I suppose I should start from the beginning! After spending the day in London with Mum and Vicky, we headed by tube to Heathrow. I was really nervous about meeting everybody, especially Emma. We arrived an hour earlier than we were supposed to, and waited around until Peter Bell's (the person who runs AV in Britain) wife arrived with our tickets. The other AVs were really obvious because of the amount of luggage we all had! I checked in and then hung around, waiting for Emma to arrive. She recognised me from my photo, and introduced herself, and then we all went and had lunch together, which was really nice. On the plane we had seats next to each other, surrounded by all the other AVs, so some of the 10 hour flight was spend getting to know each other.

We arrived in Nairobi at 6.30am, and were taken to the YMCA. [Never knew Mill was male, did you?] Some people went into town, but most of us couldn't be bothered and stayed where we were, talking and playing games. The food was really good, so we enjoyed lunch and supper. In the afternoon we swam in the huge pool, and then Nigel Warren (head of AV in Africa) came to give us some info and tell us about the Safari.

First thing the next morning we set off in a giant armour-plated truck, and spent the whole day driving south to Amboseli National Park. We arrived in the late afternoon and were very excited to glimpse several animals in the distance!

The next morning, after spending the night at a campsite, we were up before dawn to go on a game drive. Amboseli is famous for its elephants, and with Mount Kilamanjaro as a back drop the park is pretty impressive. We saw lots of animals including giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, buffalos, and, of course, elephants. Two huge bulls crossed right in front of the truck. At meal times we had to fight with monkeys for our food (not literally), and as the fence around the camp had been trampled by elephants, various things wandered around our tents at night.

After two nights at Amboseli we went on to the Masai Mara. It is much bigger than Amboseli, and as it's the beginning of the wildebeest migration the place was stuffed with wildebeest, zebra and gazelles. We stayed there for three nights, in permanent tents, which were really nice. We saw lots of lions, including a pride with fairly small cubs eating a wildebeest, and a group of young males. There were lots of hippos and crocs in the river, and giraffes and warthogs. We also saw two cheetah, one eating its dinner - it's quite unusual to get to see the big cats eating! On our last day we travelled north again to Lake Nakuru, which is a soda lake in the Rift Valley. There we saw lots of flamingos and rhinos, including some babies that were really cute. Our last night was spent at a really nice campsite with a bar and pool table!

After the Safari we had an orientation course at Lake Nawosha in the Rift Valley. This meant lessons for the first time in a year! In the afternoons we went into town, to an island where we saw lots of giraffes (on foot - it was really amazing until the heavens broke and we were drenched!), and just relaxed around a campfire in the evenings. It was our first experience of cooking for ourselves on one ring - so meals were interesting!

We travelled to Uganda by bus on Saturday 27th May, and stayed overnight at Bujogali Falls in Jinja. This is a really nice campsite on the edge of the River Nile, and it's really beautiful. In the morning we were collected in the school pickup, and after stopping in Jinja to buy food we were taken on to Kigulu Girls.

Our school is fairly small, but really nice and set in several acres of maize and banana plantations. Everyone is very friendly and helpful, and there are six other AVs within fifteen minutes walking distance. (4 girls at Buckley High School and 2 boys at Iganga Boys School). Our house is small, but homely - there's a real loo but no running water. We have a kitchen / living room - with one electric ring to cook on, a sofa with no cushions, and a table and chairs; a bathroom with loo, basin and solar powered shower (really nice if you ever get round to washing at that time of the day when it's actually hot); and a bedroom with two beds, a table and chairs. The main problem is storage - all my clothes are on the chair or in my rucksack, and in the kitchen everything is just strewn across the work bench.

I have six lessons a week, teaching Maths to P6 and P5, and Science to P6. I'm supposed to teach science to P5 but I haven't been given any lessons yet. The ages of girls in my classes range from 11 to 16, so the type of things I'm teaching are really secondary school wok. Emma and I also teach P1 on a Friday morning, which is really fun because they're so cute. We teach them songs like "I'm a little teapot" and "Hokey Cokey" which is really fun. [Where oh where did she put her vocabulary?]

On a Wednesday morning we go to the Babies Home which is next door to the school. It's an orphanage with children ranging from 3 days old to 9 years. They are really cute - just imagine 8 tiny kids with imperfect English trying to sing "I'm a little teapot". This Wednesday when we went they were having a painting class, so Emma and I arrived back at the Blue House with multi-coloured hands and war-painted faces! (Yes, they were supposed to be painting on sheets of paper!)

During the week we mostly stay at home in the evenings, occasionally going to visit the girls at Buckley or the boys at Iganga boys. Food isn't a problem anymore, we get a snack of tea (v. sweet) and chapatis / mandaris at break time, and if we want it there is posho and beans for lunch. Some of the other teachers keep hens so we buy our eggs from them, and the school / convent gives us fresh milk every day, if we get up early enough. (It's measured out at 7am!) One of the teachers gives us avocados and lemons by the sackful, and as they've just picked the mangoes from the tree we now have 42 mangoes! They're a different variety to the ones we get in England - smaller and stringy, but very good anyway. Sometimes we're given sugar cane, which our "mother" (next door neighbour!), Mau, prepares for us. I only eat meat at the weekends because Emma's vegetarian and meat is difficult to get fresh around here.

Last weekend we went to Kampala, which was good fun. We didn't manage to do very much on the Saturday - just found a fast food restaurant and sat there for most of the day! In the evening we went to a really nice backpacker's hostel, where we intended to watch the England v Germany game. However, when we got there we met a guy called Alex, who was an AV at Iganga boys school, and now runs a computer company in Kampala while living with his friend Sean at the Hostel. (Really it's almost a hotel - hot showers!) hey took us out to see the night life of Kampala (we were in a group of about 17, with AVs from all over Uganda). First we went to Just Kicking, a sports bar, to watch to match, which was really good. I was in 7th heaven with Archers on tap! (V. rare ion Uganda and pretty expensive!) The evening was certainly helped by the victory over Germany. After the game we went on to Al's bar. It used to be the top bar in Kampala but has now been pretty much taken over by prostitutes [perfect place for her, in th- shut up, Zed!] but as long as you remember to wear long trousers it's pretty safe not too bad. As someone said, anything goes at Al's bar, so we were all up on the bar dancing! It was a bit sad though because we met a really nice girl called Marie. She's 17 and ran away from home two years ago. She's been working as a prostitute ever since. She wasn't like the other women who kept giving us death stares, but just wanted to talk and find out more about England. The saddest part is if she doesn't have HIV yet she probably will soon.

On Sunday we got up fairly early and headed into town, to the craft market. We stopped at the Star supermarket on the way to buy food - it's the biggest in Kampala, and actually has aisles! The whole thing is probably the size of the vegetable section in Safeways in Penrith! The craft market was really good, but I think I need to develop my skills at bartering a bit more.

[Current technique being, "When I was in Canada, I bought a horse at my old school for only-" {Hope Smill isn't reading this.}]

This Wednesday, we went into Iganga to watch the England v Romania game. Needles to say everyone was gutted by the end result!

I have to go now and pack to go to Jinja - we're going to go swimming at the five star hotel. I hope all is well with you. Take care, lots of love,