Miss Lespierre's adventures!

Last weekend I had the incredible opportunity to visit two national parks on safari. On Saturday morning, we had a very early start and were picked up by 4x4 jeeps to set off on our adventure! We drove through the dusty landscape of the Savanna, which was scattered with small Masai villages. It was a wonderful opportunity to soak in the stunning scenery and see the way in which many of the Masai people still live very traditional lives. We arrived at Tarangire National Park and even from the car park our excitement mounted as we were able to see the long necks of giraffes poking through the trees from a distance. As we entered the reserve, it wasn't long before we saw a herd of wildebeest followed by a herd of zebras. As we sat watching the zebra our guide whispered to us that he could see that they were getting quite anxious meaning that it was likely that there were lions around! Within minutes, quite a dramatic scene unfolded as there was a sudden stampede from the zebras and ou...

One of the main goals of the charity, Inspiring Teachers is to be able to train teachers in low resource countries therefore helping to raise the education standards. At the start of the week, I was excited, if a little nervous about our first week of leading workshops. We were able to use the whole of Monday as a planning day and so I worked with a small group of the other volunteers (also known as fellows), thinking of different ways that we could train the teachers in a way which was both informative and engaging. By the end of the day, we felt tired but had come up with a plan for the week! Day 1 of workshops began with an opening ceremony in which the director of education at Silverleaf Academy, our host school, set out the expectations and aims for the week. It was a great start to the programme and a good reminder about the power of education. We were then introduced to our groups for the week, before the hard work began! Over the space of 4 days we led training on an array of d...

One of the highlights of my trip so far has been the day that we got to spend experiencing some of the projects run by the charity, 'The Small Things' whose moto is to empower children, families and communities. One of the projects that they run are social impact tours which is a wonderful example of eco-tourism in action. As part of this tour we were able to gain a deeper understanding of Tanzanian life in a way which was both ethical and respectful to the local community. At the start of our tour, we were greeted by the women of the Meru tribe who greeted us with a beautiful array of traditional songs and dances. We were then given a tour of the coffee bean farm in which we learned more about the process of growing coffee beans, including the ways in which they aim to make it as sustainable as possible. Not only did we learn about the growing of coffee beans, we also took part in the process of de-shelling, grinding and roasting the beans in order to make our very own cup of ...