So this week we finished our first 10 week expedition and BOY! has it come round fast. 10 weeks have just flown by and seem to have disappeared at times. I can’t believe it’s June already. Even more, I can’t believe it’s been almost 6 months since I’ve had a paid job! Both a frightening and liberating thought I reckon.

But anyway, back to this expedition, it’s over. All done! Our next step is to become staff members who’ll help the next lot of volunteers ease into their African adventure in the way that the current staff did with us at the start of April. It’s funny, we’ve only been here 10 weeks which at times has flashed by, but at others has seemed to pass at a crawl. I still miss everyone tremendously, there were a couple of weeks when I could quite easily have thrown in the towel and headed home with my tail between my legs. Don’t panic yet, I’m not about to come back to London and ruin your Litt-free Summer J. No, we’ve settled in pretty well now but given that we committed to 6 months straight off I think it took us that little bit longer to settle in and get used to the idea, more so than if we had only been coming for 3 months. But now the expo is over and we’ve waved goodbye to many friends heading back home we can both say without hesitation that we are very glad we’re not heading home just yet and that we still have another 3 months ahead of us.

Seeing people come and go has been very difficult. When we first arrived, all the staff seemed so confident, so self assured, so familiar with everything around them. And we in equal parts seemed so naïve, so insecure and alien with our surroundings. We’ve learnt a huge amount in the first 10 weeks and now it’ll be our turn to know the ins and outs and help others which is nice. Nice to know that we have learnt, that we have progressed and that we’ll be able to help others. Quite frankly though, it’s also laughable to think that people will look to us to know what we’re doing , to be calm, confident and self-assured….yes alright don’t laugh too hard or I’ll hear you from here!

The one thing we are still missing out on are our close friends and family as you can never quite relax in the same way as you can with people that know you inside out and understand your little quirks and foibles….OI! I said LITTLE quirks thankyouverymuch!

Anyway, where was I, yes, so we came with others who have since left after 2, 5 or 10 weeks. Over that time more people have arrived as well and we’ve made friends with them as well, but for us not in the way that we befriended the first people we came with who were in the same boat as us. And the people who arrived after us, they had the people they’d arrived with as well so it was different for them as well. We’re mates with the staff as well and those friendships will continue to develop and strengthen, but they were staff when we first arrived, wide-eyed, naïve, pale-skinned and innocent. The new volunteers will make friends with us but by now we’re the tanned, cynical steely eyed cool ones (what WHAT!!!! Ahem!)….anyway. So if you see what I mean, we’re lacking the people that really know us and make us feel at home. In addition to which, we live in a situation of constant social flux where group dynamics are regularly changing with people coming and going. We made 3 very good friends , Kevin, Belinda and Louise who left after 5 weeks and it’s a bit of a shame to know that we’re unlikely to make such good friends again whilst we’re here. But I guess that is inherent in our commitment to stay for the period we have agreed to and the benefit for that is the growth of knowledge and experience we’ll get from this.

So, sorry if this post has sounded a bit whimsical and hasn’t had much about our adventures for this week of stories of me falling down holes and Kate fighting man-eating tigers ( there are loads in Africa you know). Our last week was in Forest so we’ve told you most about what that involves. Oh except this week Kate got a severe case of ants in her pants…quite literally, Safari ants at that as well which if you know them are worse than bloody sandflies and bite like buggery! Two days later I encountered them as I was hacking at some thick bush with a panga (machete), Matt our forest officer alerted me to the fact that there was a nest of them 2 feet to my left. Apparently, the speed and grace with which I vaulted the fallen tree in front of me would have put an Olympic hurdler to shame!

However, in more exciting news this week…my marmite has arrived, ahem, I mean my in laws Martin and Stephanie have joined us. Joking aside, I can’t tell you how nice it is to have my favourite savoury spread restored to me. Sorry, sorry, , I mean to have them both here with Kate and I. Having lived in Kenya before and in Africa for many years it’s a pleasure to have visitors that know it all so well and understand how we feel about everything. And for all the good people around us it’s wonderful to have people that know us so well and are so close to us.

We’re very much enjoying what is properly a week’s holiday after 10 very busy and exhausting weeks. They’ve not just been physically demanding (I’ve lost almost a stone since we got here), but mentally shattering as well at times. All the new things to learn, living in such a foreign environment, having very little time or space to ourselves and around us. So it’s lovely to have familiar faces here with us so that we can truly relax. Now, I’m off to have an ice cream and a cold beer. There ain’t much that can’t be made better with an ice cream and cold beer so be my guest and have one on me J

Until next week!

Ps I’ve been wanting to write a post about the people we have met both volunteers and locals but the picture situation is still difficult so I’ll wait until I’ve resolved that. Until then if you’d like to know about anything in particular or have any questions then please post them in a comment by the end of the week and I’d be happy to answer them.

Pps some people have very kindly suggested that I try and get some of this published which I’m very much obliged to you lovely lovely people for. I am thinking about how this might work and how I could get more material to write about so if anyone has any suggestions, knows any nice people in publishing or simply runs their own website and is willing to link to this for me then please do let me know.

Ta-ra for now