Currently sitting in a hot and sweaty internet cafe in the middle of Moshi town, so forgive me for sending a group email! Just thought i'd keep you up to date on how everything's going over here...After a rather emotional goodbye at the airport to my family we started the long journey to Dubai! Everything went smoothly and after 3 plains and an hour bus ride from the airport we arrived at camp where we were greeted by all the other people staying there - including British girls and boys and some girls from Holland!
The tents are big army style canvas things with cement floors, bunk beds, heavy duty mosquito nets and electricity. There are 3 tents - 1 for all the boys (mostly from England) and the other 2 are for the girls. There is a huge camp fire in the middle of everything and the usual toilet block with cold showers and a kitchen/chill out area!
I have to say that the things I have seen here already are truly amazing. On our first day of orientation we were taken for a tour of the school that we'd be working at and got to walk through the local village market. Both were just very eye opening. We're currently building a new dining hall to help feed around 500 children at the school as their current one is falling apart.
The work is not easy. Their is constant heat blaring down on you and we have to do everything by hand such as mixing cement and carrying water and dirt to the building site. Despite this, it is very rewarding and it helps the group to work as a team.
The town market absolutely blew me away. It was like nothing you could ever imagine or see in a movie. Just rows and rows of women crouching on the ground under umbrellas, wearing the most colourful clothes and fabrics, with their vegetables and goods spread out on pieces of plastic before their feet. As we stood in a group of around 14, children from all over began running towards us yelling "Mzungu" (white person), over and over again! Some of us were pretty frightened but also very amazed at the beauty of the whole scene.
Coming into Moshi town for the first time was also pretty cool. But we leant quickly that we had to keep our guards up as we were instantly followed and harrassed by 'fly boys' trying to sell us their bracelets etc, some even following us to the bank to wait for us to get money. haha.
On Saturday we went to visit one of the poorest orphanages in Tanzania. Going into town in the morning to collect supplies such as medicine, clothes and food for us to donate to the children there. I certainly wasn't emotionally prepared for what I saw when we got off of our little bus and was soon overwhelmed with emotion. These kids have absolutely nothing, and most of them have HIV, sleeping 5 in a bed with only 1 meal of boiled rice per day. It was truly heartbreaking, but also very beautiful, as the kids just loved seeing us and we managed to give them some joy as we played games with them and showed them their reflections off our digital cameras.
That night we came back to camp, all very solomn and quiet, but got dressed up anyway and went to La Liga, a regge nightclub in Moshi. Everyone had such a great time and I danced for most of the time we were there with all the girls and guys from camp. Even our camp leader Thompson came with us, wearing his African sarong and introducing us to some of his local friends.
The camp where we are staying is very safe, there is an armed security guard their over night and we are across the road from the Keys Anex hotel, where most of us go to buy softdrink (served in glass bottles) and water. As we step out of the gates we see a long winding dirt road, with women and children walking past carrying huge bags of food and water on their heads, babies strapped to their backs.
I am absolutely loving every minute here, the stars are the brightest I have ever seen and my eyes are being opened to sooo much more of the world. It is so amazing. Plus, we are with a great group of ppl, all here to make a bit of a difference. Despite this, I am missing alot of the little creature comforts at home such as warm showers, fresh salads, yoghurt and home cooked meals, but its all part of the experience I guess!
Hope everyone is well back at home! Please keep me updated with what's going
on.
Love and Miss you loads.
xxo G
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