Throughout all our education projects globally, the ultimate goal is to improve the overall standards and performance of the students in the schools. That’s not easy but we believe it can be done and we have a lot of successful stories to prove it as long as there is a long term sustainable commitment from us as well as the management and community stakeholders. With the recent launch of the Mantanani Community Learning Centre, we have a lot to shout about.

In Tanzania, we were really really proud to receive the letter below from one of the schools that we have been working with over the past two years. Not only do the students have fairly decent classrooms, adequate toilet facilities thanks to everyone’s hard work but the best part of this is that performance in the school has dramatically improved and in last year’s National Exams, Mwakadilia School came first out of 40 schools in its District!

By Charlotte and Jamie from St. Neot’s and St. Mary’s…

After 10 long hours on the bus, we finally arrived at Tanga which quickly became everyone’s favorite camp; being by the sea, with actual mattresses, a bar and sofas. It was pretty luxurious after a week and a half in the basic camps of Meru and Ndarakwai! For the first 4 days, we ventured into the world of scuba diving, although it was not everyone’s cup of tea! The ones who couldn’t take part or did not enjoy it started constructing a new mud hut for a local mama, being able to meet her and see first-hand the difference we would be making; with her injured leg she was unable to build the hut to replace the one her family were quickly out-growing.

For the scuba divers, we spent the first two days training in the swimming pool of a nearby hotel. We learnt how to use pieces of kit such as the BCD, regulator and the alternate air source which surprisingly didn’t confuse us as much as we first thought. On the third and fourth day we traveled by boat to Jambeni reef to put our training in action, and to see all of the different marine wildlife – including Octopus, a Turtle, a pod of dolphins – and Nemo! Members of the team who didn’t dive were able to snorkel which was also a great way to see the weird and wonderful creatures of the sea.

Prepare yourself – after choosing to spend the morning of our R&R day to continue building the mud hut, we decided to venture to the yacht club where we had scuba dived and have a meal which was recommended by the school before us  – Nice one!  After arriving we were squished into a table like sardines and then we had to go through the painful process of ordering drinks and food which apparently required a billion forms to be filled out. The restaurant waited  for us to fill out these forms before telling us they were out of most of the drinks and had no beef (Woohoo the veggies weren’t bothered). Anyway, after three hours the food had came out in drips and drabs and when we left at 10pm some of us were still hungry! We still had an entertaining night which we definitely wont forget!

The hard work then began, with three days to finish the hut it was hammer time! Half of the group carried the mud from an 8ft deep pit to the hut where the rest of the team were using machetes to cut the wood in half to make the foundations of the house.  The following days were spent squishing the mud into the frame making the walls to the hut. Half way through the second day of work we were taken in the local mamas kitchen where they taught us how to make some traditional African foods which are especially popular during Ramadan.  Back to work for our final day on project we had a target of completing the hut which we can happily say we completed!

Tonight is our last in Tanga and our penultimate night in Tanzania before we fly home to England. Although everyone is excited to go home to their families and comfy beds its definitelys going to be an emotional couple of days after what’s been the most memorable experience of our lives! Lala Salama!

By Charlotte and Jamie

Jordey Logan is travelling to Tanzania in the summer of 2013 and began his fundraising in November last year. Since then he has managed to raise all the money for his expedition and is continuing to fundraise to help the other members of his team reach their goal too…

So far I have done a couple fundraising events, some with my school and other students going on the trip, such as a carwash which we in total managed to raise £200 earning me about £30, a year 7 stay awake raising about £400, raising me about £100. Things like this are a good idea as you don’t have to do it on your own and it will provide you with some money. But doing an event by myself has allowed me to raise a lot more money for my trip.

The first thing I did by myself was a sponsored head shave since I had been growing my hair for about 6 years, all the way through secondary school , changing it from big curly hair into dreadlocks. Resulting in most of my friends to have never seen me with short hair, helping me raise a total of £450, as so many people where determined to see me with short hair.

The best way of drumming up a considerable amount of money which I realised, are events that include the following two things; something that nobody else has done or something not many do, and things that make people question if you are able to complete it or not.

One event that I have recently done which included both of these things is something called the Everest Challenge, which involved me climbing 997 feet (304m) from Lynmouth to the highest point of Countisbury hill, 29 (and a bit) times continuously to make up the 29028 feet (8848m) to the summit of Everest, which I managed to complete in 26hours 47minutes. And as this event was something nobody has ever done, I managed to raise £3521.51. Meaning I have practically raised all the money required for my trip to Tanzania in 2013.

So from all of the events that I have done so far, I have managed to raise around £4101.51, meaning that I have raised over my target amount of £4000, £3840 for the trip and £160 for anything I require e.g. jabs. But as I still have just under a year left till my trip, I’m going to help as many of my friends going on the trip as best I can to make raising the money required that little bit easier.

One of the main reasons to how I managed to raise such a considerable amount wasn’t just because it was a remarkable challenge, but because of how well I advertised it/let people know what I was doing. A good way of doing this is to create a Facebook page, even though creating a website looks good, nearly everybody will check Facebook regularly unlike a website. Another good way is to put a write up about the event in your local paper and place posters and fliers around where you live. Anything that grabs someone’s attention while informing them what’s happening.

In case you are thinking that you wouldn’t be able to easily go up to people asking for sponsorship, or going into places and asking for them to put up posters and possible sponsor you. Don’t be ashamed as that was my biggest problem while fundraising, but what allowed me to overcome that problem was since I was determined to raise the money for my trip, even if it resulted in my going out of my comfort zone to achieve it. But I promise you now that even if the first time is hard it does get easier the more times you try.

The best advice I can give to anyone is; don’t set challenges which you know you can’t complete, make sure you let as many people as possible know what you’re doing (not just the event/challenge but what the money’s for and what you’ll be doing during your trip). Last thing I will say, which many people have told me, is that you won’t succeed if you don’t try.

I wish everyone else who is fundraising for a trip all the best and hope what I have said helps.

Canon Slade’s time at Camp Tanga has been an incredibly enjoyable experience. On our first day here we spent time in the sea tying seaweed onto lines to grow in the sea, before the local mamas could sell it on to be used all over the world. We had great fun competing between ourselves who could tie the most lines, of course being beaten completely by the mamas!

On day two we dug a hole, gathering dirt to mix with water, to splat onto the walls of one of two new houses being built in the village…50 bags of dirt and a broken record later we started to transport it across the village in just about the wobbliest wheelbarrow we’d ever seen…

Day three involved squelching through the pile of dirt (with our bare feet) that we’d collected and transported, mixing it with water to make the African version of cement before picking up handfuls to be thrown at the walls, though arguably more ended up on ourselves than the walls. In the afternoon we switched jobs to digging small deep holes to lay foundations for the second new house, along with creating the wooden framework of the house.

Our last days project work here involved finishing off the foundations from the previous day, then going to some mamas houses in the afternoon to be shown how to make the local delicacies of chapattis Tanzanian style and “visheti”, a sweet doughnut like biscuit which we enjoyed back at camp afterwards.

Today is a rest day and some people have gone off to enjoy snorkelling whilst some have stayed to sunbathe, have henna tattoos, and buy African clothes made to measure by a local lady. Overall our time here has been a great end to our trip to Tanzania and we wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Thanks Camps!

We arrived at Camp MitiMirefu at Ndarakwai Wildlife Sanctuary  on Friday 2nd August and were greeted by the friendly staff members who gave us a quick tour of the camp and the area which we would be staying. This place was very different from the other camps we have been staying at, from having a small local community to our neighbors being zebras, baboons and elephants which was both a surreal and an amazing experience for all of us!

Our first day of wildlife conservation consisted of deepening and widening a stream that supplies the wildlife with water. Although this project was hard work and consisted of getting very muddy, it was also rewarding that we were helping the beautiful wildlife surrounding us such as the orphan elephants. We then later finished our work on the stream later within our stay at Ndarakwai. Other project work consisted of removing weeds that affected the living area of the plants that many animals depend on for their main source of food. Although, like the digging of the stream, the weeding under the hot African sun was tiring, but it gave us all time to appreciate the landscape that lies under Kilimanjaro Mountain.

What most of us looked forward to during our stay at Ndarakwai was going to and meeting the Masai and their lifestyle.  We asked questions about their way of living such as diet and marriage revealing that the leader of this Masai village had nine wives, the youngest thirteen and had seventy children in total which was a shock to everyone in the difference to our Western lifestyle! After this we were taken into the Masai huts and learnt how to make jewellery Masai style! When leaving the boma we were lucky enough to see the Masai women perform a few songs to their culture which we then matched with an interesting rendition of the Hokey Cokey!

We have all learnt something about African culture and the wildlife in Tanzania, and cannot wait until we arrive at Camp Tanga.

From the Kingdown, Queensbury, LOGS & King’s School Grantham Tanzania Team Expedition…

Since arriving in Camp Tanga we have completed a range of different community projects.

Some of the poorest families in this region accommodate many people over three or more generations, in minimal space. Our first task was to construct the clay walls of a new two-room house for an elderly woman who lives, cramped, in a small house with seven of her children and grandchildren. One room would become her bedroom and the other a dining and family area. We were keen to get started.

We were told we had to get a few things before we could begin. I was, however, concerned that nobody was waiting for the delivery of building materials, but it turned out this was not necessary, not because Tanzanian delivery drivers do not require any paperwork to be filled in for drop-off, but because we had to dig for the clay ourselves. It turned out to be very enjoyable to climb up and down the 6ft deep hole, dig and bag the clay powder.

After hauling the bags of clay back to the house on the village’s man-powered cart, we were ready to begin mixing the clay powder with water so we put on our work-gloves and got our shovels ready to mix. But no, “This is Africa! TIA!”, so instead we were told to remove our work boots and mix it by foot. Imagine wine making, only on a pile of mud while a Tanzanian ‘fundi’ (The Swahili word for ‘handyman’) throws water at your feet. Clay-squishing is surprisingly therapeutic, and we were able to enjoy a treatment which thousands of Britons would pay hundreds for at a beauty-spa day. It was discovered that wet clay is an excellent choice for a facemask, although it was originally intended solely for the walls.

On top of our work on this house, we also started the foundations and wooden skeleton for another house in the village. We had to dig one-and-a-half-foot deep holes in a line about 3 inches apart from each other in the position of the future walls. Due to the large number of holes required, we were unable to finish it all in one day, so we left it overnight to complete over two days. The local children were clearly keen to help us in our work, as they kindly decided to fill some of our foundation holes back in! Still, at least the filled holes we had to re-dig again gave us extra practice.

On top of the house-building, we carried out work in a local secondary school, renovating classrooms which were previously in a dire state. The Head teacher was very proud of his school, and had big ambitions to improve the quality of education for the 600 pupils and 13 teachers.

After several days’ worth of hard labour, a well-deserved rest & relaxation day was required. Some of the group went on a snorkeling trip and enjoyed a heart-healthy lunch on a barren atoll no bigger than a tennis court, formed by low tide in the Indian Ocean. Others preferred to stay at the camp, relaxing in the soft-drink bar and enjoying the breathtaking views of the ocean, which could not be any closer to the camp. In the afternoon, once the snorkelers had returned to camp, we went into Tanga town and had a quick look around, visiting a few shops.

Our final full day was a special one. It was someone in the group’s 17^th Birthday, and the camp had been decorated in a British theme, supporting Team GB at the Olympics. When the tide was out, the group went seaweed farming. This involved tying small bits of seaweed to ropes and letting them grow in the sea. Once grown, the seaweed can be harvested and sold by the villagers to countries like China and Thailand, where it will be used in a variety of different products, from ice cream to nail varnish. We were very successful at this, and managed to smash yet another Camp Tanga Project Work record, our fourth record breaker! The idea of breaking previous records really kept everyone motivated. After lunch, the village mamas taught us how to cook chapattis and vishetis, the Tanzanian equivalent of churros.

From the Canon Slade Tanzanian Mountain Expedition…

After 8 hours flight followed by another 1 hour flight we finally arrived in Tanzania. We went to Camp Mbokomu first where we spent the first week doing project work at the local School making a veranda (which we did in record time) and carpentry where we made two Tables for the School’s Dining Hall. It was an amazing camp and a great way to start the expedition. As we got a warm welcome from both the School children and staff.

A great way to finish our community work and to end our time in camp was for us to join in their sports day (which they quite easily won).

Bringing us back to reality, we left Camp Mbokomu and began our climb up Mt. Meru. We climbed for 3 days, the first 2 days being relatively fun and enjoyable. The 3rd day (if being woken up at 12 counts  as the start of a new day) was where it went down hill. (even though it was a very steep uphill). With no idea of our surroundings or what was even in front of us, we began our summit climb to Mt. Meru. Thankfully, we had amazing Guides who helped us all keep going (even when we were scrambling across the Rocks). After 8 and a half hour climb, we made it to the top of the mountain with only one student having dropped out of the summit climb. It was a difficult struggle but it was overlooked once we made it to the top and saw the sunrise.

Coming off the mountain we went to Camp Meru where we worked with the locals and we taught in School. It was so cute as we taught them songs and they sang to us. It was an amazing experience and something we’ll never forget.

Cutting our time at Meru camp short we went on our safari trip, which was another incredible experience seeing the wildlife and how different it all is from the Zoo…(But watch out for the Monkey who steals your food!)

After our relaxing time on safari we arrived at Camp Miti Mirefu where we were back to hard work doing animal conservation project. We did a variety of things such as;
1.    Digging water holes
2.    Making Paper out of Elephant poo (It does not smell)
3.    Visiting a local Masai village

We really enjoyed this experience as it highlighted the difference in our lives.

We are now moving to Tanga next for out last week where we will do some more community projects. Our time here has been an eye opening experience and something none of us will ever forget.

Canon Slade Team!

Jambo! Karibu!

Our life at Camp Tanga has been fantabulous, tiring and extremely rewarding.  Many awesome memories have been formed while doing the project work and being around Camp.

Our group has done a lot of work on one particular classroom at the local school, in just three days we have managed to re-concrete the entire floor, rebuild the doorway, filled in all the cracks and then painted the room white. Alongside the classroom we completed the veranda and its columns. Most of the hours were spent making cement from sand, water and cement powder. The job was pretty hard going, but still very necessary to get the job done. After came the fun of smoothing the cement floor down, with the wonderful and always grateful help of Fundi, Balah and Winnie.

Teaching the children was a particularly incredible experience for everyone who had the chance to do so. We taught the children songs such as ‘Heads, Shoulders , Knees and Toes’ and ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, in return the classes sung traditional Tanzanian tunes to us.

Another of our great days included building a mud house with our bare hands. Squishing the mud between our toes to mix the muddy mixture was a new, entertaining experience which generated many laughs. Many bricks have been built and Balla’s mum’s house is defiantly closer to completion.

We also did weaving which for some was frustrating but for others extremely enjoyable. The mama’s were happy we had helped them and we were happy we could help. We also helped farm some seaweed which is the main income for many locals. Our help was greatly appreciated, as its a long, tedious job, but with 23 extra pairs of hands we managed to complete 110 lines, giving vital extra income for the local families. This felt very worthwhile because we could see the results of our work. Many of our group were sunburnt but once again many laughs were generated from our experience. Cooking was another incredible experience given to us by the mamma’s as we learnt how to make Chapatis and Vishet the traditional African way.
All in all our time here has been stunningly epic! An unforgettable life changing experience.

Live long and prosper,

Love
The Princethorpe Crew

Yup, “Tanzania Rocks” according to the Kingdown/L.Old Grammar/Queensbury/Kings team…and here’s why….

We arrived at Meru camp early Sunday afternoon, after a very rocky, bumpy ride up. We were all exhausted  as we’d been traveling overnight and hadn’t had much sleep. But were very excited to finally arrive! After a very welcome, delicious lunch and a welcome from Tommy, Lewis and Arnold, we departed for a walk around the forest, led by a friendly local man called Jackson. As we walked a few local boys joined us. We saw colobus monkeys in a far off tree and the forest was beautiful. We came to a river and Jackson led us across a thin concrete crossing which turned out to be a bit scary. After we’d all managed to cross, the local boys crossed so confidently. It was as if there was no danger at all. We then walked to an artist’s house, who had used everything, even an old can to make the art. It was beautiful.

On Monday, we split into two groups and took it in turns to work at the School and go coffee farming. At the School, we were mainly building a veranda to give the children some shade. This consisted of digging boulders out of the bank, smashing them into smaller rocks and mixing concrete. Alex, Ryan G and Bethany were particularly good at smashing the Rocks! The local fundi (handyman and builder) helped us build the veranda wall.

The coffee farm, owned by Jackson who had shown us around the forest on Sunday, is right next door to our camp. We had to pick the red (ripe) coffee beans, then were shown the whole process from bean to brew. The harvested beans were put in a machine to remove the skin, then they were left to dry. This takes between 1-2 weeks. So Jackson showed us how they remove the husks of some dry beans that he had in his little storage room. We put them in a huge pestel and morta. Jackson’s son then sieved out the husks by shaking the beans in a flat basket. He then roasted these beans and when they were dark brown he grounded them using the pestel/morta again. We had a cup of delicious local coffee.

On Tuesday, we carried on working on the veranda, the packed for the Mountain phase of our adventure. Our three Yorkshire girls, Sammy, Rachel and Heather have been Teaching us how to speak in their accent in the evenings.

Tanzania Rocks!

Am personally quite excited as it’s a first year for a lot of things for us and having blogs coming this regularly from our camps in Tanzania is definitly a first – and it’s a good sign for Tanzania (and not just parents who are really keen to know what is happening with their children on an expedition) because its a sign of development for Tanzania. Our camp is in a little remote village called Mwambani a few kilometers from a town called Tanga. Now, most people in the village have mobile phones and it’s getting a lot easier (and a bit cheaper) for our Camp Managers like Anderson to stay connected on the internet. And by the way, this year we have also launched our Family Life Program in Tanzania so for all you parents, here’s your chance to visit Camp Tanzania…

Groby/Stanley Park 2012

Since we arrived here in ‘Tanga Camp’ we have loved every second of it.

In our first few days we started project work with one group collecting soil to use as cement for the Mama’s incomplete house; this was achieved by beginning with digging a large hole in the ground. This took a lot if effort but was rewarding as you noticed the difference quickly, after 2 days there was enough soil to carry to the Mama’s house; we carried it using a large wheel barrow which took 4 men to push. The other group began work on a classroom at the local primary school, their job was to strip the walls and begin plastering the windows; although the work was tricky to grasp the right technique it was also enjoyable. The best part about visiting the school was meeting the children, we were all greeted by two classes who had both prepared a song, the first class sang the Tanzanian national anthem, all of us agreed that it was very moving; they sang with such passion for their country.

After we had collected all the mud for the house, the whole team came together and helped to fill the house with cement, this was the ‘messiest’ project! The mud was mixed with cement and water, this was done by foot, those brave enough took off their shoes and socks and jumped straight in. The rest of the team began to fill in the house built from large sticks tied together, the mud was pushed between the sticks and formed brick like sections. After a few hours we had completed quite a lot and it was time to go back to camp, but before we left there was a mud fight and we had chance to play with some of the village children. The next day we walked down to the beach to help the Mama’s with seaweed farming, out of all the project work this was most suited to the girls! We discovered that the Mama’s only make around 200 shillings per 1Kg of seaweed they collect (which is around 10p in English money!) this made us more determined to try and make a difference. At the end of the seaweed farming project together we had made around 46 lines of seaweed, on average the Mama’s can only make about 8 in one day, therefore we felt our help will have helped the Mama’s. After lunch we were invited to the Mama’s house to be taught how to cook chapatti and a sweet biscuit, they were both delicious and we can’t wait to make them again at home!

Life in camp has been amazing, the food and facilities have been great and after coming back from project work we all appreciated everything much more as camp is such a nice place. The view from the tents is stunning, waking up next to the Indian Ocean every morning is breath taking, and being able to relax on the sofa’s at night is a nice luxury along with having access to a bar with fizzy pop, chocolate and crisps. The evening activities have also been a lot of fun, we have had a Swahili lesson, organised a wedding between Sally and James and played team games!

Most recently we have started our PADI Scuba diving course, which is hard but extremely exciting! We are all so sad to leave Tanga Camp but we also cannot wait to discover more about this amazing country and especially safari! All of the staff here have been brilliant, we would like to thank them for such a warm welcome and we will never forget our time here, it has so far been a life changing experience.

From all of us here –

Lorna, Katie, Hannah, Sally, Phoebe, Sarah, Sophie, Bethan, Bhargavi, Megan, Molly, Sian, Zanny, Dan B, Dan W, Tom, James, Nathan , Varinder, Ben and Jane!
Asante sana!