The ones we're helping

This was the day that we got to meet the children at a school that the charity Childreach International have helped to fund with new facilities. (Childreach were the charity that I raised £2500 for to go on this trek).

The drive to the school was short in distance, but was made long by the state of the roads - they are so uneven and dangerous! When we got near the school, we could see the children waiting at the entrance - they seemed excited already, waving and jumping around.

We were given a welcome talk by the teachers, and then the whole school (300 pupils) sang a welcome song for us. The choir then had their turn and performed a couple of songs, followed by the gymnastics team doing flips and cartwheels etc - they were really talented!

We were given a tour of the school and shown where the money that we've helped to raise will go. They have a new toilet block now, whereas a year ago they had basically a wall to go behind. Their classrooms were full of colourful pictures and paintings.

We then went and played with the children on they playing field which was huge! Each of us 'white' folk had about 5 children clinging to each arm - it was a bit surreal, they all seemed to love us being there. They were all very happy, and they seemed to love doing the hokey cokey, and various other dancing games. The lads of our group enjoyed playing football with the school boys.

Seeing the children that the money was directly helping was great motivation for climbing Kili, it made me feel that I had to do it - for them.

It was really difficult to say goodbye though - I had a little cry to myself once we were back on the bus.

We headed back into Moshi to get some lunch and buy some souvenirs. I had a sandwich and chips with coke for 5000 Tanzanian shillings - that works out at roughly £3! The sandwich was weird though - I ordered cheese, but it had a load of weird vegetables inside, not bad though. Shopping afterwards - we got harassed a lot. We stick out like a sore thumb of course, because we're white and 'touristy'. You have to learn to say no to everyone and make no eye contact. I did buy 3 paintings which were beautiful, and I saw the artist actually in the process of making more. I also bought a pack of cards for spare time up the mountain.

We then spent the last night in the hotel before the start of the climb - my nerves had come back strong, so I hardly slept at all.