Update!

I made it up Kili! It was absolutely amazing. Words cannot describe it. It was hard, but I think I found it the easiest out of our group. I went up with Jen, Marybeth, Bekah and Carly. Marybeth was vomiting at the top, I felt so bad for her. Our guides were great though they came over and sang to her and tried their best to cheer her up. We all made it to the summit! I was so impressed!! I thought it would be a lot harder than it was, the altitude didn't affect me at all. I actually found the descent the most difficult part because of my knees. When we were up there it rained and snowed the entire time. It was freezing, and when we got down and looked up at Kili from our house, you could see how much more snow was on it...we definitely didn't have the best weather! It was such an amazing experience, and I love the girls who I went with as well. We leave on Safari on Monday, I'm very excited. hope to see the Big 5! We added the Serengeti to our trip so now we will be camping. I feel like I am such a good camper now!

Things have also been going well with the street kids. We've gotten them into a house, which is really nice and I hope to have the NGO set up soon. The Art in Tanzania people aren't very happy with us because it isn't through them, but I feel like helping the street kids is a lot more important than teaching nursery school. It has been very rewarding, and difficult to see. The first time we went to the house I started crying because the kids were so happy. Their eyes weren't as empty. We have had problems with them still because they are so used to the ways of living on the street, but hopefully things will continue to get better. We took them to waterfalls a couple weeks ago, which was a lot of fun and down into a cave where the Chagga hid from the Massai....there were tons of bats in it and it was really small; at points we had to army crawl through it.

I leave for Safari on Monday...we added on the Serengeti to it, so now we will be going to Masai, N'gorongoro, Lake Manyara and Serengeti. I am very excited, but I also feel that I could have put the money I've spent on Safari to a better cause like the street kids rent. It is only $200 a month, and we have the next couple months sorted, but I am worried what will happen after that, I suppose I will come home and try to do a lot of fundraising once we have the charity set up properly.

In 2 weeks I am off to Zanzibar. I can't wait especially because on top of the 5 girls I've been doing this program with some of the other volunteers are going to come too, and its Jen's birthday while we are there. It is going to be a lot of fun...plus I will finally get hot showers! I've extended my trip until the end of November now. I wish I could stay even longer. I think my plan is to go home and pay off this trip and then start saving to come again for a longer amount of time. Tanzania is amazing. I have made so many amazing friends! I have invited them all to come to Utah, so hopefully everyone can meet some of them at some point: Emma is 22 from Scotland, Carly is 21 from England, Dave is 23 from England, Johnny 21 from England, Johnny is 18 from Scotland, Jen is 22 from California, Sally is 21 from Australia, Jodi and James are 21 from England-they are the cutest couple and are traveling around the world this year, Marybeth 28 from Boston/D.C., Bekah 27 from Ohio/D.C., Leah 21 from Canada, and there are a lot more volunteers that keep coming and going but that seems to be the core group. Everyone is a lot of fun. We also have become close with all of the locals, they call me "Spears" because everyone seems to have a hard time saying Brittany. I also keep getting mistaken for being "shamby shamby"- which is half black/half white. Dave, Emma and I went to Arusha (a nearby town) last week and it was really funny because when Dave and I would walk together we got more Ola's than Hello's because we both have dark hair and skin and everyone thought we were Spanish. Emma is trying to get flights to Utah for this Spring to come skiing, so hopefully everyone can meet her.

All in all it has been an incredible trip. Sorry I have not been able to update more. I haven't had the time. I miss everyone and love you all! I'll try to post pictures soon, it just takes SOOOO long to upload them here.