mambo mi rafikis!

hey guys!
so finally i have got around to writing up here. i have to admit that im pretty reluctant as i like reading emails... so keep on emailing me and telling me all yous news aswell!
ok so a quick run down of the past few weeks, moments, days, it's all kind of blurring into one big ball of awe!
i can't really believe we\re moving on from moshi in a week..it's felt like my home for more than 2 months!
i finished up at my project with my gorgeous gorgeous girls a week or so ago as they finished for xmas. we threw a big all invovled party with threelegged race, egg and spoon mango bobbing, fruit salad, party games, african games singing dancing laughing playing and all the usual high jinx! it was very funny to watch them try and do the three leg race which they really didn't understand the point of and refused to run but carefully walked and the mango bobbing was a bit confusing with teacher looking a bit mad showing them that they should actually dunk their faces in water - why the hell would they want to do that? but soon realised it was fun and you got a mango out of it! it was really sad saying goodbye to them although ive actually been back a couple of times to find a lot of them hanging around in the playground - i don't think they really understood that school was over bless their little hearts!
i also realised that after spending so much out of time in the village how much i didn't like being in the busy hassle of moshi..they're are so many fly catchers (people trying to rip you off basically left right and centre) and white muzungos all over which kind of makes you feel like your not so much in africa which is not really the reason i came!
So to get out of town i now have divided my time up going between kili kids orphanage where meg works and help out teaching there, also doing lots meetings and organising of my project as finacially things aren't great so im working wiht anna maria the local woman who set it up to come up with alternatives...i've basically turned into the volunteer representative though and im pretty mcuh expected to give direction for everything, interview new teachers, write proposals to buisnesses and help anna a lot! i don't mind though as anna is wicked and we get on so well she is trying to set me up with her younger brother who is a medical student and very good looking so im sure i will soon be engaged to a nice tanzanian doctor!! (she goes so far as to call me her muzungo sister in law to be - lets bare in mind ive met her brother once!) we also go out dancing with her and she teaches us shakey shakey (it is confirmed muzungos are just not made like african women who are born to shake their hips like shakira even my girls who were all of 7 could do it and used to wet themselves trying to get me to!) I've also been up to a village in the foothills of kilimanjiro called Shimbwe to help with hospital visits with a Irit a friend from the hostel. It felt like i'd hiked the whole mountain though it was hard hard work!! we went around visiting all the patients of a women's group called Mingeni which is helping to get medicines and hospital visits to all the local residents. it's an incredibly beautiful place, there's a really tropical feel with waterfalls and bannana plantations everywhere but there is such extreme poverty. ...everyone who we visited lived in mud huts and yet welcomed us like we're royalty. i felt like a very miniscule dot in such a big world of troubles and pain... was amazing to meet woman who has a b16 difficiancy from her pregnancy and hasn't moved for 2 years now and see her for the first time in ages manage to get up and hold her baby son and the happniess this brought to her. this saturday we're goign up again and having an xmas party for 2000 children who live around the village on the mountain..im in charge of face painting i think. it's gonna be manic with a full blown capital M..
there has also been much partying for various peoples birthdays, leaving parties of all our friends we've met along our way from crazy irish girls, to burly norweigens and maasai warriors! the nightlife in moshi is varied from cool outside decked bars with live bands to sweaty little box clubs full of prostitues and playing rhianna and snoop doggy dog a over and over! but with enough konyagi (a papya based spirit they sell here by the bottle in bars and clubs often ending up with a slight memory loss effect) we have some wicked nights out with everyone! the hostel has been a real meliting pot of people from all over the world and its been great to meet so many people some of which i think we might even be seeing again on our travels! there's actually even a girl there at the moment from letchworth which is a bit of a wierd coincidence!

we\re heading to zanzibar next monday which is gonna be paradise..spending xmas and new year hanging out on hammocks and crystal clear seas! so feel free to send me big fat christmas love and presents if you feel the need..

right now there is a crazy looking women next to met calling me auntie - she has red eyebrows and is wearing a pretty stunning pink dress which looks like something which has just been regurgitated from the 80's...i think i may need to move away from her before she pounces so i hope your all really good look forward to hearing from ya'll and sending my big fat christmas love
xxxxxxxxxxx x x x x x

i will update soon!

i've finally stopped being a lazy arse and got one! although im not actually going to write anything now. but i will. i will spread my wise wisdom with you all. it will be amazing.