So when we landed in Amsterdam a few of us were not feeling so great. Whatever illness (Norovirus?) had plagued us throughout the trip was back. I was patient zero in Tanzania and unfortunately ended up quite ill during our 6 our stopover in Amsterdam. I was feeling bad enough to ask Adrian to rebook our flight and get a hotel room for at least one night. We managed to get a return flight on Monday so needed a hotel for two nights in Amsterdam. Wow - Europe is expensive. The best value we could find was a citizenM hotel, within walking distance of the airport. 
I almost made it to the hotel without being sick in a conveniently located trash can. Our room was smaller than any cruise ship cabin I've had so far and yet it was well designed and quite high tech. Ipad to operate the blinds, TV lights and so on. Good wifi. Small restaurant. So I crawled into bed.
We had two nights here - first night was fine - at about 12:30 am on our second night, the fire alarm went. Adrian and I were in the deepest sleep either of us had had since leaving home, when we had to drag ourselves down the stairs and outside. Probably 15-20 minutes of disruption before we were sent back to our rooms. Turns out a guest assaulted a staff member - no fire, just thoroughly interrupted sleep. Thankfully the staff member will be okay and we did manage to get up for our flight home and are now safely recovering in our happy place!!

On our last day we decided a walk to the local coffee shop was in order before leaving for the airport. Along the way we got to see one of the "small five" a leopard turtle. So cool to see. Also saw some baby goats and of course had a great drink and a good walk before the plane.
Before we left Adrian handed out some thank you cards from our group, courtesy of Daphne's thoughtfulness, and Brooklyn presented beaded reminder of our visit that she and others had worked on during our stay.
As always we were treated to dancing and a singing send off!

One of the highlights was a 3 hour plus walk with the warriors. They showed us how to start a fire, pointed out the many plants they use medicinally and of course allowed us a safe opportunity to enjoy the landscape.

Here are a selection of photos that didn't I didn't want to leave out. Some should have gone with previous posts - apologies. This is my catch all post.

Staff singing and dancing farewell to a group

Cows, goats and sheep

Cows

Lark joining in the dancing with her coffee cup!

Adrian and Clamian

Ebany tree and an up close look at the dark ebony wood inside

Dung beetles so much fun to watch....

I think this is a chameleon trying to cross the road...

Today we finished our tree planting. I planted myself next to the manure pile and happily shovelled shit into wheel barrows. Each hole required manure, a tree to be planted and grass to protect the soil from the sun - and water! Adrian tried to organize an old fashioned water brigade (try teaching Gen Z's what a water brigade is) to help our trees grow. 

Today we were helping prepare planting beds by using sticks to create rows, planting the rows and then covering the seeds with soil. Permaculture is used to grow food for the school, the Eco Boma Restaurant and the community. The gardens also serve as an outdoor classroom for students and the community to learn sustainable growing methods in this growing environment. The gardens and the surrounding trees are all part of the overall project - over 7,000 trees have been planted so far, creating bird habitat, protecting plants grown for food and must needed shade. 

Today we were digging holes for trees - more precisely we were making holes bigger - 1 meter by 1 meter  by 1 meter. Those are pretty big holes to make in very hard rocky ground. Hot, sweaty, hard and yet so much fun work. Everyone kept their water bottle and sense of humour handy. Well done team!!!!

This lovely frog visited Evan and Amber's bathroom. When he couldn't be shooed away, they waited and he eventually disappeared on his own - wonder where he went?
It was rainy season during our visit so many of our group had a visitor or two. Only Evan managed to get a photo.
Sadly no photo of the snake that curled up in the mosquito netting over Jamie and Cael's bed; no picture of the snake who started to enter Carrie and Kyle's room and then chose to back out when Carrie screamed. There were also a few cockroaches, a centipede and a number geiko's and chameleon's. The bug eaters were generally welcome if they kept their distance.
Our new house was only plagues by birds - lovely birds who insisted on tapping on our windows, sometimes many at a time. So much fun to experience.
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