Naalarami 2013
26/02/13 09:53 Filed in: Africa
I've been back from Africa for a week and starting to gather my thoughts on the trip.
The flight out was OK, 4 hours to Istanbul a few hours stopover and a bit over 6 hours to Kilimanjiro. We arrived at 4:30 AM and then had a 1.5 hour drive to Arusha arriving at 6AM. Nick had prepared me quite well and it wasn't as bad as expected, the accommodation was very basic but no worse than camping in terms of facilities. I had en-suite facilities!! In the form of a wet room, it had the advantage of being able to crap and shower at the same time. The shower head had 240V electrics going to it with bare wires! The main thing to get used to was the noise both from the bar and outside, one would wake to the sound of the muezzin calling from the mosque blended with African music and the sound of trucks revving.
Nik wanted to get out to the school ASAP for a recce so after 3 hours rest we were off in the Land Rover, after a spell on tarmac we turned off onto the track to Naalarami. The track is just a mud road and very bumpy it gets washed out in the rain as we were to see later!
As we arrived at the school I was surprised to see a very nice octagonal building, it turned out to be a church donated by some organisation!! Look after their souls and let them die of thirst, un-believable.
Everyone very friendly and pleased to see us we looked around and measured up, hard to describe the scene, just look at the photos.
Ron started to get anxious saying " it's going to rain" so we set out on the journey back. About half way it started to rain cats and dogs, in minutes the track disappeared under water and we were slithering about in mud. It's a credit to Ron's off road driving skill that we made it without getting out to push.
Saturday - down to the hardware store to get tools, water tanks and guttering
Friday - recce at school
Saturday- bought tools etc
Sunday- school gutter start base
Monday-school base
Tuesday-school base
Wednesday-school base & tank
Thursday-school windows
Friday-visiting local officials
Saturday-putting up school sign
Sunday-big meeting
Monday-rest day
Tuesday-gift day
Wednesday- Arisha NP
Thursday-Talinari NP
Friday - reading and relaxing
Saturday - packing and saying goodbye
…….More to follow……
The flight out was OK, 4 hours to Istanbul a few hours stopover and a bit over 6 hours to Kilimanjiro. We arrived at 4:30 AM and then had a 1.5 hour drive to Arusha arriving at 6AM. Nick had prepared me quite well and it wasn't as bad as expected, the accommodation was very basic but no worse than camping in terms of facilities. I had en-suite facilities!! In the form of a wet room, it had the advantage of being able to crap and shower at the same time. The shower head had 240V electrics going to it with bare wires! The main thing to get used to was the noise both from the bar and outside, one would wake to the sound of the muezzin calling from the mosque blended with African music and the sound of trucks revving.
Nik wanted to get out to the school ASAP for a recce so after 3 hours rest we were off in the Land Rover, after a spell on tarmac we turned off onto the track to Naalarami. The track is just a mud road and very bumpy it gets washed out in the rain as we were to see later!
As we arrived at the school I was surprised to see a very nice octagonal building, it turned out to be a church donated by some organisation!! Look after their souls and let them die of thirst, un-believable.
Everyone very friendly and pleased to see us we looked around and measured up, hard to describe the scene, just look at the photos.
Ron started to get anxious saying " it's going to rain" so we set out on the journey back. About half way it started to rain cats and dogs, in minutes the track disappeared under water and we were slithering about in mud. It's a credit to Ron's off road driving skill that we made it without getting out to push.
Saturday - down to the hardware store to get tools, water tanks and guttering
Friday - recce at school
Saturday- bought tools etc
Sunday- school gutter start base
Monday-school base
Tuesday-school base
Wednesday-school base & tank
Thursday-school windows
Friday-visiting local officials
Saturday-putting up school sign
Sunday-big meeting
Monday-rest day
Tuesday-gift day
Wednesday- Arisha NP
Thursday-Talinari NP
Friday - reading and relaxing
Saturday - packing and saying goodbye
…….More to follow……
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