We made it! Tanzania Gappers relish their first two weeks in Africa

We've been in Tanzania for 2 weeks now and absolutely love it! After nearly 2 days of flying and waiting in airports Paul and I arrived in Kili alive and well, and went straight to a small town called Mboku which is right near Moshi. We stayed there for a couple of days and were met with seven other volunteers from the UK and Europe. After that it was a 6 hour bus ride to the town of Tanga, and from there more of a bus bounce to our camp just outside a small village. Camp Tanzania is located right on the coast, so every morning we wake up to the sea and a picturesque landscape. Our camp staff are absolutely lovely, and the food is AMAZING.

Our main project for our time here is to build one of the Mama's a new house, as her's was destroyed in the rains about a month ago. So on our first day of project we cleared away the remainder of her house and flattened out the ground. Together with Mama's son-in-law Ali, we dug holes as deep as our arms along where the walls need to go, and then placed in wooden poles. From here we added supports and more sticks and tied everything together with twine. After a week we had the base of our house! The next step pushed a lot of us to our limits; we walked to the next village and shovelled sand into bags and then carted it in a big wheelbarrow back to the site. Several blisters and sore backs later we are ready to start making the mud walls.

Another of our projects while we are here is to help the Mama's with seaweed harvesting, and yesterday we tried it out for the first time. At low tide we waded out in our crocs (yes, we wore crocs) dodged many sea urchins and then tied bits of seaweed along ropes which we then attached to poles in the water. When the tide turned we gathered up seaweed that was ready to be harvested and loaded it into the boat that antipodeans built on the last placement. Next week we will continue with the house, and after that we will get to help villagers with everyday tasks such as herding and milking cows, and harvesting crops.

We've had so much fun already, and have even had a taste of African nightlife! Tomorrow we are venturing out to the reef, and then its off to Ngorogoro crater for safari next weekend.