First stop Tanzania!
In and around Africa
Only a week to go! I can not believe that this time next week I will be heading to the airport and getting ready to say goodbye to everyone for 9 months. I am feeling strangely relaxed considering how many times I have panicked over the past couple of months. But I think I am almost ready to go now. I haven't thought too much about what is going to happen when I get there, I'd rather just wait for the shock to hit me! I'm sure it will too!
I am going to the West Usumbara mountains in Tanzania, to do some voluntary work, teaching for a new charity called Village Africa, organised by a company called PoD (Personal Overseas Development). I looked at many different companies when thinking about doing voluntary work, but many of them seemed more interested in making money than helping charities. Pod seemed different and so far I am pleased with my choice.
So, next Sunday night I will fly from Heathrow to Dubai, where I shall meet Kirstie, fellow volunteer, for the first time. We will have an hour to say hello and have a quick chat before getting back on the plane to Nairobi, Kenya. We will stay over night on Monday in the rather nice (considering its only a tenner each) Meridian Hotel, where another volunteer, Jo will meet us. On Tuesday we have a 6 hour bus ride across the border into Tanzania, down to Moshi, near mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. There I will meet the rest of the 8 volunteers and the charity leader, Caroline. We will spend the night there getting to know the place and each other and slowly aclimatise. Next day we travel to Lushoto, which will become a familiar place to me as it is the nearest town with email. We spend another night there finding out where everything is. Finally, on Thursday we will travel the 2 and a half hours from Lushoto to Yamba. This is the main village out of the two we will be working with. We will stay there for a few days to recieve some tips and guidance and a bit of TEFL training before splitting up into our two groups. I will then go off with Kirstie, Tuba and Sarah to the other village, Milingano where we will find out what it is like to live in a mudhut with no electricity or running water and a hole in the ground for a loo! The others - Jo, Bex, James and Roy will stay in Yamba. Apparently Yamba is about 11km away and higher up the mountain. It takes about 30mins to drive there from Milingano. It should be warmer where I am staying but that means more mozzies too so I'm stocking up on repellents!
At the moment I intend to stay in Milingano for the first 3 months. From December 1st there is a school holiday until some time in January so I hope to travel for about 6 weeks, hopefully with people who will be coming to visit! I am hoping to see a bit of Kenya, and maybe Mozambique and Malawi. At Christmas I hope to be in Zanzibar relaxing by the sea! I will definitely have to do a safari or two and might try and do a bit of diving if I can afford it. I'm not sure about climbing Kilimanjaro, it seems like an awful lot of money and I would have to take a lot of extra stuff too.
In January I expect I will continue with Village Africa for another 6 weeks or so, maybe in the other village. In around about March time I hope to visit a school that I want to develop links with, before possibly going off to Uganda to teach. I have made contact with someone who has a charity working with a school over there and they would love to have me help teach english... so much that they have offered to pay for my accomodation! But we'll see...
I hope to be back at the start of June... just in time for Kim's hen night and wedding. I'm sure I'll miss everyone lots, so stay in touch!
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler AfricaAlli
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1
I'm in Africa!
I'm totally exhausted after a long flight. Left Uk at about 11pm and arrived at about 230pm (1230 UK time), stopped in Dubai on the way and met up... Continue reading »
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2
Karibuni Wuzungu! (welcome white people)
I met the rest of the 8 volunteers in Moshi, along with Caroline, the organiser of Village Africa. We all piled into a Landrover type thing with ou... Continue reading »
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3
All settled in Milingano
School is very hard work and I have up days and down days. I’m well and truly settled into the ‘Big Mili House’ now (so-called because we sometimes... Continue reading »
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4
Sun, sea, sand, and great food!
We've had a lovely relaxing couple of days in Pangani at the Peponi beach resort. We managed to get a student/ backpacker rate and have been stayin... Continue reading »
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5
A typical day in Milingano
Hello again!
I suddenly realised the other day how used to life in Milingano I had become. I sometimes forget how different everything is fro... Continue reading »
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6
Hello from Pangani!
Hello from Pangani!
We’re at Peponi again for a bit of r’n’r! It doesn’t seem like a month since we were last here and all the staff have bee... Continue reading »
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7
Sad goodbyes... thank goodness I'm coming back!
I don't seem to have worked much since I last wrote! Between exams and 3 farewell parties we've not had much time to teach. We left Milingano... Continue reading »
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8
Visa issues
We all packed ourselves into the car for the last time as a group on Wednesday 29th. It was a sad day for all of us and there were lots of tears, e... Continue reading »
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9
Holiday in Mili
While we were away, despite the luxury of Westernised food and proper toilets, I missed Milingano like crazy. I actually felt homesick, even... Continue reading »
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10
I saw Kili!
After being dropped off in Korogwe Jo and I stayed at the horrible Transit Hotel for one night. Actually its not that horrible, its just incre... Continue reading »
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11
SAFARI!
I made my own way from Moshi to Arusha on a local bus which cost 2000tsh and took about one and a half hours. Not bad. Dropped me off at the... Continue reading »
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12
What a journey! (Arusha to Korogwe)
From Arusha we made our way to Milingano. Never a particularly easy journey without your own car, however, I made the mistake of choosing the... Continue reading »
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13
Visitors in Mili
It was with great relief that we got off the nightmare bus at Korogwe! Jo and Becky were there waiting for us so we quickly piled in the car and Jo... Continue reading »
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14
Just passing through
Dar Es Salaam isn't a place I'd choose to go, but we had to make sure we were there in time to catch our flight to Zanzibar and you never know what's... Continue reading » -
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Beautiful Zanzibar!!
The flight from Dar to Zanzibar was quite exciting, being on such a little plane! I wasn't scared, honest! It only took about 20 minutes and was we... Continue reading »
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16
New Year on a beautiful island
I have to admit I was completely spoilt rotten by my lovely boyfriend, taking me to such a gorgeous place. The views over the Indian Ocean we... Continue reading »
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17
Chill out time
I had my last goodbye hug with Mark at Dar es salaam airport 'Departures' on the 5th Jan, and 30 minutes later I was hugging Anita, excited but kna... Continue reading »
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18
Back to Zanzibar
Anita had a great time on safari so may not have been as glad to see me as I was to see her but we were both pretty excited about heading out to Za... Continue reading »
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19
Kwa heri Zanzibar
Thank goodness the Dhow Palace's sister hotel, Tembo, lets you use their pool! We weren't ready to give up on the sun bathing yet and our pool... Continue reading »
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20
Back to Mili
Quick update... All's good back in the village. One classroom is full of desks already thanks to the money I donated, and more are being made... Continue reading »
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21
All's good in Mili
The past couple of weeks in the village have been excellent. My standard 6 pupils are finally starting to get past their teenage grumpiness and shy... Continue reading »
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22
Goodbye Mili :(
Boo hoo...today is a very sad day. I'm still with the other volunteers (we're in Pangani for a few days) but this morning I said goodbye to th... Continue reading »
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23
Home sweet home
We headed to Pangani for the weekend where beautiful sunshine, sea and sand awaited us. As always we all appreciated the good food and a chance... Continue reading » -
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Tips for future volunteers
While I was in Africa, the other volunteers and I were always thinking of things it would have been useful to know before heading out to Tanzania,... Continue reading »
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25
I'm the only white in the village!
I may have started off wondering what I was doing back in Milingano - how could I make any difference on my own? However, by the end of my 3 weeks... Continue reading »
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26
I'm back!
It's so weird being back. In so many ways it feels as though I've never been away, and yet so many things have changed.
I arrived on a Thurs... Continue reading »
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