Home-Building Expedition Blogs

4th and 5th of November: Deborah  We arrived late evening to a warm Tanzanian welcome from Katie, Ellie and the staff at Randa cottages. We had a wonderful flavoursome dinner and retired to very comfortable beds. Next day was a day to relax and enjoy the culture and natural beauty of Tanzania whilst practising a few Swahili greetings. First up was the Moshi market a busily centre of fresh colour produce, fish, meat and clothes. After a lunch of traditional Tanzania fayre, we walked to the Materuni waterfall. A spectacular site and cooling water dip. Then back to enjoy the Randa cottages…

1st of September - A lovely day of exploring An orientation talk at breakfast from Katie. 9 volunteers +1 arrive this evening. First visit- a walking tour of the local markets, full of exposure to Tanzanian city life! Wonderful fruit and veg, sellers, kids on motorbikes and lots of noise and bustle. Great fun! Elly took us to the bank to exchange currency, I felt rich with 100,000 shillings in my wallet but in fact this is only about £30. We were driven in the minibus to Materuni, up a very windy, bumpy, potholed road with a steep drop to one side.…

Saturday 31st of August  Wilson Shaw  With both house builds taken as far as we can help, and after saying farewell to the families, it’s time for some downtime whilst we await to travel home on Monday. The experience has been profound and touched me in ways I didn’t expect.  Whilst I was strangely able to compartmentalise and process the very challenging living conditions and heartbreaking back stories of the families we were helping, and those we were fortunate to witness getting the keys to the homes started by the high school visits earlier in the summer, it was experiencing the hand…

Tuesday 5th November:  (Written by Damien) I had an early rise this morning as a building near our accomodation had some very exciting steel drums performing, definitely an immersive experience! When the rest of the team joined us from the other hotel we sang some songs with Elly, which by now was becoming routine and we believe it or not we are getting really good at the Swahili songs!  The drive from Sengerema to Kazunzu took us over some rough terrain, which Elly welcomed us to as the 'African Massage' Road. The drive was eye opening, the number of different…

Read on for updates from our October Building Expeditions team in Kazunzu.  Monday 14th October We finally arrived in Mwanza last night! The Mipa Hotel was very friendly and we all slept well after the journey. Breakfast was delicious! This morning we all travelled to the Jubilee Hope to witness how far the project has come since 2014. It was amazing to meet the team members and witness the amount of work that has gone into making the project happen.  As I (Holly) write, we are having lunch at the Tilapia Hotel and later we will be travelling to our…

Thursday 25th July  All the volunteers arrived safely yesterday. Today has been about acclimatising, getting money changed and a team orientation meeting. A trip to the market this afternoon proved to be an exquisite assault on all our senses! The hustle and bustle, colours, smells, sounds and happy greetings and smiles from the locals were a wonderful introduction to life in Tanzania. Later, we were privileged to meet Mama Defrosa and her team at the TWAREF headquarters. Our welcome consisted of warm hugs and handshakes and songs beautifully rendered by the staff. It was a a very humbling experience to be…