Africa!!!

This is the one place I've been desperate to visit, since God knows when. My dream came true on January 25th 2010. Whilst travelling , I always believe in doing something productive rather than just backpacking. So I volunteered with Lattitude Global Voluntering to teach in Tanzania. My placement was in a boarding school not to far from Dar es Salaam. Judy, our in counttry rep met us out the airport.

I began to wonder whether coming to Africa was a mistake when we rocked up at the YMCA, where we would be staying and saw the state of it. OH MY WORD. And what was the one thing that I forgot - BED SHEETS. i wanted to scream. I was sharing a room with Rachael. A lovely girl from Birmingham , who was really chilled out and put me at ease, so it was cool.

We went on a mini orientation to Kariakoo market, which was absolutely hectic. Walking around by myself I probably would be able to fit in fairly well , but walking with 13 Caucasians I was just greeted with the sounds of ' MZUNGU' ( swahili for white person/foreigner).

During our orientation we were encouraged to buy kangas and kitenges ( materials of African print which usually read a message in Swahili). We were encouraged to wear these whilst teaching.

A few days after, our Host mother/Director of a school came to collect us from the YMCA. She greeted us with a lovely hug. For the next 5 months, I was going to be working alongside Stacey (21, Australia) and Simon (22,U.K) at Waamuzi Secondary school, Kongowe. May the journey begin....