Kilimanjaro

For our last excursion, which we totally had forgotten about until now, was that we HAD to visit Kilimanjaro for the day.

11 of us left at 9am on Saturday morning to set off on the two hour long bus journey. We were taken to Kilimanjaro base camp at first which was really pretty. We managed to take some group photos and visit the gift shops. It was quite a relief that we didn't have to climb the mountain as the stairs up to the base camp were steep enough! We managed to see some poor souls who were just about to ascend up their 6/7 day long hike... 

After visiting, we were taken for lunch around the same area which was really nice. We will miss traditional African food! We thought we were going to come to Africa and lose weight... Hmmmm. Back to the gym we go!

After lunch, we walked it off by hiking to the Chaga village. The Chaga are another tribe who once were enemies of the Massai tribe many years ago. Here we were shown around and were able to speak with elders of the tribe. We were shown some of their cattle and were able to interact with the children. The village itself was situated on a beautiful cliff side with a great view.

A little 2 year old girl took a liking to Angie, she took my hand and would not let go the whole time we were in the village, Jessica was so cute, she was playing with my hair and dancing with me,....so fell in love with her, wish I could have taken her home with me!

After the village, we visited a blacksmiths. The men must be so tired doing the same thing all day long but they're obviously very used to it. 

Our last activity involved finding the waterfall. After a very rocky climb, we eventually found it. It was beautiful and we were able to go in and get some pictures. It was far too cold though brrrr!

Unfortunately, we weren't actually able to see Kilimanjaro very well as there were so many clouds but we had managed to get some from before. Viewing the mountain will be quite enough for now, maybe we will be able to climb it in a few years haha... Maybe.

We had a great day  out ended by our last ever Dala Dala ride home!

Off on safari now, will let you all know how amazing it is soon!! 

Love Angie & Chloe! 

Week 6 in Arusha!

This week we have been busy spending some more of our fundraising money. We decided that it would be a good idea to donate to the local school, called High Ridge. The children within this school are aged between 7-13.

After placement on Tuesday, we decided to go down to the local book shop in town. I didn't think a shop could hold this many books but we were proven wrong!

2 whole hours later...

We were finally settled on what we were buying.

We got lots of school supplies, such as: 

English, maths, science, geography and history books.

Dictionaries and student companions.

Calculators,

Jotters,

Pens,

Pencils,

Highlighters,

Rubbers,

Rulers, 

Sharpeners,

One world globe and 2 maps.

Every Wednesday, anyone at all from the house can visit the school with Fidelis, our very friendly work the world representative, therefore we decided it would be a good idea to get everything the day before.

On Wednesday we went to Highridge english medium, a local primary school in Arusha. 

We took all the books and stationary that we bought earlier in the week with us. When we arrived we were greeted by the head teacher and some other staff members, who were so overwhelmed by what we had brought they invited us back for a celebratory ceremony on the Friday. There was no way we could turn this down! 

We still had a massive chunk of our fundraising money left over, therefore we thought the school would be a fantastic place to spend all we had left! On the Wednesday we had spoken to one of the science teachers from the school who described the very few materials they had for trying to teach the children. Mostly this included cut up bottles and balloons, despite this the teachers enthusiasm do the kids to develop there knowledge was touching! He said science is dying out in Arusha as schools can not afford the materials needed to provide sufficient knowledge to the children. Therefore when we were asked back for a thank you ceremony we decided we would take them a little surprise! 

On Thursday we asked Fidelis to help us spend all of our money.

We decided we wanted to give the school a whole new science department, including chemistry, biology and physics equipment! Fidelis was absolutely fantastic and found the perfect shop which had so many supplys. And we were all shocked at how good the quality of everything was!

 

We must have spent about 4 hours in that shop choosing everything we could think of, we ended up with:

Body Models

Heart

Teeth/Lower Jaw

HIV model

Full body

Brain

Skull

Ear

Kidney

Posters

Kidney

Respiratory

Eye

Skeletal System

Digestive System

Circulatory System

Heart

Animal cells

Male organs

Female organs 

Carbon cycle

Periodic table

Microscope x3

Magnifying glass x5

Spring Balance x5

Crocodile clip x10

Horse shoe magnet x3

Bar magnet x3

Litmus paper x6

pH strip x2

Thermometer x5

Pipet/dropper x10

Beaker x2

Pourer x12

Glass flask x2

Bunsen Burner

Gas canister x4

Test tube rack x2

Beaker x4

Distillation Apparatus

Test tube x10

Beaker stand

Iodine solution x3

Hydrochloric acid

Sodium hydroxide 

Ethanol 

Benedict's solution 

Plastic Petridish x20

Glass slide for microscope x5

Trough

Test tube glass testing stick

Total spent - 2,740,000 tsh

The Friday morning we went early to the shop to pick up some final items, disappointingly our biggest and most expensive item... A full body model was not there as there were problems at the warehouse however Fidelis is a star and is going to pick it up next week and take it to the school as one final surprise! 

Anyway we drove to the school with the car jam packed full of new science equipment. When we arrived we had asked Fidelis to get us a free classroom so that we could set everything up without any of the teachers or children knowing! 

This worked a treat.. As after we had everything set up we asked the teachers to come and look, they would never have imagined what we were able to do for them! I can't even begin to describe there reaction, they were in total shock and totally overwhelmed! They were screaming, singing and dancing around the room, it was so emotional seeing what a difference we had made. Quote from the head teacher "you can bring the children sweets but when you bring them knowledge it stays with them forever" "these children can see, they can touch and they can learn now which is the most important gift that can be given, thank you girls so much, you are a miracle sent to us" 

As you can imagine this was an extremely emotional day! We have never felt so appreciated and that we have made such a difference to people's lives! It is an incredible feeling and we can't begin to thank you all enough for all the donations made! 

After the teachers saw the class, they took us to their office where they surprised us with a massive lunch prepared especially for us as a thank you (bearing in mind this massive thank you was only for the books and stationary we had previously taken, as all the science equipment was a surprise). 

After lunch they let the children see their new class, knowledge and learning means so much to children here, and they were so grateful, they sang us a thank you song which was the most beautiful and heart wrenching thing ever..... Cried a little bit.... Okay maybe a lot :0! 

The teachers then presented us with so many gifts including a kanga, earrings, shoes, a bird dream catcher, and bracelets. We could not believe their kindness and their appreciation for all the things we were able to buy them. 

The head teacher also hired a photographer after seeing the classroom so there were plenty of pictures taken. They also said they are going to name the classroom after us "we will put up 2 plaques just incase one falls down, and we will stamp the books with your names!" We spent so long here at the school and it was so sad saying goodbye... I wish we had more time in Africa to go back again but at least they will get one more surprise from us next week with the full body model! 

Again a massive thank you to all who contributed to our fundraising nights, I hope from this weeks blog you can begin to understand the incredible impact the money has made on the children's education and that of future generations! These children have never seen equipment like this and they are so keen to learn and I can only imagine how much they will excel due to there new science class! You should all feel as proud as we do right now because without you all we could not have done this! And a special thank you to Fidelis, you made this all possible! Asante sana rafiki.

Massive thank you from the two of us <3,