23rd Oct 7:10pm

The waterfight was a success, we chucked water all over the kids and they loved it, then we got water balloons thrown all over us too. It was a good laugh and I could tell everyone liked the idea, I want to get some more balloons for later this week, so we can do it again, since the weather is so nice.

After that we all sat outside in the sun to dry off - its incredibly hot during the day despite it getting close to the rainy season and us being at a higher altitude on Mount Meru. I managed to get some chemistry done, the girl who was with me, Megan, did a lot of biology at university, so she was able to help me with some of the amino acid stuff.

Before dark me Megan and Kristina were heading to the shop to buy baking supplies to bake a cake for Alex's birthday tomorrow (one of the students at Peace Matunda). On the way out Crystal and Caroline were going to hand out some donated chlothes, so I grabbed my bag and went with them.

 The four standard 4 girls (the oldest standard at Peace Matunda) Mary, Margaret, Sheila and Jesca (Jessica) came with us to translate, as most of the students families dont speak such good English, so we wouldnt want to offend anyone by thrusting clothes in their faces.

We walked up the hill and the first house was about a 20 minutes walk away, we went in and gave out loads of chlothes and a teddy. They were so appreciative, some of them had no shoes and it was clear their house was derelict. I think the clothes went to the right people because most of the children went to Peace Matunda School (the girls had told us about them). As we came down the track from their house we saw 3 small children; we started to hand out some more clothes. More children appeared and people were calling each other over. Adults turned up and people were pushing and shoving attempting to grab chlothes out of our bags, so in the end we had to walk away. One girl followed us and Mary translated that she was an orphan too, her mother had died and she was living on the street. Chrystal and Caroline and taking some clothes to her tomorrow.

I hope to go hand out some more tomorrow, so that all the local children who go to Peace Matunda can have at least something.

On the way home we met one of the students dads and he was telling us how he is a dentist (I'm sure he is, just not a qualified on, but he seemed concerned for the children's teeth when they were drinking pop) Tom Crystal and Caroline have all brought toothbrushes and toothpaste for the 135 students at Peace Matunda, so the dentist man offered to come in this Sunday to teach the children how to properly look after their teeth, and he may also do some checkups which I could fund!

32rd Oct 4:40pm

Let the waterfight BEGIN!

32rd Oct 4:30pm

we had dinner just now and me and Tom were playing volley ball with Godson, one of the boys here. Tom the dimwit, threw the volley ball on to the only flat part of the roof. We lifted Godson up, he grabbed the ledge, and pulled himself up (massive strength fora tiny little boy).

As he threw the ball down, i turned to Tom and asked how we planned on getting him back down. We were in fits of laughter at how studpid we were. He ended up jumping, feet first down in our arms, bless him.

23rd Oct 12:20pm

As soon as we got back to Peace Matunda, Kristina and Megan were planning a water fight for the kids, so we just spent half an hour filling up water balloons in our bathroom, spilling water everywhere. Fun times.

23rd Oct 11:30am

This morning I got up early to go to church, it was really good actually. Me Caroline and Tom went together (Caroline walked so fast she left us behind). Crystal didn't come because she was in bed sick.

We walked down the track to Kimundo and then went up a mud track through some trees to the church. It wasn't big but the front had loads of decorations and there were guys playing instruments.

We stood and tried to sing along for a bit and then the vicar started to talk, then the communion started to join in. They were talking along with him and whispering or chanting. It was really good to experience - I could feel the energy in the room building as they talked and expressed their belief. I filled up at this point (didn't cry but my eyes filled up) because you could feel everyones commitment to their faith.

We sung some more and the music was so happy, not gospel music, but everyone was swaying and holding their palms up at shoulder height towards the front of the church.

When the vicar began to talk a Tanzanian man (I didn't get chance to find out his name), came and sat between me and Tom. He told us he would be our translator and handed us a bible, which was in English (bad English not old English) to my surprise. The vicar talked of Jesus being their controller and how he could heal 'damsels' who had plague just by touching them. If I'm honest I preferred to listen to it in Swahili because I don't follow any religion so I'd rather not know all the stories.

It got close the the end of the service (turns out that was not the case as the supervise is 4 to 5 hours long), and Itchi the stray dog who seems to chill at Peace Matunda but knows everyone in the village, had followed us to church and came in. A man there seemed really stressed out by this, so the only way we could get him to leave, was to leave ourselves. It was fine thought we had been there nearly 2 hours!