Thank you Gideon Conn

Thank you Gideon Conn for playing at the lamb roast, for entertaining the children and for this fantastic line drawing. You really are multi-talented! If you are interested in seeing Gideon on tour around the UK or would like to contact him about a commission please visit his website www.gideonconn.com or email him at gideonconn@hotmail.com. You can also check him out on YouTube!

Lamb Roast Fundraiser

A big thank you to everyone who came and supported the lamb roast fundraiser yesterday. We hope you all enjoyed the event as much as we did. I was overwhelmed by the number of people who came along and who wanted to help out. I couldn't have done it without you all.

Thanks to all your generous donations I have managed to raise £1010 for Restless Development and young people in Tanzania so far which is amazing :-) My target was £800 so very happy to have smashed it! I will keep my JustGiving donations page (www.justgiving.com/sianlaurawells) open until I have returned in December. Please do keep visiting the blog for regular updates and photos from Tanzania.

Lamb cooking area!

Tanzania Facts

Fact 1
The highest mountain in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro is situated in Tanzania.

Fact 2
Time is counted very differently in this country. The work day starts at 6 am and is called the 1st hour of the day. So, when someone says that mass starts at 10 (the 10th hour) it’s actually at 4 pm.

Fact 3
There is strong evidence that Tanzania is the cradle of human life on the planet. The legendary Homo Habilis which existed 2 million years ago was recovered in the Olduvai Gorge.

Fact 4
Three of the world’s most magnificent lakes surround Tanzania - Lake Nyasa, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria.

Fact 5
Mpingo trees (a.k.a. Africa blackwood trees, commonly seen in Tanzania) are the most expensive hardwood tree in the world.

Fact 6
Over 120 languages are spoken in Tanzania. Most of these are Bantu languages, a category of over 535 languages and dialects that are spoken throughout Africa.

Fact 7
The world’s only tree-climbing lions live in the Lake Manyara National Park here.

Fact 8
The world’s largest crab, Chumbe Island (which is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania)’s Coconut Crab is found here.

Fact 9
The world’s largest complete crater, the now-extinct Ngorongoro Crater is in Tanzania.

Fact 10

Western Tanzania’s Lake Tanganyika is the second deepest lake in the world

Mexican Themed Fundraiser

Part of the project involves raising £800 before I leave. In July, I organised a Mexican themed party with margaritas, enchiladas and a piñata! My friend Sofiri (below) enjoyed dressing up for the theme! It was a fantastic evening and we managed to raise £100. Thank you to everyone who came and supported the event.

Join My Trip to Tanzania

In September I will be going to Tanzania for 3 months with Restless Development, a youth-led development agency. Young people are most affected by the most persistent problems in the world, yet are frequently overlooked as part of the solution. 59 million young people in the developing world are unemployed and opportunities for a good education are limited. I will be working in a team of volunteers from the UK and Tanzania helping young people to take up productive livelihoods and employment. We will be living in basic conditions and working in un-resourced environments.