My flight from Heathrow to Dar es Salaam on 29 December was trouble-free and comfortable. I was met at the airport and then driven through part of Dar, past the extremely smelly fish market and on to the clanking ferry for a ten minute journey across to a less busy area. Bit of a drive to Kipepeo Beach Village. This is where our visitors and volunteers go for a couple of days. It takes a little while to get used to the heat and everyone is inevitably tired after travelling. Time spent on a beach next to the Indian Ocean is a very attractive prospect! It is hotter there than at Emau Hill (1000m above sea level) so it felt comfortably cool in the mountains when I got there!

Stephen Valentine, our Director of Operations in Tanzania, had arrived just a few days earlier, after a couple of months in the UK. So, a couple of days there and then on to Muheza by Scandanavian coach. That is the company Tukae now use by choice, efficient and safe. The open windows provided the air-conditioning which was fine. I don't mind how I get cool so long as I am. After a couple of hours, bottles of 'soda' were distributed from an ice-filled box, and biscuits. Later, bottles of water went into the now melted ice and eventually we got those too. That's more than I got on my Newquay to Heathrow coach trip a few days earlier!

Market stall, Dar es SalaamJohn, the driver, met us with the Land Rover at Muheza and so off up the dirt road to Emau Hill. The drive takes a good hour on a dry day, through heavy forest. Birds fly up, none I can identify, and there are many different varieties of trees. It is beautiful and cool, with dappled light attracting some lovely butterflies. The road enters Amani Nature Reserve part way along, and the forest is deeper still. There are small villages along the way, people by the side of the road, chickens and goats on the road.

Eventually we reached Emau Hill. I knew that I wanted to come back here, but I wasn't fully prepared for my feelings of delight at being back at this place. It is three years since I was here; three years of hard work to raise money and public awareness, three years of hearing reports and seeing photos; and now to see the reality for myself was very good.

This is Tukae's permanent base in Tanzania. The original building constructed by Fr Baruti some years ago is still here and is home to the Health Post that serves this area. I met Mzee Mzuri, who provides the medical care at the Health Post; at 70 he has many years of experience behind him. His English is excellent too - and he wasn't impressed with the sunburn I'd accidentally acquired! Mama Ade, wife of John the driver, is a Health worker here and it was good to see her again.

Althea is welcomed to AmaniThe same building accommodates volunteers and visitors at the moment; eventually there will be other buildings for this. The walls of the next storey are up, waiting for enough funds to roof it. It will house a number of activities, including a Learning Resource Centre and further accommodation. The roof will also allow water catchment for the site, stored in tanks; rainwater is the cleanest source of water, requiring minimal filtering.

Quite a few people will be flying into Dar over the next few weeks; three coming to teach English, and two doctors visiting, so there isn't a room for me. Stephen and Caroline built a house last year and I am sleeping very comfortably in their living room, mosquito net slung from the beam. I was surprised to find that I am glad of a couple of fleece blankets at night, although the temperature doesn't drop below about 20ºC it's still a long way from the 30ºC of day time. I think the house is lovely, built of mud brick and thatched with makuti (palm leaves). It is cool against the heat and comfortable.

Water is a major problem this year - always an issue but it's worse now. All our water has to be carried up from the river below by a woman balancing a large bucket on her head. This is kept in barrels, filtered first through a cloth. This is thenused for washing and cooking. Drinking water comes from a spring a way down the mountain - it also has to be carried up here. It is then filtered very simply and bottles are left in the sunshine for some hours. It works as a purification method, and we all drink the water with no ill effects. The day we arrived the river was nearly dry - this year the short rains have failed.

Here at Emau and in the villages around the drought isn't quite so obvious, although the crops looked undersized, butno rain has fallen for some time; since I arrived we have had 7 mm. Not enough of course. The prices of maize and rice, staples, have risen by 3 times - people have extremely low incomes so they will go hungry unless food distribution works and enough food is made available. The effects will be quietly felt but nonetheless widespread.

I have been in discussion with Stephen and Fr Baruti about the sewing school. Thiswas set up about a year ago to help girls with no other qualifications to improve their skills and earning power. Nearly all finished the course, which should have provided them with enough skills to make clothes and other items. One of the things I am hoping to do here is to help them build on what they have learned and also to start producing goods which are of a high enough quality to sell in the shops for tourists in the city. Time will tell! It's very much part of Tukae's brief to help to develop local skills; revenue-earning activities are vitally important in an area like this which is cash starved.

The 4-wheel drive Land Rover we have on loan is old and we need to replace it. It has to be taken to the garage in Tanga regularly for yet more repairs; roads here are very hard on cars. Yesterday we drove for just over two hours to Tanga, down the mountain and along the main road through various small villages. The car needs quite a bit of work doing, again. I don't know much about the inner workings of the vehicle but I met Norman at the garage where the car is taken. He is reliable and looks after TAT 761 well but we still need to replace the vehicle with a newer, less battered one.