat goat, they use everything from the animal, eat it's meat, and drink it's blood and milk. We were shown the school, as we entered the children were singing, and then one child went to the board and pointed to numbers they recited the numbers in unison in English. In the middle of the 'village' there's a circular market where they try and get you to buy their jewelry, the tribe use the money they get from tourists visiting to go to the nearest town and buy beads to be able to make things to sell, they also use animal bones that they to make things out of. 

    

Safari

The next two days were going to be spent on Safari we were visiting the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Lake Manyara. I think the photos speak for themselves, but I would like to say it was the most incredible experience I've had the pleasure of experiencing. The views, the animals, and the excitement is something I will never be able to forget!

Sports day.

The Plan for the day was to go to the center again, but this didn't happen. We were told that we were going to Yakini because apparently the teachers wanted our help with something. So we arrived at the school, saw the headteacher and he asked us what we were going to be doing today, we said well we thought you needed our help, he wasn't aware of any teachers requesting our help so instead we joined two of the volunteers with some of the children to go to football and netball trials. The children we were ging with had got through to the second round and now they were going to play to see if they got picked for the Arusha team. From Yakini we had one girl for the netball and about 7 boys for football. It turned out to be a great day, being someone who was brought up with playing netball from primary school all through to college and played in the teams, it was great to be able to help share my knowledge of the game. I practiced with Swali, whilst the athletics was happening we practiced shooting and as soon as we were practicing we attracted a crowd, all the girls wanted to join in a play with us, which was great. 

After a few matches and having to restrain myself from questioning the refs decisions, the team was announced and Swali was the first girl picked for the team, we were all so proud! The boys did amazing in the football matches too, five out of our seven boys got picked!

Maths Lesson.

The day started by going to the center st 8am, we had planned on sitting in on a lesson with the intermediate class, we were in class with the children, waiting for at least ten minutes, and there was still no teacher, I went to find out what was going on to be told there the teacher was not in today, so Class one's teacher set some work and we were left to supervise. After some time most of the children had completed the work and had started to get a bit restless, quite frankly I think they were just bored, they all started to play up and get noisy, in the end when they had all done the work we started doing maths questions on the board and getting the children to come out and write the answers. Within the class there is a huge age difference, as most of the classes are formed on ability instead of age, the youngest in the class was around 7 years of age and the eldest 10 years old. After a short time back at the house for a lunch and bit of time to relax we headed back to the center, I brought some pencils with me and handed them out to all the children, they were shocked when I said they could keep them, they were very thankful, now there was no excise for them not to do their homework! 

Church and Baking cookies.

Every Sunday the children attend church, I was so keen to learn more about their culture and this would be the perfect way to get a better insight. Church started at 10am we met the children at the church they were all dressed smartly and already sat down, now their church could easily of been mistaken for a emptying building, the churches in England are mostly quite grand building which you would be able to notice was a church straight away, this was not the same in Tanzania but still they made it look lovely with colourful material behind the alter. It was a lovely atmosphere, we were welcomed but the church and we were asked to introduce ourselves and say where we were from. There was plenty of singing and dancing and it was such a blessing to see them so happy. After a couple of hours the children have a short Sunday school lesson, I sat in with the younger ones and they sand some more songs and recited some passages from the Bible. We then went back to the house for lunch which was Pilau (rice and meat) this was one of my favourite meals. At around 3 in the afternoon we did some baking at the house,then once we finished the baking all the children would come down and we would watch a film. It was lovely, hearing their laughter and smiles watching the film, this was a treat for them and it mainly only happens when there are volunteers to do it with them. It was Mother's day back home, and we were currently watching Despicable Me 2 in Africa surrounded by

beautiful children, there was a moment in the film where a little girl sings a mother's day song but she doesn't have a mum, at that very moment I looked around at all the children around me and started to tear up, I thought about how all of these children have either been mistreated, rejected, abandoned, or left on their on due to death, yet they have smiles on their perfect faces and are some of the happiest children I have had the pleasure of coming across. 

Lazy Saturday and Goodbyes.

When Saturday came around we were shattered, getting used to the heat and the early starts had taken it's toll on us, so we had a relaxing morning, tidying are room so we were a bit more organised and reading in the sun which was a lovely way to start the day. A bit later on the children came and joined us at the house as one of the volunteers Marie who is a regular at Living Water and donates a lot towards the developments was leaving so the family had organised for a cook to come in a put together a wonderful spread before she went. The food was simply amazing it was the best we had so far it was a lovely treat for us all. Watching the children eat such good food was a lovely thing to witness, don't get me wrong they have good food at the center and they have big portions! But it was nice to see them get some meat which they don't really tend to get. They sang and danced a goodbye song for Marie which was lovely to see. One of the family members had a 3 or 4 month old baby and the children just loved holding baby Nathan, they were so gentle and careful with him, and of course I had to have a hold of him! After the celebration we headed up to the center and took wool up so the children could make bracelets. The amount of times a child would start a bracelet then have to go do some chores and then would come back a while after to continue the bracelet saddened me. It would be lovely to take away all the chores that the children have to do but that's their routine and they just get on with it, which I admire about them so much, on a daily basis they clean their clothes, fold their clothes, clean the center which includes sweeping the floors, mopping the floors, picking up twigs and leaves, cleaning the toilets and showers, cleaning the classrooms and their bedrooms as well as get their homework done and have a bit of time to play. Children in England do not know how lucky they have it, they would not last one day if they switched lives with one of the children I was with.