So far so good

Saturday saw the village of Tillingham brought to a standstill as traffic flocked from miles around for the quiz night to end all quiz nights. OK, that's not strictly true... but 30 of my friends and family gathered at the village hall to lend their support to Mondo Chllenge and my charity project in Tanzania. The quiz was a closely run race which ended in a tie break situation between The Flying Pigs (Julie, Mr Mangum and their friends the Cecils) and Quiz Team Aguilera (the Plant family minus quiz master Mike and me). It was a tense few seconds but the Flying Pigs pulled it out the bag and emerged victorious - luckily as otherwise everyone would have said it was a fix! Thanks to everyone who came, I think everyone had fun and we managed to raise over £400 which was fantastic! We had people from as far afield as Surrey and Southend, and ages ranging from 9 to 95! Special mention must go to Chloe and Amy who were brilliant and provided extra entertainment with their olive eating challenge! Thanks also to Mum, Dad and Gemma for helping me to organise the evening xxx

My philosophy (bit profound - you have been warned)!

People keep asking me what is my motivation for doing this project, and it got me thinking...so thought I would share my thoughts with you. I have always wanted to do something momentous, but I had never landed on anything that grabbed me. Then I met Mondo Challenge and found the staff so inspiring and decided it was now or never! I have been in my job as a PA in London for 2 years now, during which time I have met some great people who I will be sad to leave, but I need a new challenge and to wake up every day feeling as though what i'm doing makes a difference. While I am not conceited enough to imagine that i am going to dramatically change anyone's life except my own, I hope that my being there helps the children with their english and gives them a taste of life outside Longido. Of course, I will get a lot out of it too - Africa is such a vast, interesting and mysterious continent about which I know very little and I am excited about experiencing life there and integrating with the local Maasi tribe ( where I will be living with Mama Judith and her family)!