Hi Everyone,

I don’t even know where to begin with this week’s blog. So much has happened that I just don’t have the words and time to describe what an amazing time I have had…

For the week we left Arusha behind us and traveled Lake Manyara national park. There we spent 3 nights in a luxury camp site (well self contained tents) and spent our days exploring the area and National Park and visiting the Good Hope Orphanage. Our main job for this week was to present the Orphanage with beds, blankets and mosquito nets. The money for this has been raised by Michaela, one of the Leap members of staff back in England, and we were the lucky ones to see the children’s faces when they found out that they didn’t have to sleep on the floor anymore. The children were all so adorable and I could definitely have taken half of them home with me! The Orphanage has  2 full time staff who live their with 12 children and look after them around the clock. Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough money for them to be paid and the house is so small that staff and children have to share rooms and even the food is being kept in the same rooms.

After seeing that the four of us have decided to start raising money in order for them to be able to buy a much larger building. It turns out that all we have to do is raise 500 Pounds each to reach this goal and that really isn’t that much. So as soon as we get back to England that will be our task. You never know we may even be able to pay for some new clothes for them etc!

Ngorongoro Crater

The rest of the week Claire and myself went on Safari. We spent 2 days at the Serengeti National Park and 1 day at the Ngorongora Crater. We even had our own tour guide and cook with us who made sure that we were looked after well. The two of them also turned out to be pretty good bodyguards as there are some pretty scary insects around that could have easily eaten us!

We spent the night in a tiny tent in camp sites that were so open that any animals could easily join us if they wanted too. During the second night 3 lions did just that but apparently they weren’t too hungry! During the day we managed to see lots of elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, leopards and even two black rhinos which there are only 26 left!

So all in all it was a great week with lots to see. I am sorry that I couldn’t get into more detail but I am sure I will bore you with it all when I get home.

I hope you are all well.

Lots of Love

V xx