Friday 6 November 2015

'Famous 5' trip October 2015 continued

 
 
 
8 October 2015 
 
 
Time to leave Nyhinila and say goodbye to Hagali and her young helper. Hagali has three children under 5 and her husband died suddenly at the beginning of 2015.  Thankfully because she is now a trained pre-school teacher she has some status otherwise she would have struggled and her children would have been known as orphans.
 
 
A little sign at the approach to Nyhinila pre-school
'Yorande pre-school Nyhinila' I found this very touching.
 
        
 
Water bore-hole at Nyhinila.  Water is now collected from the bore-hole into a  2000 litre tank.  This save the bore-hole
 
pump having to be constantly in use.  An additional 5000 litre tank would help the saturation.  We are hoping that this will be purchased as soon as funds are available.
 
           
 
               
 
The new more powerful generator which will be housed in the building in the process of construction.
 
             
 
The bore-hole pump which will also be housed.  The river next to the bore-hole. A scene throughout the area, all the rivers completely dry.

 Cattle standing in the river bed but given water in a trough. Donkeys waiting with water containers to filled and transported back to the village.
 
 10 October 2015
        
 We return to Nyhinila for the unveiling of the foundation stone  and blessing of the pre-school by Archbishop Jacob Chimeledya.
 
                           
 
The school children are waiting to greet us.
 
 
 
 
 
                                 




The foundation stone is unveiled by Archbishop Jacob and the school is blessed.  Archbishop Jacob then speaks to the people of the importance of having a facility to educate the little children and also the need to maintain the building.  If things need refurbishing or replacing they are not to look to Canon Yolande and SEEDS4tanzania.



                              
 
The School is blessed.  Archbishop Jacob holds one of the children's slate boards and speak about when he was a child and his father taught him to read and write first with drawing in the dust of the earth and then with a slate board.





We return to the bore-hole the generator building has already progressed in height and the walls are being rendered.  Archbishop Jacob blesses the bore-hole and speaks to the people about the importance of water and therefore the importance of the maintenance of the bore-hole and equipment.



               
The bore-hole foundation stone and the housing for the generator.




Chitemo sign post                          
                            The children welcome us with posters written in English.

 
 

 
 We have now returned to Chitemo for the unveiling of the foundation stone of the pre-school and the blessing of the school by Archbishop Jacob.


                           
 
 
 
                       
 
Time to celebrate with dance and song.
 
 Ruthu the trained pre-school teacher of Chitemo.
 
 
                
 
               
The mothers entertain us with song.  Mother's Union (in blue).
 
 
A little baby is more fascinated with Steve (our official photographer) than with the entertainment!
 
 
Time for me to speak to the people.
 
With Steve's 1300 plus photographs and my 500 plus it has been difficult to select what to show.  I hope the captions and photos have given a flavour of our  visit. However, SEEDS  still have many challenges.
 
Challenge number one.
 
To supply outdoor play equipment for the two schools.  Swings, roundabout and slides.  These are in the process of being built.
 
Challenge number two.
 
The schools still need teaching equipment.
 
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE NUMBER THREE
 
The teachers need to be paid but the villages are very poor.  After a number of visits to the Animal Research Centre in Mpwapwa and discussions with representatives of Chitemo and Nyhinila it has been decided to supply the villages with pigs.  The pigs will breed and the piglets sold at market to produce the funds to pay the teachers and maintain the school.  This is a long term project and it will take time to produce any funds. In the meantime SEEDS will take care of the teachers funding.  It has been decided that in each village a small group will be responsible for managing the pigs and they will spend three days at the Animal Research Centre on an animal husbandry course.  This will of course require a substantial sum of money to pay for the course and thereafter funding will be required to purchase the sows and bore for each village. 
 
 
                              
 
 
 
 
 
There are many struggles to survive in this country of Tanzania, life is hard for many.  At the end of every day in Tanzania as the sun goes down I feel privileged to be accepted and loved by the beautiful people and a part of their lives.   
 
 
                                                            
 
                                                                              
 
 
 
 
 
                                      








 


 
 
 

Thursday 5 November 2015

The 'Famous 5' of 2015 travel to Tanzania part one!

 

 


10 suitcases packed with items to take to Chitemo and Nyhinila villages

For Trevor, Cathy and Steve this is a first visit to Tanzania.
4 October 2015 day of departure for Tanzania.

Heathrow to Doha - Doha to Dar es Salaam arriving 5 October 2015. A long tiring journey ahead.







Very excited Trevor, Yolande, Cathy and Rebecca
Steve our official photographer is taking the photograph!!

        
We arrive at Dar es Salaam after a very long and tiring journey but we are still smiling
Our lovely friend and driver Rajabu from Takims Holidays was at the airport to meet us with his usual big warm smile and would be with us for the following 2 weeks.

 




 
We stayed over night at the Southern Sun Hotel and enjoyed a hearty breakfast before our 8 hour journey cross country in the land cruiser. Still smiling!
 
A long dusty road ahead to Mpwapwa once we left the tarmacadam road from Dar es Salaam.
 
 
We arrive after 8 hours travel at the 'Ark Hotel' which turns out to be more a building site in slow progress!  Well I did tell the group not to have too high expectations of our accommodation!
 
 
Views from our bedroom window!
 
 
Staircase to our bedrooms!
 
 
7 October visit Chitemo village and SEEDS pre-school.
 
 
 
Arrive at Chitemo and invited to have 'Chai and chapattis' in the home of Pastor Festo.
 
 
Time for the team to introduce themselves - Trevor tries out his Swahili!
 
 
The ladies seem amused with his efforts!
 
 
Pig pen outside Pastor Festo's home.
 
 
Our pre-school at Chitemo village. At the last count 168 children attend the school. Toilets are still in the process of being built
 
 
 
 
 
 
A meeting is held in the school with Pastor Festo, representatives from Chitemo and Nyhinila - village elders and members of the school and bore-hole committees to discuss the progress of
the projects and the way forward. 
 
 
Do you know how to swing a hoop around your hips?  Who is this strange man!
 
 
After long discussions we are invited to lunch at Pastor Festo's.
 
 
It makes us feel uncomfortable to be given food when the area has suffered a severe drought, the crops have failed and the people are struggling to survive.
 
 
 
8 October we return to Chitemo to organise activities with the pre-school children.  The children are sitting under the tree having their morning porridge made from maize, water and some honey.  
 
       
The porridge is cooked outside over charcoal. For some children it may be their only meal of the day. Another incentive to attend school.
 
Time to get the activities started.             
 
Chasing bubbles is so exciting!
 
                                          
 
Running under the parachute is great fun - we love to scream.  We also love to make a circle and sing action songs.  The wheels on the bus is one of our favourites and we so love the Oke Koke!
 
Before we leave Chitemo its lollipop time! 
                
Nyhinila pre-school and the children wait to greet us.  The village of Nyhinila is much smaller than Chitemo and at the last count 64 children attend the school.
 
 
We meet with the village elders, committee representatives, introduce ourselves and speak about the school and bore-hole projects.  Stephen Ngailo translates for us.  He is now our project co-ordinator.
 
             
 
 
 
We think these visitors are funny.   I'm not sure I like them!
 
 
Hagali,  Nyhinila's pre-school teacher              
 
 
                     
 
time to have some fun - great they have brought the parachute over from Chitemo!
 
 
 
I'm still not sure I like them.    Yeh! I think this is great.
 
            
Balloons to play with and then lollipops - great!
 
                                               
Hagali shows us the work she does with the children and the clay animals and letters she has made.
 
 The slate boards the children are using.
 
 Before we leave the mothers entertain us with singing and playing of drums.