So far I have had quite a few ups and downs. To begin with Africa was not the fairytale adventure I had planned it to be! I arrived in Dar es Salaam on 3rd Feb. Dar is hot, humid, busy and noisy, with a lot of poverty. The first week we had some pretty intensive training. When we weren’t being told not to carry anything of any value because of all the crime we were hearing about all the wonderful diseases we could get. However, I have met some really lovely friendly people from all over. There are volunteers from Uganda, India, Philippines and Kenya as well as the UK and of course all the wonderful Tanzanians!

I managed to get sick within the first week which wasn’t much fun. Just a urine infection but I felt miserable! I left Dar on 9th Feb (hooray!), and came to the beautiful place in the mountains where I am now. We have had one week of Swahili training which is great and I am over the sickness – so feeling much happier.

I have seen some amazing giant bugs – huge centipedes that look like snakes and enormous snails that make you feel you are in Alice in wonderland!

The most exciting thing is that on Sunday we went on a trip (safari) to a national park. We saw hundreds of giraffes, zebras, wilder beasts, elephants and a tiny tiny baby elephant which was so so cute! We also saw: hippos, crocodiles and some mad birds – all in the wild. It was so amazing!

Thank you so much everyone for all your thoughts and prayers – they have really worked.

Next time I will tell you about our exciting adventures with the immigration officers – who weren’t quite so friendly. But I will wait to get my passport back first!