Galashiels Academy Team Blog: Tanzania, June 2018

Saturday 16th  June.

 Galashiels Academy arrived safely at Moshi and are enjoying their first day in Tanzania. The group were together this morning for their orientation meeting, and will be heading in to explore Moshi this afternoon. Everyone is good health and high spirits.

Sunday 17th

Early rise for the KCMC church service at 8am, followed by a visit to Moshi Childrens Christian Centre in the afternoon (see group photo following Scotland’s 7-2 victory over Tanzania at football today at MCCC).

Monday 18th 

The team visited the TAWREF offices this morning before driving to their work site to start the building of a new home for Jackson. Jackson is seven years old and lost both his parents to HIV/AIDS. He currently lives with his grandmother.


The team made fantastic progress with lots of pick axe swinging and shovelling. By the end of the day they had completed digging and filling in the foundations!

Tonight the hungry troop are heading out to enjoy a meal at Deliz Chez.

Tuesday 19th June

Galashiels Academy completed their second day on the worksite for Jackson, and have made amazing progress. The foundations were completed and then each of the team got to lay the first bricks.

Wednesday 20th June.

The team had a wonderful day. It started with a visit to see Mama Maria and her four daughters for the opening of their home (which is the Vine Trust’s 101st home in Tanzania). The group leader Keith was honoured to cut the ribbon and the whole team joined in the celebrations with the local community, TAWREF and the family.

 

They then travelled to the work site where the team put in a power of work. Incredibly the walls are just about complete now, and so work started on digging a sizeable hole behind the property which will eventually be used as a toilet.

It was then back to Berea for a shower (otherwise known as a trickle of cool water) before heading out to the Kilimanjaro Coffee Lounge for dinner and some traditional African dancing!

Friday 22nd June 2018

June and the guys were at the work site again. As usual Jackson and Mama Esther were there waiting to greet us with a friendly smile and a handshake or hug.

They all took a long walk to the river to fill buckets of water and carry them back to the site for mixing with sand and cement. The group were kept busy by the local fundi; shifting sand and buckets of cement for completing the lintels. They also had fun wetting the walls of the house in order to ensure the dried cement doesn’t crack in the baking sun. Needless to say more water was thrown at each other than the walls! The water fight finally finished with Robert pouring a bucket of water over Kerry!


It has been great to see the team working so well together this week; they have a superb work ethic and have made incredible progress on the house. It has also been fab to see them playing with Jackson and some other children from the local community.

On the way back to Berea, the team dropped in to the supermarket for some snacks for their Safari journey and then went for juice/coffee at Union Cafe.

The traditional screening of ‘The Lion King’ followed after dinner, before an early night.

Tomorrow brings a 5.15am start as the group head off on Safari for two days (there are eight very excited people!) ……..

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