Yes, yes, I know we have been pretty quiet about what’s been happening in Tanzania but with the current terrible electricity shortage and terrible internet, it’s not been easy for Tommie and his team to post regularly through the summer season but for those of you who were out there, I am sure you will agree that Camp Tanzania kicks butt! And Tommie tells us why…

It is an understatement when one says that July and Aug are our busiest months. It is total havoc; you may call it mayhem but all in a good way. All in the name of giving back to the communities we work in. Its all about Responsible Tourism and this is what we are about.

Summer has just past and the dust has settled. Here in Tanzania just like in all our other camps across Kenya and Borneo, we hosted several School expeditions and Gap year volunteers. They came out in their hundreds. Individually, they came for personal development, cultural experience and some even came out to see if they could endure the hardship of being away from their comfort zone. Challenge themselves with adventures ranging from trekking Mt. Meru to doing a PADI course in the open waters of our Indian ocean. Pushing their adrenaline to the maximum and straining their sinew to the bone.

Regardless of what they were out here for, they had it all and more. This was evident after the volunteers completed what was thrown their way. Their faces were filled with a sense of achievement, pride and self satisfaction.

Fun bit starts here. These volunteers had a test of all our camps. They visited, Ndarakwai, camp Meru, Mbokomu and Tanga. In each camp there were various activities lined up for them ranging from teaching English to local people, helping with daily chores, cooking lessons, Seaweed farming, repairing furniture to constructing toilets and class rooms for Schools.

We would like to take you through what the ever hard working volunteers have achieved this summer and just give you a snapshot of the impact and difference their work has done in the Schools and community at large…

Villagers’ house curved in after a heavy down pour and so our gappers built a new one for her!

Mwakidila School in Tanga has 645 pupils. These School going kids had 4 long drop toilets to share amongst themselves. After the summer, the School now has 4 refurbished and three newly built toilets. This means that they now have 11 latrines/toilets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refurbished toilet block                   New Toilets

Learning English under a Mango Tree…

Villager’s turn to teach the volunteers a thing or two…

Weaving makuti for roofing               Milking a cow                               cooking lesson

Volunteers helping the mama’s                                         Grazing cattle the local way
with firewood.

Nothing beats villagers and volunteers working together towards are common goal!

Ground breaking for Mwambani Nursery Classroom

Camps volunteers made a netball and volleyball court for one of the local School’s here.

And of course, we are not all about work and more work. We have a good balance between work and play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On behalf of the community we work with, we would like to thank each and every volunteer for a job well done!

Tommie and Camp Tanzania staff…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Gap, Tanzania, Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.