Third Tanzanian Lunch

How time flies - it has been six months since our last lunch and I was overwhelmed by the support yet again.  Forty sat down for a 'Tanzanian' style lunch - well it sort of resembled a Tanzanian meal with a number of extras!!  I'll let you work out the extras. This time the 'lunchers' were using knives and forks instead of the spoon and fingers!  The usual tooth picks were available -very Tanzanian. The first time I went to Tanzania and ate a meal I was offered a paper napkin and tooth pick. I soon found out why. Eating with the fingers required the napkin and the meat was so tough the tooth pick was essential!   Our meal started with an orange juice cocktail - ( juice with a little shot of whisky) accompanied with Tanzanian style peanuts - followed by the main course - rice,chicken (didn't need tooth pick),mixed vegetables and a tomato sauce -sliced  banana,brown sugar and  brandy infused cream - African ginger tea with a mini cake. It's making me feel hungry writing about it.  During tea I gave an update on the building progress and projected recent photographs. The usual great team helped with the serving and clearing up and without having to ask others joined in. We had a table of paper-backs for sale and great fun  with the raffle. The lunch raised over £400 in donations.   Yet again I am amazed at the generosity shown. A big thank you to all the 'lunchers'

Details about Tanzania and Mpwapwa District

Tanzania, East Africa

The United Republic of Tanzania was formed out of the union of two sovereign states namely Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Tanganyika became a sovereign state on 9^th December 1961 and became a Republic the following year.  Zanzibar became independent on 10^th December 1963 and the People’s Republic of Zanzibar was established after the revolution of 12^th January 1964.  The two sovereign republics formed the United Republic of Tanzania on 26^th April 1964. However, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania is a unitary republic consisting of the Union of Government and the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government.

Tanzania is in East Africa, just 6 degrees South of the Equator. It is famous for Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest mountain in Africa), the Serengeti national park, the Masai people, and the idyllic beaches on Zanzibar.

Tanzania is around 8 times the land area of the UK (or half the land area of Western Europe) and has just over half the population (36 million) of UK. About half the population of Tanzania are under 15 years old.

Most people in Tanzania speak two languages, Swahili (the language of business, schools, TV, Radio etc.) and their own tribal language (which they speak at home). There are more than 120 different tribes in Tanzania. About 1/3 of the people are Moslem, 1/3 Christian and 1/3 follow traditional religions. Tanzania has been a multiparty democracy since 1995.

Some areas of Tanzania grow coffee, sisal (to make sacking and ropes) for export. Other exports are gold, diamonds, cloves and other spices (from Zanzibar and Pemba).  Near Mpwapwa area it is too dry to grow crops to sell. Most people are subsistence farmers – they have no paid employment, but depend on growing enough food to feed their families. Some work as tailors, carpenters or run corner shops to try and make money to live. Average income in Mpwapwa is about £60 per annum. 

Only 1 in 10 children will get the change to go to Secondary school. Many parents cannot afford the £50 annual fee.  Secondary education is in English. One in five children who are born safely will die before their 5^th birthday, mainly from Malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea and measles, with malnutrition making this more likely. One in 20 women will die from complications of one of their pregnancies. One in 9 people are infected with HIV which causes AIDS. These people will almost all die in the next 5 – 10 years. There are already many orphans and also many skilled people such as teachers have died, leaving the work force short of trained people. Many groups are working on trying to help people avoid being infected by the virus.

Mpwapwa Diocese

The Diocese takes in the administrative boundaries of the Mpwapwa and Kongwa Districts (approximately 4144 square kilometres (1600 square miles) in area), which were created before the First World War by the German Colonial Authorities. It is almost centrally located on the Tanzanian mainland, lying between the 5º 30' and 7º latitudes and straddles the 36º longitude line. Its dominant physical features include semi-arid scrubland formed at around 3000^ft ~ 4000^ft above sea level, and a mountainous belt across the centre with peaks upwards of 7000^ft.

Climatically Mpwapwa is relatively cool at night and warm and sunny during the day. The average temperature is 21ºC with average rainfall of 700mm per annum. In good years the rainy season starts from mid-November until the end of April, but about one in every five years it is prone to fail completely. When it rains it should rain almost every day quite heavily for 2 to 3 hours. It is cold enough 17° C  to need a blanket at night from February to June and hot enough +45° C to make air conditioning desirable (but usually not available!) from October to February.  It is a fairly mountainous area and takes 2 days to travel by car from north to south due to poor road conditions. Most people live on the plateau at about 3,500ft   above sea level, though others mainly from the minority Wahehe tribe live atop the 7,000ft mountains which benefit from better rainfall. Traditional ways abound with the fabric of society still enriched by a strong embodiment of the predominant Wagogo Culture as typified by the sound of gourd lutes and ‘Morris’ leg bells.

Mpwapwa Town

Mpwapwa is a market town and is situated in the centre of the Mpwapwa district, with a population of about 30,000 serving an area about the size of Wales. It is rather like a Western film set minus the horses (bicycles instead!). It acts as the administrative centre for the district, with facilities such as a bank, a post office, a court house, a veterinary research centre, a secondary school and a teacher training college. It lies nestled into the edge of the hills, approximately 80km (about 2½ hours drive) from Dodoma.

St Luke's Hospital is situated in the village of Ving'hawe, on the outskirts of Mpwapwa town. The village has a population of approximately 5000, covering a fairly widespread area. About half this number are under 15, and about a quarter are under 5.

Chitemo Village lie south west of Mpwapwa town. It is part of a parish of 8 small churches lead by Pastor Festo Kizuzu. They have a church committee to help vulnerable children and have in their care 157 orphans aged between 1 and 14. This care started in 2008 with just a few children with numbers steadily increasing. There are 3 volunteers who try to give the children activities and some education. They face many challenges one is that there is no building for the children to use, the volunteers are not trained, they have inadequate teaching materials, and insufficient water. The water supply is 6 kilometres away. In the village of Nyhinila which is close to Chetimo there are 165 orphaned children, two volunteers and the same challenges.

The congregation and village people of the villages have been contributing by giving some foods and money to help the development of the orphans.  Three times a year they usually have fundraising days. They contribute things such as food, clothes, soaps, exercise books, pencils, pens, and money and other materials, to assist the children with school fees, health assistance and other pressing needs. They usually have the fundraising days at the beginning of the first and second school terms and at the end of the year.  Some years due to drought it is difficult for the villagers to contribute to the needs of the orhpans because of their own lack of food and funds.  However they don’t lose hope they are doing it using little resource they have.  This is where SEEDS4Tanzania hopes to make a difference in the lives of these children and the people of the villages.

I hope you have found these details of interest and if you are able to support us in any way I shall be most grateful. Rev Canon Yolande Marcussen, Chairman

 

 

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Talking about water - another project!

Rev Nicky Teverson and a group of young people from Trinity School, Belvedere, who accompanied me to Tanzania in July have returned inspired. They have decided to raise £4000 towards the cost of a water bore-hole for the village of Chitemo. Although Chitemo has a water supply it is not sufficient, which is always the case. Once the pre-school is up and running this will create an extra drain on the water supply so another bore-hole will be fantastic.

Well done Nicky and Trinity. It is going to be a real challenge raising the funds but what a wonderful gift to the people of Chitemo.  A big thank you from me. Yolande

Life can be very challenging in Tanzania

I have recently received an email from a friend in Tanzania. His name is Baraka Ngobei. He is studying at the Theological College at Kongwa in the Diocese of Mpwapwa. Baraka has a wife Ester and a young son Brighton. He comes from another diocese where he will return once he has completed his studies. At present he has returned home and sent me this email

'Great to hear from you and trust that your husband's health will improve, I am now at home for the short break. I am also doing some find for my research here in the Diocese. Brighton and Ester are in Kongwa and they are all fine. People here at Kiteto have a big problem of water especially these months. The area where my parents live there is no water so they have to travel 20km and above for looking water. Send our greeting to your family and friends. Love to all the family. God Bless. Baraka.' Water is always a problem - there is never sufficient. It makes me realise how much I take for granted here in England when I turn on the tap and more importantly leave water running. What I have found which is so wonderful with the people I know in Tanzania that what ever the challenges  they never moan or give up and always have hope for the future. Something that perhaps we could all remember when we think things are a bit tough.

Latest news.....................

July 2012 some of the  orphan children with the volunteer teacher. 'Seeds' will be funding her training to qualify as a pre-school teacher. Her one year course starts in January 2013.

 

 

I have received an email from my coordinator in Mpwapwa who has heard from Rev'd Festo the pastor of Chitemo and Nyhinila villages, informing me that the foundations for the two pre-schools  are in the process of being dug. Also as from 23 September the diocesan lorry was  available to transport the stones, mud bricks and sand to the building sites. I am now waiting to hear what funding is required for materials needed to enable the building to go ahead.

Our  website  www.seeds4tanzania.org  should be going live in the next couple of weeks - I am so excited. I do hope that you will check it out and let me know what you think.

Latest news from Chitemo and Nyhinila

Great news - I have received an email today from an associate in Mpwapwa diocese who has met with the pastor of Chitemo and Nyhinila villages. The stones have been transported to the building sites and the foundation work is underway. How exciting!

 

Unfortunately I am now unable to return this October and will have to wait until 2013 after the rains have ended. They will start in November of this year and continue until end of April 2013. My next visit will be at the end of May beginning of June. Until then I shall have to rely on emails re the building progress




 Photograph of Emily aged three. A family I  support  while their father is away studying. Her sister Florence is training to be a medical lab technician and she has a brother Michael who is still at school.

 

 I am hugging brother Michael and mother Agnitha. The other people in the photograph are neighbours who have come in to meet the strange lady!!

 

 

 

 

Couldn't resist adding this photograph of 'me' sitting for the first time in my Canon's stall in the Cathedral in Mpwapwa.  I am the first women priest in Mpwapwa Diocese and now a Canon in their Cathedral - as my grandchildren would say 'awesome'!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEEDS4Tanzania registered charity no.1144822 – We are building!! - August 2012

I returned from my visit to Tanzania last month after three exciting and challenging weeks. Many miles were travelled visiting various areas in the Mpwapwa Diocese renewing and strengthening friendship.

My main reason for the visit was to spend time in the villages of Chitemo and Nyhinila to assess the progress being made with our first project to build a pre-school for the orphans of these villages. Over the past months, since my trip in October 2011, I have had to rely on emails from various people assuring me of the villagers’ commitment to the project and outlining their programme for the building work.

On arrival at both villages I was soon to be assured of their commitment. In fact so committed are they to the project of building a pre-school and the benefit of education for the young orphans that the project/building committee had decided to build a school in each village!!  What fantastic news, albeit it will mean double the work and double the funding.

The people were so excited to show me their achievements and I was soon whisked away to a mountain area to see the stones which had been gathered for the foundations. No B & Q to order from!  Most building materials have to be sourced from the land which has required hard physical work for the men and women, prising  boulders out from the side of the mountain then rolling them down to  be broken up. The stones will have to be transported by a lorry to the building sites. Thankfully the Bishop of Mpwapwa has offered the use of the diocesan lorry and ‘SEEDS’ will supply the funds for the fuel. Sand is being collected from the dried out river beds by the women, buckets are filled and then transported on their head. Many mud bricks have already been made waiting to be dried out by the sun before they are fired. The digging of the foundations will be extremely hard work as the land is dry, rock hard and only pick axes and shovels are available but what they lack in heavy machinery they certainly make up for with their enthusiasm.

In time funds will be needed for cement, roofing, school equipment and remuneration for the teachers. I met two young mothers who are willing to be trained as pre-school teachers and they will go to training college for a year which will also need funding. Of course more teachers will be required in due course.

For four days students from Trinity School Belvedere worked with the orphans offering various fun teaching activities.  The orphans had never experienced anything like it and it was an excellent way    to show the villagers the benefits of education and that learning can be fun.  It was wonderful to see the faces of these little children, to hear the shouts of joy and laughter.  Children are the future of this world and all deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential. In our small way SEEDS4Tanzania hope to help these children have a future.

 if  you would like to support this project in some way and help to  make a real difference in the lives of these children and the people of Chitemo and Nyhinila please contact Rev Canon Yolande Marcussen  07794151635 – email seedsfortanzania@gmail.com or yolande.marcussen@gmailcom