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This morning Emma and the kids took the Lesiraa School Deputy Head Teacher on a spending spree in Arusha with 2.5 million Tanzanian Shillings. They bought an incredible amount of educational resources and psorts equipment, and this will certainly enhance what goes on at the school.
This afternoon we experienced something quite unique, and it was certainly a 'first' for me. My friend Zach took us to a local Boma out in the bush, (Maasai family settlement), and the local elders had arranged a traditional meal of roast goat for us. This tradition is normally extended to other Maasai visitors on special occasions, but was provided for us as a thankyou for what we had done for Lesiraa School. After the formal procedures and speeches by the chief and his warriors, I had to sit in the chair provided for the Acklam Grange 'chief', and was presented with the first cut from a goat's leg, hacked off with some lack of precision by a warrior with an extremely sharp knife. Most pupils managed to put 'mind before matter' when they were presented with their joint of meat by individual warriors, only to find that it actually tasted quite nice. The 'crunch' came when the meat had all been stripped from the bones, and the warriors then smashed off the ends of the bone, and then took out the bone marrow with sticks taken from the ground. Several of us tried the bone marrow, and various descriptions of the flavour followed, but there was no unanimous verdict!
Following this unique and wothwhile experience, we left some of our unwanted clothes with the women of the Boma, and then walked back through the bush to the camp site. En route Zach took us into a couple of more Bomas where we left the remainder of our clothes, and some gifts for the children. This experience of walking through the bush late in the afternoon as the sun was dropping, and calling in on Maasai families who would proably have never spoken to a white person before, was actually one of the best I have ever had. It was something that was unique, and we were so lucky to have been able to do this - sharing it with your sons and daughters made it even more memorable.
Peter
Today was shopping day with the Deputy Head from Lesiraa School. We had over 2million Tanzanian Shillings to spend on supplies for the school. Although it was an important task it was a good few hours of sat waiting for people to finish.
After the drive back to the campsite we had to sort out the clothes we wished to give to the families as we were going to visit a maasai village for a traditional barbeque. We had to walk from the campsite to the boma (community) we were visiting.
When we got their we went and sat under a huge tree when some maasai men were sat. One of them was a the Chief of the village. We later found out that he had 2 wives and 10 children, which for them is not very many. One man in the village who was 80 years old have 8 wives and 25 children!!
We gave the clothes we had brought to the people of the village and many other villages along the way. It was a moving experience!!
Anyway off to have dinner so Kwaheri and Tuta onana!!
Sarah. L
Hello, mum, Rob, Lucy, Adam and Ste!
Since I haven’t written in the diary for a while, I’ll give you the down load on what’s been going on. J
I can’t remember the last time I did actually write in the diary.
Yesterday was amazing, we went to Lessiraa school on the morning, and the thing I will never forget about that was seeing the kids faces when we took out the bunch of rulers, it just lit up their faces so much, I was really proud of us all for us making such a difference for them, with just a bunch of rulers!
Then we went to a secondary school on the afternoon, and after giving them a very competitive game of volleyball, we were walking back to the truck and a lovely girl called Anastasia gave me her necklace as a gift, it really cheered me up because I wasn’t feeling very well at all yesterday, also the whole school sang us a song and that was just amazing!
Finally today, we had gone shopping this morning for the school, and spent 2 million tanzanian shillings for supplies for the school and I just didn’t enjoy it at all because it was just waiting around for a hell of a long time outside only 2 shops and we went shopping for over 3 hours. But this afternoon we went for a BBQ at the maasia village and I really didn’t like the fact I was eating a goat, I only had one little bit and just eurgh! I didn’t like it at all J
But I left a lot of stuff with the kids and the bomahs they were called, and it just made me feel so proud of myself improving someone’s life like that!
I actually feel guilty for having so much stuff at home and them having just hardly/practically nothing, get that toy room sorted and give it to charity I’m telling you lot J!
But anyways, I have news for you all when I get home; I was shocked so I know you (mother) will be.
Oh and I haven’t burnt yet, which I am chuffed about! So you can tell nana that I am doing well =D
Home on Thursday! I’m going to ring you when I get to Manchester, can’t wait to get home, I’m loving being here and I don’t want to come home, but I am ready to come home, I know its weird but its hard to explain the feelings!
Sorry about the essay J Shopping for presents tomorrow kids! =D
Love you all very much, and missing you lot millions!
Love Laura
xxxxx
Hey everyone!!! Especially Matt, Dave, Mam and Dad!
Hope you are all well…I am, I’ve had a mint day!! We got to see maasia villages and give them our clothes which was really cute and emotional and iv got some good photos, we also had a traditional BBQ with the Maasia people and I had some bone marrow from a goat I think it just tasted like blood wasn’t too nice haha but im trying as much as I can…I might even hold a snake tomorrow! I want to before we come home anyway.
And guess what? You will be sooo proud of me! Im still not sunburnt!!! Wowee! Haha…
So yeah im enjoying myself loads but there has been a few downers…for example we took deputy head teacher of Lesiraa shopping today and we ended up just standing outside for hours doing absolutely nothing… I havent been travel sick h!! Wooo! Lol I haven’t took the tablets for it either! And I haven’t been ill yet!!! Yeyyy!! (everyone needed to know that haha!!) But ill tell you all my stories when I get home…5 more sleeps!!! Im excited lol….i do love it here but im also really excited to see you all again! I think I would come back here though there is just sooo much that needs to be done here that I feel bad and guilty living how we do at home! But I miss people at home too much so you lot would have to come with me hehe!! Anyway I’m off I might be able to get on the internet and email you all sometime but im not sure anyway I will phone you mam and dave when I get to manchester!!
Lots of love!!!
Love you all soooo much!!!
And miss you!!!
Love hugs and kisses Sarah!!
Kwarheri!! Lala Salama!
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jambo,
Sorry it’s been so long, we’ve done a lot since my last entry, as you can probably tell from the websiteJ. I don’t want to bore you with all the details, but we have had many ‘experiences’. In a nut shell though we visited a maasia village today and I gave all my clothes away.
Every thing is well! Africa is so amazing. We went shopping for the school today and I met some little children. They were so cute. I gave them my balls and they were amazed. We played with them for an hour. You will see the pics when I get back, I took loads. It is so amazing over here. I cannot explain my feelings in words you have to visit here to realise. I am ready to come home, but I want to stay at the same time. If you understand me?
It has been a very hard experience and I miss you all. But it has been worthwhile. I know it’s a cliché but it really does open your eyes and make you a better person. It won’t really hit me until I get home what the whole experience has been like. I’ve been really emotional as you can probably guess, and will be when I get back, so I apologise if I’m hysterical.
Can’t wait tilI see you all again even Chris haha. J
I shall see you all soon J looking forward to it.
Love to everyone
x x x
Tuta onana
Love Nic
Jambo Everybody,
We are still having a fantastic time, although all of the obstacles that we have had to face. Today we have had many memories, for example going for a BBQ with a maasia boma (family group for all you that are unable to understand Kiswahili) where they presented us with succulent goat that had been braising over a fire for hours, adding extra flavour. They then carved individual mouthful size pieces of the goat and handed them to us. Unfortunately our ‘chief’ Peter had the pleasure of receiving the first offering of the meat. Before leaving we were given a tour of one of their largest maasia mud huts, before everybody leaving clothing for the family. While walking back to the campsite, we visited another 2 boma’s where we left the remaining clothes, which made the families day, especially the children, who presented us with huge smiles on their faces.
This morning we took the deputy head teacher shopping in Arusha. He was over the moon when he found out that we had a total of over 2 million Tanzanian shillings. He took us to two of the best value shops so we could get the very most out of the money. We only visited two shops, where we bought him stationary and sports equipment.
A good way to finish the night is when some t-shirts we had ordered arrived with a pattern of where we had visited Africa with the outline being our names. This made Peter very emotional as he didn’t know anything about it and we presented it to him after we told him our tour guide wanted to talk to him in the bar because she was feeling unhappy, but she was really distracting him do the t-shirts could be delivered.
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