Hello from Africa! I can't quite believe that I was still in Australia just over a week ago, but several hours spent in the air or in the airport (I counted 31 in total), and I'm now settling into my eight week project in Arusha. The area up here is beautiful. I'm living with a few other volunteers, our coordinator and a cook in a small house a little out of town with fantastic views of Mt Meru out the back and surrounded by mud huts, chickens, and small children playing in the track all day, every day. It feels very authentic and the other volunteers are lovely so I feel very spoilt! The only irritating thing is the extremely unreliable power supply, a bit of a country wide problem, which is always cut off in the evenings as it's getting dark, just when you're hoping to take a shower or, like now, your in the middle of something on the computer! I'm quite amazed it's last this long in fact! However, it makes me wonder how I could ever have complained about 2 or 3 hour long power cuts back home when people here can go for days with no electircity.

Also, even though I've only been there a week, and in the pharmacy at that, working at the hospital has also been quite eye-opening. I've spent a few happy hours counting out HIV and TB drugs to speed up dispensing them to the crowds that gather on the clinic days. Although the they look surprisingly healthy, it was quite shocking to see small children coming up to the counter to collect their medication. The situation is also much better here than in many countries as at least the government pays for all the HIV medication. All other medication has to be bought by the patients however, which may explain why fewer and fewer people come to the hospital each month for treatment. Once again, I feel strangely proud when trying to explain (usually unsuccesfully) to the staff here that in the UK it's free to not only go and see the doctor, but for most operations and long term drug prescriptions as well!

Another one of my jobs has been trying to help them catch up with their record keeping. I was very impressed when, on my arrival, I saw a computer in the office for the first time since I left home! However, it turns out only some of the doctors use it so everything there has to be copied back onto paper anyway! I thought about queiring the point and then decided I didn't have the energy!

So that's about me so far. The people here are lovely and we've had a good couple of nights in town so I'm very much looking forward to the rest of my stay here and hopefully getting to know some of the vast volunteering community which lives here! I've also been introduced to family and have attended a few church services which were two hours long, packed full of people and all in Swahili, but fantastic experiences just for the awesome singing and music that they consist of!

Anyways, I'll stop tempting fate with the power supply and sign off. Missing you all.

xxx