I SURVIVED WEEK 1 !
So the story starts with a tipsy Hayley bravely travelling to Africa completely underprepared. Not nearly packed enough clothing and almost no essentials!
After an amazing 13 hour set of flights from Edinburgh to Kilimanjaro with KLM... Free food and wine on demand and a great selection of films! We finally landed in 29• heat.
Then it was an hour in a hot cramped car to our lovely residence in Olorien Estate.

Day One:
We had all unpacked -The Blondes,(Chloe, Joy and Rachel) and had French toast for breakfast which was LUSH! Then we walked for 25 minutes to catch a Dahla Dahla (a very hot squeeze of a 'bus' that is the size of a small disabled toilet but can hold around around 15 people in.... Not even remotely comfortable! And within sitting down and pulling onto the road the man next to me introduced himself and asked if I was married and could he show me around town... Now extremely uncomfortable!
We were given a tour around the town by James our babysitter of the day and the hospital which was interesting and then back to the house to unpack and relax (ie- I stressed about my lack of essentials... No aprons!!)
Thankfully the house is filled with lots of other lovely girls with nursing and medical backgrounds, telling us about the hospital and all the horror stories... all true!
That night we went to bed so early because we were exhausted!

Day Two:
Today was our first official day of working in the hospital, i think we all expected something much worse but thanks to the WHO the ward had a lot of equipment... It's no NHS but it's definitely got the stuff... BP cuff and Sphygmomanometer, sterile needles, cannulas, gloves, pinards etc... We soon discovered it's all well and good having the equipment, it's whether they are used and if so, used appropriately that is the most important factor!
Over the next few days we learned that in Arusha... Regarding the staff, there is no such thing as consent. Women are hit and shouted at. There is little to no compassion at all, infection control is there to protect the staff not the women, despite having delivery rooms... Women all deliver in a 9 bedded bay and usually the MW only attend to the woman when the baby's head is out! They make up the same Bp for everywoman and repeat the same BP throughout the day, they don't listen in the the feral heart at all... They place the pinard in the women's belly button and 'listen' for two seconds, but what they hear up there I have no idea! Most women are put on a syntocinon drip to induce labour despite going to a c-section that may be an emergency for feral distress/ failure to progress etc and then wait hours before they actually get to the theatre! By which point they have delivered anyway. Maasi women do not have names apparently, they are just called Maasi!!! They have lidocaine, a local anaesthetic used to suture women after a tear/episiotomy, but here they rarely ever use it, and if they do, they don't allow time for it to take effect and then punch and slap the women is the whine or shut their legs.... Most horrific thing I have ever seen, tried to stop it, and got laughed at!

We have had time to relax though and reflect. I have been able to chill in the sunshine and write my travel journal which is a really satisfying to get everything written down and we visited Neema House which is an orphanage-absolutely adorable and also sad stories, you might read lots about the house over the following three weeks!

We have had several Swahili lessons which is fun when we get to sing and learn how to shop without being ripped off... Like I was on day one!!

The food is lovely most days but I have learnt to avoid the fish... Too many bones!

We have been around town and to a few 'shops' in the hunt for presents etc, we are mzongu which means white person and we stick out like a sore thumb! People think we are rich and I guess in comparison we are but I'm £1400 into an over draft so I technically have no money at all!

We had a bbq in the garden on Thursday before going out to a club called Via Via- it's was mzongu night! And we danced quite a lot which was brilliant and celebrated Rachel turning 21 at midnight. It turned out to be quite an interesting night but we had to leave early because myself and the blondes had to be out the door for 6am to start SAFARI!!!

Feeling totally fine after our night out myself and Rachel awoke and continued to dance our way the the land cruiser... Joy and Chloe seemed more tired than we were! Rachel loved her bday presents and thankfully had enough signal in the Serengeti to call home!
The whole safari was beautiful and incredible and wow! The animals were fantastic! We were so close and I almost touched and elephant but apparently they are aggressive, I thought he was quite sweet ! we saw the Big Five- elephant, lion, water buffalo, leopard and Rhino. The star were also beautiful a and I wish my camera could have captured it!

We also went to a maasi village I the was back. We were greeted with a welcome dance and I got to try on the full dress and dance with them, we where shown the school and their homes and had a really good chat with this warrior Songoy, who has since added me on FB!

I have been feeling a little uncomfortable in the stomach department today so I'm staying at the house where it is safer and has a toilet... Oh and we are counting poops( the blondes) and I think after today I will be winning.

According to my phone it's 25• NO WAY! It's nearer 35•
No about to read in the sun and hopefully feel better after some lunch!