Tanzania week 1

After arriving in Tanzania and my excessive long flight and stop over we headed to Arusha where we would be staying for a few nights. While we were here we got to know each other and also spent a lot of time learning Maasai (or in my case attempting to learn!). There are 9 volunteers including myself - Danni, Louise, Ann Marie, Connor, Tom, Julius, Mikey and Hannah are so far everyone seems to be getting on really well. Then there is Dave our expedition leader and Jinka our scientist and Isaya our Maasai teacher! We are all like one big happy family! We also had a few nights out in Arusha!

After a few days we headed to the Massai village in Eluai which was to be our new home. Camp is gorgeous so lovely and peacefully and has gorgeous views as it is on top of a hill! The massai village is huge bigger than I expected and really spread out we are slightly away from the other. On camp we have two main bomas where we sleep one for the boys and one for the girls and our beds our made from wood, quite raised above the floor with wooded walls between each bed! Then Dave and Jinka have a boma each as do the Maasai. We have a kitchen and eating area, a learning area and a rave cave for partying!

Our first few days on camp we spent getting used to things on camp and adjusting to our new environment - we also started camp duty which two people have to do each day and includes cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, washing up and disinfecting, emptying the bins and cleaning the toilet. We cook on charcoal burners and everything we cook seems to take forever it takes so long to boil water! We usually have tea and toast for breakfast, rice and vegetables for lunch and either a potato or beans or pasta for dinner! On the first Saturday here I went to the clinic as I had been feeling a bit sick and found out I have malaria (good start!) I won the competition of who can get malaria first! No worries though I only have the parasite at a count of 2 so nothing serious and they gave me lots of medication to cure me!

In the evening the Massai did a got ceremony for us. We bought the goat in the daytime and named her ugly Betty! The ceremony was no where like what I had expected I was expecting blood everywhere but this was not the case! First they suffocated the goat then they peeled off all the skin - it was done so carefully not to rip any of the skin. Next they cut off all the fat and then cut the goat open and took out its insides. I tried raw kidney which apart from the weird texture didn't taste too bad! Next we drank the blood out of one of the Masaai's hands - the blood tasted horrible I was nearly sick. I'm glad I tried it but won't be doing that again! Once they had finished they cooked up all the goat and I later cooked liver and for dinner we had got meat and rice - I'm not overly keen on goat I have decided! After dinner the Massai did some dancing for us which was chanting and jumping and they let us all join in! All in all it was a very enjoyable evening!