Day 8

Blog day 8   16-7-15

Jessica

After saying our farewells last night the morning pack up was calm yet efficient. We said our fond goodbyes to the holes in the ground (aka the toilets) and set off for Bogamoyo. The journey lasted for around two hours with an interesting route of rollercoaster roads containing many obstacles such as goats, mud piles and broken down trucks. When we arrived at Travellers Lodge we were amazed at the amount of greenery surrounding us as we walked through a jungle environment, but also slightly scared at the mention of every single type of snake in the east part of Africa sharing this location with us. Our rooms consist of beautiful huts that are less than a minute to the sea. When we were settled in we visited the town to get some lunch. Following Tanzania time we ended up eating about two hours after we had ordered but it was worthwhile in the end.

Next we visited Saidi and his school where we will be helping out tomorrow. It is very basic but the amount of work that he has put into it to give children an education is truly amazing. We then visited Pili who makes any type of clothing you want out of some amazing fabrics. A few of us ordered some clothes to be made. Finally we hit the beach with palm trees and blue sky surrounding us and warm sea water making it actually enjoyable to swim in. Overall the day was relaxing but interesting with many new experiences made.

Ps. (Happy Birthday Dad! Hope you had as good a day as I did!)

Day 7

Blog day 7           15-7-151

Laurie

So today began similarly to yesterday, except with the commodity of an extra 30 minutes in bed, which was much needed. Sleeping in a private room with my exclusive double bed, I had some sympathy for the girls sleeping arrangements although I still struggled with the early starts!

Throughout the day we taught grade 1 and 2(the least English speaking students), and much to my delight they spoke awesome English, making for minimal awkward pauses where the girls talk in Swahili and laugh (probably laughing at me). The lessons finished early today at 12:30 where the select few ,drama elite, students rehearsed for a memorable Cinderella pantomime. I wasn’t taken with the idea of performing as the king, but when in Tanzania…

The play went down really well, the kings performance was ‘passable’ but the stars of the show were Mr Moss and Mr Tuer, the two ugly step sisters (a slightly disturbing, yet comical affair).

After the pantomime the girls put on a fierce catwalk  parade of their homemade dresses, a collection of farewell songs and lovey drum playing. When the night had finished we were swamped by upset girls saying goodbye and offering gifts. No to go as far as saying it was upsetting I had reserves about leaving (cliché).

Day 6

Blog day 6           14-7-15

Charlotte Fabi

Another early morning wakeup I somehow crawled out of the bunk bed. After breakfast there was another day of lessons staring at 7:30am I was teaching first aid to the girls this consisted of Dr ABC, recovery position, how to perform CPR on an adult, child and baby and how to wrap bandages. The girls were very interested and valued our time with them because many want to be doctors and nurses, these are the basic skills they will need. Later in the day I helped Josephine cook lunch which consisted of salad, rice and sauce. In Tanzania they use a lot of salt to flavour foods and mostly eat vegetables. Josephine preferred to use a coal fire than an electrical hob because it allows the food to be cooked at a slower pace therefore reduces the risk of burning the food. I an looking forward to cooking these meals for my family because they were simple but yummy. The girls make cards in their free time and sell them to raise money for the school. So in the late afternoon we watched the girls make some cards and bought some cards they were amazing (I loved the African animals on the cards). Pendo was the chief card maker and perfected Mr Moss and Mrs Janz cards so that they were spotless!! We were treated like kings and queens in the evening with a dinner of salad, chips, chicken and even pizza!! I was stuffed but it was really good. After dinner we chilled out and played card games while I write this blog and trying not to fall asleep (let’s hope I make it down to the dorms!!)

P.s I am sorry for the spelling mistakes cause I am to tried to re-read this blog, good thing it’s not an exam !

Day 5

Blog day               13-7-15

Natalie Sproat

Today, we were woken up at 6am by cockrels and the girls at the orphanage drumming and singing. At 7am, we went up to the main building to have breakfast – some people had toast, some had bananas, some had croissants. Following this, at 7:30am, my group went to classroom one to teach form one 7 the first year in the orphanage – we taught them, first, about volcanoes. The school day here is 7:30am to 2pm. The first thing we did was to introduce ourselves in Swahali, “Jina languni Natalie”. Then we drew a volcano on the blackboard wand labelled it. After this, Becky and I demonstrated to the students how to make a paper-mache volcano, then the students made it themselves. Next, the students drew their own versions of the volcano we had previously drawn on the blackboard. After, we taught the students a song we made to the tune of ‘London’s Burning’, the lyrics were:

“Volcanoes erupting,

Lava’s flowing,

Fire, fire,

Ash cloud’s forming,”

Then, the students had to write their own song about volcanoes in groups, which they then performed in front of the class and the best song won a prize. At the end of us teaching about volcanoes, some of the students thanked us for teaching them and that they were grateful, as they had never been taught about volcanoes before

The next subject we taught about was the human body and exercise. Firstly, we drew a human body on the board and asked the students to label all the body parts. Then, we performed ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, for the students and had the sing it as well, which they seemed to really enjoy. Afterwards, we drew a human heart on the board and the students labelled it – before drawing it themselves. The next thing we did was to play a game called, ‘Pin the heart on the human,’ in which the students were blindfolded and had to stick a heart on a body drawn on the blackboard and the people who got it closest to where it should be won a Kendal Mint Cake. Then, our class was split into two halves – the first half stayed with us while we taught them about the pulse rates, but the second half went to play teambuilding games outside. Whilst learning about pulses, we explained how pulses worked before demonstrating how to take them by having the students taking their resting pulse rate and then taking them outside to exercise and then taking the pulse rate again. Following this, we went to do the teambuilding games with our half of the class. First, we played games with a parachute, then we played the magic stick game and the ping-pong pipe game and then blindfolded follow-the-leader. This competed our day of teaching. We then went to have lunch and relaxed until tea time. In the evening, we played games such as Pictionary and had a quiz.

Day 4

Blog day 4           12-7-15

Eden Stephenson

Today, the gap medics left to go to Morogoro with Val and Mr Tuer at 7am. The journey took them over 4 hours each way and so Mr Tuer and Val were gone for most of the day. Some of us were able to have a lie-in though as we didn’t have to go to breakfast until just after 8. Josephine the cook came in especially to make it for us. We had croissants and other pastries as well as bananas and peanut butter. After breakfast, we had a bit of free time before the others returned from the church and we were able to go down to meet the girls again. The weather was really nice so I sat outside the house for a while, while other people played cards or walked around the orphanage. A few of us then went outside of the orphanage and just up the road to a small shop/café to buy some drinks. When we came back it was time to get into groups and start planning our lessons for the next few days. There are three different groups, one teaching first aid, one building volcanoes and one making a documentary of the orphanage and what the girls lives are like living here. We had to write out our lesson plans and how we were planning to break the ice with the girls, so that they would feel more comfortable around us. Everyday, the girls all gather together in the main hall for prayer and song and today we got invite in to watch. The songs that they sing are incredible, it is amazing how their voices fill the entire hall so Miss Allen had an idea that we could record the girls singing to make a CD. We then got a chance to meet the girls again so we took down some footballs and netballs to play with them. We started playing a game of piggy in the middle an played with them for a couple of hours before we then had to go and put our mosquito nets down in our dorms before we went down for dinner at around 7. Tonight we had rice with beans in a sauce which was actually really nice. After dinner, Mr Moss and Miss Jansz made a game using mime and simple English words to help us to communicate with the younger girls who don’t speak very good English. We were all given two words and had to create an action to help the girls understand what the word was. For example if the word was ‘tired’ we acted as if we were going to sleep. We then all told a fact about ourselves using actions and mime to help us improve on our body language.

Day

Blog day 3           10-7-15

Emma Cunningham

 

The day started with breakfast at 8 which consisted of chicken sausages, fried potatoes and beans. After packing and loading up the buses with the Massi warriors we took an hour long journey to the orphanage. The roads were horrendous, there were big craters and deep puddles with Tuk Tuks, cars, buses and people carrying huge piles of plastic bottles or eggs on the back of bikes. The buses don’t have suspension so we were all bouncing around especially the people sitting on the fold out seats which were in the middle of the isle. We reached a lorry stuck horizontally across the road completely blocking it off so we had to turn round and go a different way but eventually we reached the orphanage. The grounds are made up of plain concrete buildings and gardens with sheds of chickens and little vegetable patches. We unloaded our bags and put them in the dormitory which was better than expected although everyone was horrified by the toilets, there’s squatting involved. Mr Tuer told me to say that going to the toilet has reached a whole new level(a lower level) .There was also a lizard that came in and caused a minor panic, I think there’s a few holes in the wall. Next we went and chilled in the sitting room in the staff house and outside whilst the girl guides were visiting the orphans. We were sat outside and me and Charlotte Cousin were sharpening pencils and suddenly about 4 monkeys appeared at the bottom of the garden, they just sat on the wall for a bit and started to leap through the trees then disappeared. Then we had lunch made by Josephine which was really nice it was pasta and a red vegetable sauce, it’s really important not to waste here because none of the orphanage girls are allowed the food we have, so we need to clear our plates. Once the girls were finished singing with the girl guides, we went down to the hall and they sung a song for us about being happy which was really nice, so we all stood up and introduced ourselves and then got into groups. We went and sat outside and went through our diaries. My group were all 16-18 except one 14 year old so their English  was pretty good, they asked a lot of questions and were really interested in boyfriends, music like Beyonce and my hair. I had two girls leaning against me stroking my hair and Catherine was plaiting it. They also couldn’t get over my nail vanish, they kept touching my nails I’m not sure that they’ve ever seen it before. Then they showed me around the school and all the class rooms whilst taking it in turns holding my hand, they are full of little tables and chairs with stacks of exercise books and a blackboard. Then three girls in my group sat me down and we did the cup song together, they all knew it and could sing along and everything. Next we put the mosquito nets down and got changed into our longer clothes and went for dinner which was peas in sauce and rice which was really nice again and the nuns made us cakes. Now we’ve been sat in the sitting room playing cards and me, Amy, Charlotte C and Joanna have been putting up with Mr Tuers singing. Our group has become the ‘Wolf Pack’ I have no idea why apparently it’s from the Hangover movie, but there’s a chant and we are all obligated to fist bump at every opportunity. People are starting to go to bed now even though its only 9 o clock some of us have to get up at 6 to go to church with the girls at 8 and for some to go to medics.

 

 

Day 2

Blog day 2           10-7-15

India Vecqueray

On Thursday night we stayed at Jangwani sea breeze hotel. We woke up for 8 o’clock for gorgeous pancakes with Nutella and a huge range of delicious pastries sitting in the lovely covered breakfast area by the pool in the morning sun. The first adventure of the day involved visiting a museum somewhere in Dar Es Salaam. Two lovely men showed us around in separate groups. The museum exhibited a range of housing and settlements that the people of Tanzania had lived in in the past. It was really interesting and rather funny at just how sexist the man who was showing us round was (he was nice about it though); for example the young wife (because there are many) is not allowed to leave her hut or the area surrounding it unless accompanied by a man, the woman does absolutely everything but can’t hold responsibility because they are incapable and the man just takes all the credit but never mind, its just part of their culture. After the tour five or so ladies gave us a traditional dance, it was super!!! It involved a lot of stamping and shout/singing, they also had bells attached to their ankles. In the end they got us all up to dance which was really fun.

After the museum we were driven to Tinga Tinga which is a cooperative market which means that the actual artist of the crafts and painting get all the money. I think it’s definitely been my favourite part of the trip so far. There was so many beautiful things to buy and the paintings were spectacular! Because there are no actual price for individual items you have to haggle with the sellers, which was daunting at first but I think everyone got quite into it in the end, I got my painting and other items for at least half the price than was originally set and the guy that was selling me them was really nice.

For lunch, most of us had pizzas in a fab restaurant on the sea front, we then had ice creams before getting back on the bus back to the hotel. I actually really really enjoy the bus rides because we get to see so much of the city and get a passing glimpse of so many peoples different lives, and everyone waves and a few blew kisses which is nice because despite the poverty so many of them are in they are still so kind and cheerful; something that I’ve noticed with everyone we’ve come into contact with.

We spent the afternoon relaxing back at the hotel, which involved swimming and playing funny card games and consequences before going to bed.