Expedition blog from Perth Grammar School, Arran High School and Carluke High School

Jambo from a sunny Moshi! 

Our first update from Tanzania comes to you with tales of singing and lots of happy and contented pupils and staff on our expedition!

After an early start for all our schools, we all met in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to board our 8 hour flight to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We were kept entertained on the flight by films (Beauty & the Beast, Moana being two favourites), Mr Walker’s laughing while watching Bridget Jones’ Baby, and the copious amounts of food which KLM fed us! 

Landing in Kilimanjaro at 7.50pm it was already dark, but still very humid! A very busy flight & a two hour queue to get through visa and passport control was borne well and in relatively good cheer by all. By the time we loaded up the buses with the luggage and travelled back to Moshi it was almost midnight! Just time for a quick bite to eat, a check of our mosquito nets & it was straight to bed.

The late night (and the fact many of us had not slept properly for over 40 hours!) meant that an 8.30am breakfast was very much appreciated this morning.  A feast of toast, avocado, omelette, sausages, and watermelon was devoured, before our first team meeting in Tanzania, going over our ‘Golden Rules’ and other tips for our two weeks here.  Then it was time to sort out rooms and get organised for the day ahead. 

Being Sunday, the local area has been filled with the sounds of music and singing as a number of church services take place in Berea during the day. We have all enjoyed listening to the music and watching the dancing, and it's already starting to show us similarities and differences between UK and Tanzanian culture. There are a number of local children around the college today, and we’ve had lots of fun playing with them. They’ve become adept at using our phones and cameras to take many, many photos!

After lunch it was time to leave the college and experience Tanzania in the daylight for the first time. This is one of my favourite parts of the trip! During the drive from the airport to Moshi, and on the first few journeys in daylight, you can really see the pupils absorbing everything around them, and taking in what a special place this is. There were lots of exclamations of ‘Look at this…" and "look at that…’.  This is the magic that brings me back again and again, and its so good to share it.

After exchanging money (where both Lauryn and Beccy were proposed to – by the same street vendor trying to sell his Tanzanian souvenirs!!), we headed out to Kimishuku.  This is the first children’s home the Vine Trust completed and it now comprises two building, housing 36 children, 8 boys and 28 girls. The children attend Rafiki Foundation School and all have high ambitions to complete their education, hoping to become doctors, teachers or other such professions. The welcome from the children and Pastor was magnificent, with singing and introductions all round. We stayed with them for a couple of hours, playing ball games, parachute games, Frisbee, drawing with chalk,and dancing….discovering along the way that Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’ and John Legend's ‘All of Me’ were a common language that all of us could sing and dance to!

It’s a quiet-ish evening back at Berea, we're all enjoying some time to ourselves before we head out to the worksites tomorrow and start the building work.

Asante Sana for all your messages of support.

Kwaheri!