I just got back from a road trip across our Camps in Kenya and Tanzania with Nick North, one of our Camps International Trustee’s and his wife Ginny. It was there first time out here with us although both of them spent many years all over Africa in their youth. Needless to say that its been a real pleasure to show them all the various projects that we have been engaged with over the last few years if not longer. It never ceases to amaze me just how much our gappers, Lifers and School teams have contributed through dedicated hard work and I know our Trustees share my sentiments.
One comment that Nick and Ginny kept making is how shocked they were to see the kind of distances and the amount of projects that are so spread out. I never really thought about it in that way but they did make think about it and hold my breath in awe of our field staff who handle the projects on the ground. Putting up an entire classroom block that is 50kms away from the closest hardware is one thing: putting up an entire classroom block when there is no water available to drink let alone use for construction is another. Then the rains come along and the roads become impassable but somehow, we still manage to carry on.
The results from last year have been truly uplifting and we have left a lot of smiles 
across Kenya and Tanzania. The new kitchen at Sasenyi Primary is complete and in operation (the containers next to their feet are for carrying water for the school feeding programme – some kids walk up to 10kms carrying water!)
It’s currently very very smoky inside but not for long as our energy efficient partners at CO2balance have confirmed that they will 
support the construction of an institutional stove and we should get that in place very soon. Our Camp Kenya gappers were on site that day busy sanding down and varnishing that last of 50 new school desks that were partially sponsored by Southfield School, Camps and an amazing group of people that visited last year and have set up a dedicated fundraising campaign for all the much needed infrastructure at Sasenyi. Little Ben tells the story first hand below:
Yes, Camps International does financially and physically support all its projects through your participation in our various programs but No: we can’t do it all alone. And for this purpose, the Camps International Trust has come into operation and been an amazing supporting hand for lots of different independent projects or for so many people like the Crossley’s or the Cummins group who have come out here and been a part of the process themselves and want to keep being a part of it.
And that’s just one location in one country! We have 18 active projects in Kenya alone, 5 in Tanzania and several more in Borneo.
2 days and 6 punctures later, we made our south from Camp Tsavo across the border to Tanzania. The road is miserable on the Kenyan side and I could see a cheeky smile forming across the face of Tommie, our Tanzania Country Manager as we crossed over to the far too smooth surface…(yeah, yeah, Tommie, I got the message!). And the view…aah the view from Camp Mbokumu…
So irrespective of the lousy view out of their windows and the fact that there are a handful of real coffee shops down the road, our Camp Tanzania work their butts off in all sorts of obscure 
locations around Mount Kilimanjaro. We have been very ambitious with some of our projects but we have never failed even when the school dining hall is big enough to park a couple of planes in!
The Mbokumu Dining Hall is just up the road from the Camp but much much further up the road (further enough for our 4wd pickup to wheeze and cough with altitude sickness) is another amazing little project that has just been completed and a big hat tip to all of you who were apart of this little kitchen on the banana infested hills of Kidia.
Perhaps you are beginning to notice a pattern here. We appear to have an obsession with a handful of things and food is definitely one of them (click HERE to remind yourself of the other). Yes, in areas where the basic needs like food security and hygiene and water are simply not available, we have a duty to focus and help establish basic fundamental necessities. And we like to stay positive and realistic about what we do.
Yes, we are indeed proud of all that has been accomplished and yes, we also know that we have miles to go before we sleep…
