It’s the end of my first full day here at Msichana Empowerment.

I arrived yesterday in true Africa style on an 8 hour bus that actually took over 10 hours (I’ve learnt on previous trips that time is very fluid on this continent). It was a long journey but the bus was comfortable and had WiFi so it wasn’t too bad.

As soon as I arrived I was whisked off to Natalie’s mum’s (Natalie is the organisation’s founder) house for dinner as it was Neil’s (another volunteer) last night. She had cooked up a feast! Just what I needed after a long day travelling.

When we got back I had a quick shower. There is no running water here so some water was heated for me and you just pour it over yourself with a jug. Then I went straight to bed and I slept like a log.

As it was Sunday I had a fairly chilled morning and was then invited to join Cynthia (one of Msichana’s four employees) and Hayley (another volunteer) out in the field for the afternoon. We visited various girls that Msichana is working with and Cynthia interviewed them about their experiences with the organisation. It was very humbling to visit the girls at home and a world away from life in the UK.

A big thank you to all my amazing colleagues who donated sanitary products for me to bring with me, they were really very grateful. I’m going to take some photos of Magdaline (programs manager) with them tomorrow for their social media.

I also start work in the office tomorrow. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and seeing how the next few days go!