Time to start work

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I slept well last night, there has been no sign of mozzies at all. Although I did hear the Askari walking past at various times during the night. These are the Maasai warriors that patrol the grounds at night and during the day, not that I think there is any great need for them. They also have two huge Alsatian dogs, which would lick anyone to death,

The rooms are great. They contain a small double bed, with a mosquito net. We also get a wardrobe with hanging space and shelves. Each room also has an ensuite. The rooms are mopped out daily and a woman comes and collects our dirty clothes and washes them each day. All this plus 3 big meals a day costs each of us US$20 per day. Which is incredibly cheap!

The meals are huge, very tasty and very western. Our two chefs are very funny and entertaining.

I woke up around 6.30am to see if there was a decent sunrise to photography, but there was a low cloud, the mornings are always beautiful and fresh. Mt Meru which towers over the town could not be seen. Even as the cloud lifted later in the morning Mt Meru stayed well and truly hidden.

I went into the kitchen, which is opposite my room, to get a drink and as I open the door a cat flew out. The cat, which hangs around our complex, had been accidentally locked inside all night. The previous night the power had gone out just as the cooks were cleaning up and the cat had obviously snuck into the kitchen without them knowing. I checked and found that it had helped itself to some bread, licked the sugar bowl clean and had eaten a half a bag of muffins.

The bread and remaining muffins were thrown out and the sugar bowl thoroughly washed. When Stevie arrived to cook us breakfast, I told him what had happened and he was not impressed and he assured us we would be having “cat soup” for dinner. The cat was officially christened “Muffins” and we made sure that it was not locked in the kitchen again.

In morning we got a briefing from Carly, one of the visitor corodinators, all about the school and what we will be doing while we are here. Basically they want us to build and paint a heap of furniture for the school, do a few running repairs, landscape the new campus at Usa River and cover and catalogue some of the 25,000 library books they have just received from the charity organisation “Books for Africa”.

When Carly finished Gemma, the school founder, came and spoke to us and gave an insight into how much effort it takes to try and set up and run a school here in Tanzania. I can not believe that a single person can have so much determination, persistence, dedication and down right balls needed to make it all a reality. Gemma is a very shrewd business woman, by both western terms and Tanzanian terms. She is an amazing woman, even more so when you find out she is currently 7 months pregnant with her 3rd child.

We broke into 4 teams and started work. One team, which included the two apprentice carpenters, started making furniture which included bench seats and shoe racks for the dormitories at the boarding houses.

A few members went with Gemma while she purchased plants for the landscaping work to be done. Others started covering and cataloguing the books. The rest of us started painting furniture that has been completed by a previous Rotary club.

It was very difficult to paint when we only had 2 small rollers, 3 brushes and no roller trays. It turned out that the rollers were ideal to dip straight into the paint tins and then use a lid off a plastic bucket as a form of roller tray.

However, at the end of the day we all felt satisfied we had made a good start.

We went out to dinner that night and had a banquet of traditional Tanzanian food. It was very nice and cost us TS400,000 (Tanzanian Shillings) for 19 people or $24 each, including drinks.

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Photos

Briefing
Carly tells us what we are expected to do.

Gemma
Gemma tells us how she managed to get the school started.

Boxes of books
Some of the boxes of 25,000 books that need to be covered and catalogued.

Making a shoe rack
The apprentices Grant and Michael designing a shoe rack prototype for one of the boarding schools

Asher
Is one of the visitor cordinators at the school.