Counting down the hours..........

My hall is full with 12 suitcases ready for my trip to Tanzania tomorrow 28 June. Flight from Heathrow to Dar es Salaam leaves at 7.20pm and it arrives 29 June 7am.  I am travelling with 8 others who will also have many suitcases. Our problem will be when we arrrive at Dar if our vehicles can't take all the cases. It happens every trip but 'where there's a will  there's a way' and some how we never leave anything behind except may be  empty suitcases where we have stowed the contents under seats or had to sit on them. Not the most comfortable journey especially as it  takes another 10 hours to our final destination, Mpwapwa town. The organising of this visit has been a particular challenge for all sorts of reasons,howevr I know that once I am on the plane I shall have no difficulty after a couple of glasses of wine of sleeping through the flight. Arriving at Dar is always exciting, so much to look forward to, so many wonderful people to meet and an amazing country to travel through. Hopefully I shall be able to update the blog during the time in Tanzania - electricty permitting!! Thank you to all who have been so generous in support for this trip - the 12 large suitcases are evidence of this.  Yolande                 

15 days to go!!

Only 15 days to go and it will be the long trek to Mpwapwa,Tanzania. A 10 hour flight to Dar es Salaam and then a 10 hour cross country journey by land rover.  The past month has continued to be very  busy collecting items to distribute amongst the people of Mpwapwa Diocese and the orphans of Chitemo and Nyhinila.  I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people. There are now 10 suitcases in my loft ready to go!! My flight allocation is 3!! Thankfully the team  accompanying me from Trinity School, Belvedere, are only taking two cases each  so I shall be  able to share my excess amongst them. The cases are full of children's clothes, baby clothes, toys,500 bras, teaching equipment, blankets, costume jewelry to use as gifts and so much more.

The five pupils  from Trinity school have been working so hard with their Chaplain,Nicky,over the
past  months to raise the money for their trip to Tanzania. They specifically want to work with young disadvantaged children so will be spending much of their time with the orphans of Chitemo and Nyhinila. They will be teaching the children through games, music and song. To finish their time with the children a mini 'Olympic' sports day will be held. The time spent with the orphans will no doubt be a most  rewarding experience for all involved but it will also be most challenging for the five 18 year old pupils who will certainly be taken out of their comfort zone.

I have had the opportunity of doing some fund raising by giving talks and power-point presentations. On 20 May I preached at All Saints Church, Orpington, and   during the sermon gave an update  on the charity. After the service a great team helped me  serve a Tanzanian lunch to members of the congregation after which I gave a talk. The lunch  went down well and Tanzania  captured their imagination as these generous 'lunchers' including others who were unable to stay helped to raise £700 towards the pre-school building project. I must mention a dear friend at all Saints who  makes beautiful greetings cards and she donated a substantial sum from the proceeds of her sales. A real little angel.  Fantastic. Other sums have been coming in from various sources including another donation from the Totts group who meet every Thursday at All Saints. Also I have had offers to sponsor the payment of excess luggage.  I had an enjoyable evening with our Guides group and they were very enthusiastic to get involved with Tanzania and the orphan children.

The SEEDS4tanzania website is all set up and will be ready to go live once all the information has been added. How exciting! A big thank you to Gary who has put so much of his time into designing the website.   I do hope the building of the pre-school in Chitemo is progressing to plan and all will be revealed when I visit them. Fingers crossed all has been going well.