Florida Inn, Lushoto, Tanzania, Friday 24th September.

So we’ve been volunteering for 2 weeks in Lushoto now, teaching at one of the local primary schools called Kitopeni in the morning, and teaching English to adults in the evening at COCAFA which is a local tour operator in Lushoto. The guys at COCAFA are really friendly and they also run lots of community projects which means that 40% of all tour guide fees go towards local projects like teaching women to sew and set up small tailoring businesses.

The weather in Lushoto is really cold! The first few days it was cloudy and a bit miserable, the temperature was only about 18.C or so - a real contrast to Dar where it was 30. At night! We’re having to wrap up in our fleeces, trousers and socks which is nice as we’ve been cursing having to carry them for 5 weeks!

Last Wednesday morning we trekked to the Irente View Point which was about 8km away from Lushoto. Our guide was Samual (Rasta-Man) who insisted on adding an I to the end of every English word he used. Walk-i, Food-i, House-i and Tree-i.The views were amazing as we walked, everything is really lush, I imagine due to the cool climate.

Last Thursday morning we visited a local orphanage run by the Lutheran church. In the afternoons Helen and I have been leading the teaching at COCAFA, which is great. Helen had been saying for a few days that she was missing school, so the opportunity to plan and teach a lessons was enjoyable. We’ve also created a ‘website’ for the COCAFA guys, they were interested in advertising their project online so we have created a blog for them. It’s really nice to have something to see that we’ve helped the community with since we came. Check it out at www.cocafa-lushoto.blogspot.com.

Also we ate Ugali every lunchtime for 2 weeks - hell.