Are you nearly there yet?

Today was - for lack of a more accurate phrase - a hell of a long day. We started at 5.30am, eating breakfast rather quickly before piling into our transport for the next few days - a mini bus. It is humourous, days later, to think of how the long trip from Dar Es Salaam to our campsite in Magugu (460km) began with a bunch of excited intrepid travelers and ended in some absolutely exhausted participants in desperate need of sleep, food and leg room. Our predicted trip length of 10 hours seemed to stretch to almost 14 hours... After several days of travel this was indeed a challenge. We began as a chatty group, taking photos galore and asking many questions of the ever-helpful guide, Ingwe, who seemed to come alive at our prompts for him to provide insight into the customs of those from East Africa (I have never known someone to speak so openly about circumcision). What we did find was that the ever changing rural landscape of Tanzania followed by the introduction of several rural towns provided enough fuel to remain motivated. We were after all still buzzing about simply being on this beautiful continent.

Getting to our campsite at 8.30pm we were immediately abuzz. We were expecting to be sleeping on the floor of tents in the most uncomfortable of circumstances (that we had hoped might be reserved for our climb) however we were greeted by a series of smiling Tanzanians who with much ease grabbed our heavy backpacks and lead us all to our lush tents - complete with beds and flush toilets! Now that is my style of camping! Sitting at a long table located in a large tent, lit by candles, we were treated to a three course meal and wine which was simply lovely. Couple this with the continued generous Tanzanian hospitality and you can imagine how spoiled we felt. We rested well that night indeed. It was also pleasantly cool throughout the night - not a trace of humidity. Waking in the morning to our hosts holding buckets of hot water for our 'showers' was the finale of this unique experience. We would not forget that shower for some time!

This campsite was also memorable for another reason - our introduction to Africa's prickles. Enormous prickles that seemed quite aggressive! Several made their way through my jandals! Growing up in Australia, I thought I knew prickles. Nope! Mark and Ingwe received a surprise of a different nature - huge black ants covering the patio of their tent. Ants, I must point out, that bite - hard. Hardly a surprise for Ingwe but certainly one for Mark!

After a series of toilet stories over breakfast (may the loss of dignity begin) I took the crew through a World Vision briefing. Today was after all (Summit Day coming a close second of course) the most significant day of the challenge. Explaining how World Vision works with communities, how Child Sponsorship works and what issues the Magugu community is facing I was greeted with a series of questions that once again demonstrated to me the collective commitment of the group to understanding poverty and World Vision's response to it. Being a World Vision staff member, I thrived on seeing such a commitment for a cause so close to my own heart. It was difficult to put into words how enormously grateful World Vision is for their fundraising efforts and how deeply significant it is that we have been a part of making such a fundamental right a reality for this community. I hoped that our visit that day might speak to the participants what I could not. I had a feeling the visit would do just that. It was afterall so important that they could capture what an amazing role they had played to many and how ridiculously far World Vision can stretch donations from people such as themselves.

A humourous moment occurred here when as a group we entertained the thought of singing our national anthem to the villagers upon arrival. Julie decided that an easier song for us to rehearse would be 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' exclaiming with her trademark mock sincerity 'always a crowd favourite!'

Following breakfast we waited for the arrival of the World Vision convoy - complete with the lovely Anna Parsons, Program Officer from WVNZ who had co-ordinated her trip so that she might be available to be with us during our project visit. She had been here in Tanzania for two weeks already. For some reason it is hilarious to me how incredibly excited we can become at the sighting of a friend while overseas who we had seen so recently. Perhaps it was fueled by a few logistical issues I had faced since being in Tanzania but whatever the case I practically ran at Anna and hugged her as though she were a long lost friend. I knew that Anna would also be fantastic at providing us with answers that perhaps - due to language barriers the ADP (World Vision community) leaders may have trouble answering. True to form she was the perfect addition to our tour of the Magugu community. I felt that I returned the favour by updating her on random pieces of news from New Zealand (equal exchange right?).

More on the project visit in the next blog. For now I shall provide you with the superficial note for the day ... I have cankles.