Thanking Miki for this final update, received from the comfort and cold of the UK… nice one guys!

Steph Smith has a Tan!

At the start of the trip, we made friends
with a girl we liked to call Casper, the friendly ghost, an absolute babe, just
so pale slightly see through, while working the other day, I wiped the sweat
from my eyes… and couldn’t see casper anywhere, instead a tall blonde beauty
with a slight cappuccino-like tan stood in her place. It was official, Casper
was no more, our Steph had a tan. Even on her neck…that after being washed a
number of times, was actually a tan and not dirt. Amazed.

These past two weeks have been absolutely crazy for us, hence the lack of a
blog. However, we really can’t wait for you to read everything we’ve been up to.

Work-wise, we have completed all our set projects. Working with the Livingstone
Tanzania Trust using inspired development to help the locals with various different
forms of farming, we created 2 keyhole gardens at a  primary and secondary school. We made several
bag gardens at another primary school, where we also designed and built a
prototype mud fridge, which we will find out soon whether it will actually work
which would be wonderful! We went fishing for Tilapia in the school pond, and
maybe did a spot of filming too. A group of us helped the farm hands to water
the farm and even help pick some vegetables!

We completed the painting of the toilet
block we built from scratch, which was possibly the best feeling ever. We were
all really proud and so happy that we’ve managed to help the school in this
way. We also finished painting the classroom (windows and door) of the floor we
laid, painted the storeroom, (inside and out, windows and door) of a different
school, and built the foundations at Wangwawraay.  It was an absolute honour to
work as hard as we did for the community, and it was brilliant to get the
children involved carrying little bottles of water for us, and helping us move
soil, the enthusiasm for us to help them and how thankful was incredible, and
was definitely one of the highlights everyone had from the trip.

Other than working, there were a few other
incidents that brought the light and dark to our Tanzanian lifes. The first, a
minor hospital trip for myself and Alix… an allergic reaction, which could
have ended badly, but it obviously it didn’t because I’m typing this, an
entertaining moment, but also kinda scary, the Babati hospital mind, is very
nice, we got seen quickly and it’s dead cheap too! (for those of you reading
that might go on a Quest trip, it’s always nice to know you get treated well at the hospital, even if you
never visit!)

We still had an on-going problem with
the old number 2’s ever so amusing, with our wobbly tummys, and how many
different ways we could say it without getting bored. Our thesaurus skills must
have developed.  Unfortunately, our dear Katie + Finlay
were a tad too poorly to attend the home stays, but stayed at Babati running
club with the coach 😉 for their own little home stay at home.. it was a
good laugh apparently.  Our home stays
(for the ones that went to the community) were great fun, eye opening and so
wonderful to be welcomed into their household.

Before we knew it, the trip was coming to an end: finished our projects, done
a home stay… And stayed with the Masaai and seen some (A LOT OF) animals on
safari.

It’s been an absolutely incredible adventure, and we’ve done so much to help
the community and local area.
We can’t wait to see each other again, and for the rest of the team that have
joined Richard & Paul, and are now HALFWAY UP KILLI! We miss you all and
wish you the best of luck.
Team Retro also cannot wait for you to see our video, it’s going to be class.
CLASS.

Love to you all, and thanks for reading;
Momma Elephant.- Miki

(on behalf of;  Lion Mufassa – Alix,
Zebra – Niroj, Baboon – Louisa, Gazelle – Joanna, Bushbaby – Evie, Hyena –
Steph, Rhino – Alistair, Leopard – Jordan, Finlay – Giraffe, Katie – Cheetah)