Firstly thanks sooooo much for all your long update emails-really nice to hear what you have all been up to!

Everything is going really well here and I am incredibly glad that I decided to undertake this adventure.

When I arrived in Tanzania, I stayed on a beach resort in Dar for a couple of days- for St Andrews people, you will never believe who I bumped into!!!?-JILL!!! Yes, in the whole of Africa, I bumped into Jill Shemin! Crazy times!!

After our relaxing two days in Dar, we then started the much-anticipated journey to Yamba. It was a day's bus to Tanga-and from there we undertook the 3 hour journey in a jeep to Yamba. This was not the most comfortable xperience considering that there are no surfaced roads at all between Tanga and Yamba, only incredibly rocky red dust paths. Some of the journey was pretty hair-raising! The views were amazing though, vast plains with little mud huts dotted around in clusters. Barefooted children chasing the car waving and screaming!-seeing a car is a very very rare experience for the villagers in this area!

After 3 hours, we reached the final point that the jeep could get to. There is no road for a car up to Yamba, only a very thin, steep path winding up the cliff and so feet must take over at this point! We were greeted at this point of the journey by the people of Yamba who had clambered down the cliff to greet us. The welcome ceremony involved a great deal of singing and dancing, and I was a little overwhelmed by the joy on the children's faces at our arrival- I hope that we live up to their expectations. The villagers took our huge bags and carried them up the cliff on their heads! The children fought to carry things for us and so I lost my torch and bottle of water which I desperately needed for the hour's hike up the hill! The children ran all the way up the hill with us singing all the way and asking us our names constantly. Only a few of them know how to say how old they are but I was quite confused that those who did all said 10- I found out later that they don't have birth certificates and don't know their birth dates, hence they just guess their ages and 10 is the easiest number for them to say! The walk up to Yamba is exhausting but amazing.

The views from the top are just incredible and the sunset is completely breathtaking- a red ball illuminating the sky in a spectrum of reds and oranges, disappearing behind the shadowy peaks of the Usambara mountains. I still get a lump in my throat every time I catch a glimpse.

I have been living in a little house (a banda) in Yamba and Milli which is q basic but has a mosquito net which services my main aim: avoiding malaria! We have an outdoor long drop toilet which took a while to master. There is no electricity or running water so a shower consists of pouring a bucket over my head which is surprisingly refreshing!

The first week in Yamba was spent doing the TEFL course so that I can teach English to the kids. There was a great deal to learn and I hope that I absorbed the most important aspects. In my free time that week, I mainly just played with the children- they are so adorable! My favourite is Francis who has the cheekiest laugh I have ever heard! The kids follow us around wherever we go saying 'what is my name?'- they mean 'what is your name?' but get confused!

The people here are very friendly- it is deemed as an insult to pass someone and not greet them with an 'Onga' or 'Shikamoo'! It's going to be a big shock returning to London and the lack of smiling and greetings on the tube.

Kiswahili is not the main language here- it is a tribal language called Kisambaa, although most of the villagers are bilingual so I have chosen to master my Kiswahili first.

Getting started on teaching took a while because Emma who I share with was diagnosed with worms, as were several other volunteers. I escaped unscathed- touch wood touch head!

Teaching has started now though. I teach Standard 3 and Standard 5. This would typically be age 7 and age 10 in England but it means nothing here because people start school when they can afford it- so some people start at 4, some at 8, some at 10. Also, if they fail a standard they must resit and so there are some 17 year olds in Standard 6! I will be teaching in Milingano for the next 2 months- apparently I am likely to have close to 100 in the class some days, although so far they have not been that quite that big! The school has very few classrooms that are in a good condition and I am a bit shocked by the rooms I take my classes in. So many children come to the school each day but so far I have only seen one other teacher which is just ridiculous. The children come to school, go to their classrooms and just sit there all day with no teachers and no lessons. It's very frustrating!! The children are lovely but a little cheeky! You can tell that they are just so delighted to even have a teacher and they follow us all the way home carrying our bags and practising their English. The children here are desperate for tests, desperate to have their work marked and absolutely desperate for ticks! It's hilarious!- sometimes they do the work twice just so that they can get extra ticks!...and I will never hear the end of it if I give one child a smiley face or an 'excellent' and another child only gets a 'well done!'

More to come in a few weeks!