Phase 1: Mbeya - Grassroots

It's not everyday you hop on a plane to Africa for 21 days with everything you need all packed up in 65L rucksack, sleeping in tents for half of the expedition in the middle of a national park, surrounded by wild animals or trekking up a mountain 2,500 above sea level, but I must stop with the list of what I had the opportunity to do while I was out there, before I take up most of the blog.

For those who don't know on the 8th of July I flew across to Tanzania to embrace a 21 expedition, consisting of charity work, trekking, safari and some sunbathing (Although, by day 3 some of us were already 2 shades darker). The expedition consisted of several phases and today's blog is about the first phase. After staying at Kipepeo beach for the night (which was beautiful) to recuperate from what was an exhausting day of travelling we headed out at 6am to Mbeya, which was another long day of travelling (around 15 hours) on coach, all i can say is thank gosh we had toilet stops.

After arriving in Mbeya in the evening, we were prepared for 5 days of working with the charity called Grassroots, directly aimed at helping local villages, children and schools with the necessary medical attention, food and education. I didn't really know if I was ready to spend 5 days with the local children just because I was prepared for a rather emotional roller coaster witnessing some devastating situations amongst the orphans. Yet to my surprise it was completely different to what I had expected. Although the circumstances the children were in was often heartbreaking, and there were times when I did have to walk away to a corner to just take a breath or two, I witnessed some of the most incredible things while spending time with them. Ranging from 4 to even 20, the young to the fairly old, they all had one thing in common, they were all so happy. I'd never been surrounded by so many unfortunate people, with such a positive outlook on life.

For me, the phase lead me to reality. I was no longer at home watching comic relief and seeing the sponsor videos they put up on the screen. I was physically amongst the poor and ill and I'm glad to have been able to witness it all. I guess the question is what have I come away with from this phase? 'Have you now learnt to appreciate what you have?', 'Have you obtained a real look into what the world is about?'. For me, in all honesty I came away with the knowledge that although some sit at home and feel guilty about having more than those in poorer parts of the world, they still possess the spirit that any 4 year old child should have at that age. They laughed, they smiled, they cried, they played (the list could go on). The reality is poverty has been an on going thing for years, I was lucky enough to meet an old couple from Germany who told me that there last visit to Tanzania was 30 years ago and for them not much had changed. It made me realise that the only thing you can do is to continue the support you give and to keep smiling back because it's what keeps them going. Even if it is delivering just one chicken to a family of 4/5.

On to phase 2;