And now... the end is near

Sadly our time in Musoma is quickly coming to an end. It is going to be hard to leave this place that has become home to us for the past two and a half weeks (seems like so much longer).

With our first goat shed finished we needed to buy goats to put in it! So we visited Winifreda, an amazing lady and one of the best goat breeders in the area. Her home is only accessible by Land Rover or on foot and after a precarious journey we arrived to the warmest greeting we have received yet. Winifreda showed us her stock including a very impressive male goat whose genetics are sought far and wide in the area. We immediately knew this was the lady we wanted to supply the goats for us.

 

On Friday morning we attended a schools malaria awareness day run by Go MAD where hundreds of children from surrounding schools gathered for an incredibly event of music, games, dancing and education. Our role was to "manage" 2 parachute games. It was entertaining to watch Susan and Lisa running these games by shouting instructions in Swahili at hordes of African children in the searing heat. After some traditional dancing (which was a mixture of traditional African style with what seemed like Morris dancing and a bit Irish folk dancing thrown in!) the children heard about malaria prevention and we provided them with mosquito nets - almost 500 were given out.

 

We paid our last visit (for now anyway) to Nyanza School where we were invited to have lunch with the teachers, governors, parents and local community leaders. The school had gone to so much effort and we all ate a traditional African meal together - and yes you've guessed it, the meat was of course goat meat!

We presented the school with a banner linking Nyanza PS with Ballyholme and Bangor Central schools and there were a few speeches. Jonathan spoke on behalf of Team Tanzania, explaining how our motivation to help is to share the love of Jesus. We explained our future plans to provided an additional water tank and fix up another classroom by putting in a concrete floor and plastering and painting the walls. This ongoing support (including starting the Porridge Project) is only possible because of the support we have received by many of you back home. We, and the people of Nyanza, will be forever grateful.

 

So are starting to say our goodbyes and plan for a couple of days at the coast. The summer of 2016 is one that will live long in the memory.

PS arrived at Eagle Lodge first thing this morning to find a gift from the people from the Nyanza School waiting for us. A goat - yes indeed - a live goat! Not sure if it goes in hand luggage or the hold!

Work Project Update

Habari everyone (How are you?)

Our Swahili isn't very good but it's important that we know how to greet people when we meet them, depending on what age they are, so we're trying hard!

So...an update on the last few days. At Nyanza Primary School much has happened since we last wrote. Last Friday proved to be an extremely interesting and useful day. We all stood outside for a whole school assembly and formally introduced ourselves, bringing special greetings from Ballyholme PS and Bangor Central IPS to Nyanza PS. Peter also explained that it is because of God's great love for us that we want to show love and care for the children, teachers and wider community. We presented the school with chairs for the teachers (in BPS and BCIPS colours no less) exercise books, pencils, chalk and crayons. Much greater excitement was provoked by the new footballs and netballs that we brought but the news that we were going to provide porridge each day brought applause and smiling faces. It was clear to us what the children's greatest need is - food! Arthur (see previous blog) conducted an excellent meeting with the school staff, the school committee, village elders and councillors, some parents and ourselves to discuss how "The Porridge Project" should proceed. Arthur made it very clear that the children must bring firewood to school to use for cooking and that the parents must be responsible for making it happen. Partnership in this venture is vital! Issues were raised, discussed and translated and by the end of the meeting and we had a plan. We also assured them that this is a long term commitment on our part which is crucial. A porridge committee was set up by them straight away and we went off to purchase cooking pots, plastic mugs, maize flour and sugar. The morning of Tuesday 19th saw a mama from the village starting to cook the three huge pots of porridge at 6am and it was just brilliant to see the classes line up and to ladle out a mug for each child.

 

Extremely hard work has resulted in making a wooden form that slotted into the pit latrine, then making the strip foundation around the top of it. This has involved lots of cutting of steel bars and mixing concrete, then pouring it into the trench and levelling it off. Many local villagers come along to lend a hand and school invariably stops to allow the children to gather stones and collect water for the concrete. It has definitely been a team effort!

Back inside the school building we have employed fundis to lay a concrete floor in one of the classrooms and then painted the dirty dark walls with three coats of cream paint. We also repainted all the blackboards in the classrooms which were in a bad way.

Today saw us mixing more concrete for the foundation of a 15,000 litre water tank at the school and tying together the steel mesh which forms the framework of the tank. This will be finished by the fundis as this provides vital employment for them. The classroom we were working beside today had a class of 6 and 7 year olds in it but no teacher all morning - a very common occurrence in this part of the world. In the room next door to that, we were aware of one teacher hitting the children hard with a stick as he passed them - something else that we're not used to. These things are hard for us to accept but we realise that the difference is vast between our cultures and that good teacher training is something that needs much development.

Our goat shed was also finished this afternoon, with the roof and sides being put on made from tin sheeting and tree branches - all ready for some new goats that will make a huge difference to the lives of Mama Isaiah who lives with her family in a little shack at the side of a main road.

Last weekend we had a night away on safari in the Serengeti which included many hours of dusty and extremely bumpy travel but was well worth it as we got to see lions, zebras, leopard, hippos, elephants, giraffes and buffalo in their natural habitat. Ben also had a very special birthday celebration where he was presented with a Masai blanket.

As we write we can hardly believe how quickly the time is going past. It has been amazing to achieve so much in such a short time but this is down to Go MAD's incredible commitment and "know-how." The incredible Andrew has kept us right every step of the way and he has filled in all the blanks in our building knowledge!!! Go MAD have also made such excellent relationships over the years with the local people and they know exactly who to contact and where to get materials from. This has made everything run very smoothly which has been fantastic.

Give thanks for:

- An incredibly quick set up of the Porridge Project
- Generally good health
- Safety on the roads, especially on the long journey to and from the Serengeti
- Speedy completion of projects
- Good relationships developing with Nyanza PS and the surrounding community
- Team devotional times with the children taking part
- The incredible amount of money that we raised to bring, due to so many people's generosity and interest

Please pray for:

- Good health to continue
- Many itchy flea bites!
- Perseverance to finish as much as possible before we get ready to leave
- For wisdom in knowing how to set up good structures to continue the Porridge Project when we're gone
- Wisdom in knowing how to allocate the rest of our fundraising money
Continued safety in travel
- The Go MAD team as Andrew returns to the UK and leaves a big gap in the team as builder and mechanic

The hard work begins!

What an incredible few days we've had so far. It has been really exciting to meet Arthur who has been a key figure in our plans and negotiations for a remote village school that is desperately poor called Nyansa. Arthur is an extremely well educated Tanzanian who left an excellent job as a chemical engineer to work for the local diocese as an education link officer - his job is to coordinate education in the Mara region. Arthur is a very able but compassionate man who clearly has a concern for the most vulnerable children in Musoma. Nyansa School has been on his heart for a long time and he has been waiting for the right opportunity to help them as he feels they are well organised and trying hard with basically no resources.

There are about 480 primary aged pupils there, many of whom walk incredibly long distances to get to school. They bring no food or water to with them as they are so poor and will only eat once a day. Textbooks are few and far between, the classrooms are dark and bare, some with uneven muddy floors, and jotters, pencils and pieces of manilla card to make posters are sparse to say the least. There are 7 teachers including the headteacher called Juma - they have no toilet or chairs to sit on. We had hoped to be able to help this school and it was incredibly exciting to visit it and to meet with the teachers to find out what their biggest needs are. We were immediately able to employ fundis (workmen) from the village to dig the 2.4 metre hole needed for the pit latrine that we hope to build for them. We had previously  constructed the timber form for casting the concrete lintels and brought that with us on our first visit. How amazing was that first morning - school stopped as the children carried up buckets of water and stones from the valley to mix with the sand and cement we had ordered.

Arthur and the teachers, the whole school and our two families worked together to mix the concrete and managed to get it into the moulds where it will set for 7 days. Andrew from Go MAD was a fantastic help as he directed proceedings, negotiated prices and displayed endless patience as we rapidly learnt new skills. The sun shone, the sweat poured and we left filthy - but with an overwhelming sense that this is the right place to be working in and to be spending our fund raising money on. The next day Peter, Susan and Lisa were able to observe some lessons there and to take part in a a small way. They also made arrangements for concrete floors to be started and got lists of basic essentials that we can buy in town for the school. We also hope to start a water tank that will provide much needed drinking water for the children. This will be finished by Go MAD when we've gone.

Back at Eagle Lodge we've also been busy learning to saw and use drills and impact screwdrivers that we've used to make the frames for our toilet doors and the doors for our goat sheds. Today we worked tirelessly to make the initial platform for a goat shed that will provide a valuable income for the next person on Rafiki's list. Rafiki is a cooperative group who manage the goat project that allows many women to have a good income instead of having to turn to prostitution.

We've also fitted in visiting the Blind and Albino school which we found very difficult, but were able to bring large amounts of Sudocrem and sunscreen that many had donated for this purpose. Lisa, Susan and Kate also helped out at a home for babies that have been "thrown out" or whose mothers have died in childbirth and have no one to look after them. This was an amazingly clean and well organised operation run by a Finnish lady in her 70s. The babies are so well cared for and her vision is to place them with family members or new families by the time that are two years old. It was a joy to see this incredible place that lavishes excellent care on little mites that have been left for dead or whose mothers have died because of a lack of basic healthcare. The dads and boys went to a "club" for boys in the village with another Go MAD team and played football and games with them whilst their older sisters who care for them or their teenage mums had time out to do crafts and watch some drama led by the Go MAD volunteers. They also did a short talk on John 3:16.

As you can see it has been very busy and there has been a lot to take on board but everyone is coping well. We are so hungry after working that we're all devouring our lunch at the hostel - rice, beans, cabbage, goat meat or tilapia (fish). We meet each morning to do a short devotion and to pray for the day ahead and usually have a team debrief each evening at Eagle Lodge. We are very aware that many people are praying for us and we thank you for that

If you pray, please give thanks for:

- Great Go MAD staff - Graham, Andrew, Deb and Claire who have looked after and taught us new skills so well
- Settling into accommodation where the kids are making friends with the staff and teaching them to play cards!
- Much appreciated good food at Eagle Lodge
- Arthur and good initial links with Nyansa School
- Andrew from Go MAD who has the know how to make building activities happen much quicker than normal  "African time"
- Good team work and a willingness to work hard
- Generally good health

Pray for:

- Whole school assembly on Friday when the school committee will also be present to receive resources and chairs. Arthur has been very keen to involve the whole community so that they have ownership of what is happening. He is emphatic that "education is the key to life" which delights and excites us
- Safety as we bounce around in land rovers and travel to the school half an hour away
- Ideas in our heads that are forming about how to feed the children a meal of maize porridge each day at school over a sustained period of time, so that the children can focus to learn
- Wisdom to know how to really meet the needs of the children. We are aware that the teachers need lots of help and encouragement to know how to be effective but it's impossible to be able to make any real impact in the short time that we are here.
- For good team work and the chance to build one another up
- For safety on Saturday/Sunday as we travel to/from the Serengeti for a short safari trip

Church Experience in Musoma

Go MAD teams always attend one of the local churches and on Sunday we were no different. We were asked attend a small rural church and be there at 9.30am - the starting time. When we arrived, bang on time (a first for the Campbell's!), we were the first ones there! We were soon greeted by a man who turned out to be a local evangelist. Over the next 45 minutes more of the locals arrived, mainly women and children and a number of other Go MAD volunteers and the service started at 10.15.

Being an Anglican Church, much was read and the congregation responded. It was all in Swahili so was hard to follow. There were readings and prayers and then some of the volunteers were asked to sing. As we were expecting this possibility we had a song prepared and we sang "My Jesus, My Saviour" which sounded a lot better than it had when we practiced in the truck on the way to church! 

A young Tanzanian man (who should enter for the Tanzanian X factor) led a number of songs in Swahili and after a while we found we could join in - although we still don't know what we were singing!

Andrew, a Go MAD staff member preached from Acts 9 about being fully committed to Jesus. At the end of the service we headed outside into the noon day sun where we all formed a circle and greeted each other Tanzanian style. 

As Andrew will soon be leaving Tanzania, there was a special church lunch and additional leaving service. The lunch was provided by the church for all who were there - rice, beans, cabbage and some nyama choma (cooked goat meat). It was a big thing for this little church to offer this to so many. It tasted really good and was much appreciated however it was humbling to be thanked by the church for eating their food. 

First day in Musoma!

We started the first day in our new lodgings for the next 17 nights in Musoma shortly after the sun rose over Lake Victoria - an amazing sight. After a breakfast that could best be described as "different" we made our way to Eagle Lodge - essentially Go MAD's HQ where we all went through some in-country orientation which was very helpful indeed. 

We set off to see some of the work that Go MAD has done along with the locals. We met a number of families whose lives had been transformed.

 

One lady we meet had seven children and her husband had died. Go Mad built her a brick house, including a outside toilet. She has also just had electricity installed and was very excited to show us her 'big light' in operation!!  

Eliza was using her water tower when we got to her house. The clear water was running freely and whilst it still needed to be boiled before drinking it was incredible to see her able to turn the tap and get her own water. 

Another man, Daudie, was one of the first people Go MAD helped. He benefitted from a water tower for his family and a goat shed. Daudie has become a leader by example in the community and he now works closely with Go MAD. He heads up the farmers cooperative and ensures the locals are playing their part. 

Daudie took us down to the local water source. We had a slight pause on the way down to let his son who was bathing in the water to get dressed. The water resembled a stagnant pool. The locals bathe in it, water their cattle, wash clothes AND use it for cooking and drinking. To see the difference in the water there and that which was coming out of Eliza's water tank was inspiring.

 

This confirmed to us that the water tower for the children in the school was something we wanted to build!! 

Our day finished as we climbed up Eagle Rock where we sat at the top and watched the beautiful red sun set over the lake. An extraordinary day for us but just another ordinary day for the people of Musoma facing daily challenges that we in the west don't give a second thought to.

 

Getting there!

Jambo from cloudy Kenya!

At present we are travelling the long bumpy road (smooth by African standards) to the Tanzanian border after an early start in bumper-to-bumper Nairobi this morning. We are so thankful that all travel plans have gone really smoothly and everyone has coped remarkably well considering we all missed a night's sleep in transit. The kids are just drinking in the sights, sounds and smells of Africa as we move from the city high up into the Rift Valley and down again to vast expanses of flat land. They're in their element as we've just stopped to buy plastic bags of greasy chips and coke as the only alternative for lunch. It's a hard life...

After 9 hours in the bus we reached the Kenyan/Tanzanian border where it took quite a while to negotiate visas etc. Thankfully Graham McClure from Go MAD met us there and helped us through the difficult negotiations of avoiding bribes and trying to stay within the law which seems to change at a moments notice. Then another 1.5 hr journey and eventually arrived at Eagle Lodge in Musoma on the shores of Lake Victoria. Very welcome omelettes were wolfed down in minutes.  There are so many volunteers staying there this summer that we are being put up down the road in the equivalent of the African Fawlty Towers. Hilarious to say the least but we are all adapting well. It was hard to sleep on the first night and we were woken by the call to prayer at 5am - but everyone had survived their first night in Africa.

Team Tanzania Itinerary

Some of you have been asking what exactly Team Tanzania we will be doing and when will we be doing it. To help answer those questions we thought it would be helpful provide you with an itinerary. 

If you like you could print it out and stick it on your fridge and then every time you are grabbing some milk you could remember us in your thoughts and prayers!

6 July                     Leave Dublin at 19:10 (flight time 7h 50mins)           

7 July                     Arrive in Abu Dhabi at 06:00 (local time)

                               Depart Abu Dhabi at 08:45 (flight time 5h 15mins)

                               Arrive in Nairobi at 13:00 (local time)

                               Spend one night in Anglican guesthouse in Nairobi
 

8 July                     Catch early morning bus from Nairobi across the Tanzania border to Musoma.

                               Arrive in Musoma at around tea time

 

9/10 July              Settle in to Musoma life - visit the projects, attend the local church, take Sunday School, meet the locals etc.

11 - 22 July          The hard work begins on the Project – building water towers, toilets and goat sheds

25 July                   Leave Musoma for Dar es Salaam/Zanzibar for a few days holiday

30 July                   Depart Dar es Salaam at 13.35 (flight time 5h 15mins)

                                Arrive in Abu Dhabi at 20:05 (local time)

31 July                   Depart Abu Dhabi at 02:30 (flight time 8h 30mins)

                                Arrive in Dublin at 08:00 (local time)

31 July                   Home for Sunday Dinner!

 

Ready for the off... well almost!

Having thought, planned and dreamed about this for the almost three years, we are on the cusp of heading off on what we hope will be our amazing adventure in Tanzania. Amazing because of what we will see and do in the next four weeks but also amazing as we pray that God will impact many lives, including our own.

As many of you know, Team Tanzania (as it seems to be now known!) is heading off with Tearfund/Go MAD on 6 July to Musoma in NW Tanzania, East Africa. The Campbell family - Peter, Lisa, Kate (16), Tom (14) & Ben (11) and McFerran family - Jonathan, Susan, Jack (15), Patrick (12) & Harry (6) are planning to help to build toilets, water towers and goat sheds for the people who live in the Musoma area.

We're really excited about being part of this incredible work and have been overwhelmed by the support we have received by friends and family. Through various fund raising initiatives you have helped us raise almost £15,000 and by doing so are helping to make a difference in the lives of many people who are living in absolute poverty.

At present we are frantically sorting all the things that need to be done in the days before departure – sorting clothes, changing money, sorting visas, double checking travel arrangements etc etc. I think we are at the point that we all just want to be there! To get there we fly on Wednesday evening from Dublin to Nairobi, Kenya (via Abu Dhabi) and spend one night in a guest house before the 8 hour bus journey across the Tanzanian border to Musoma.

Depending on access to wifi, we hope to keep anyone who may be interested up to date by writing this Team Tanzania blog - teamanzan.blogspot.com

We would love you to pray for:

• Protection during our travels especially the journey out, including the 8 hour bus journey from Nairobi to Musoma.
• Good relations between our two families, the other volunteers who will be there at the same time and the local people who we will meet.
• Good health and avoidance of serious illness.
• Safety as we work, travel and spend time in Musoma.
• Wisdom as we make decisions about where to use the funds we have raised for the project.
• That God will change the way we see the world around us through this experience and impact the lives of our children (and the adults) in a lasting way.