It has been a wonderful experience here, waking up in the morning by nature at precisely 6:10am, cicadas and birds serenading us awake. Kisampa is a wonderful place, will miss the outside showers and sleeping with wonderful warm breezes coming off the land. There are very few bugs and I didn’t expect that, quite the opposite, eating outside at night by candlelight has been to beautiful starry skies.
The project has been a lot of work but so satisfying to work with such a great team and today having the Matipwilli school boys show up to lend some muscle. It enabled us to get the last of the cement flooring done in quick order. Buckets of cement were being filled and flying down the chain so fast one could barely pass of one with out the other being there.
One of the best parts is the ride back to Kisampa after in Richard's Land Rover and then relaxing in the Pavilion with everyone before running to our Bandas to get showered up. It is a little sad knowing tomorrow is our last day at the project, hope we get pictures from the next group of the kitchen in operation.
Jane Irvine
DWC Participant
Tanzania January 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: Received much needed help from the students
WE FINISHED THE CONCRETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After mentally preparing myself over breakfast for a full day of shoveling it was a sigh of relief at the work site to see the cavalry arrive. The pupils from the school literally rolled up their trousers, some took off their shoes too, and then went at it with vengeance... or maybe it was the thought of how much better their school dinners might taste with the new kitchen. Tomorrow is our last day. All we have left to do is pull an old army stove that’s been re-painted into position, and tidy a few things up. The end is in sight.
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania January 2012
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania January 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: Kitchen is almost done!
Making good progress with the kitchen. The roof is on and we’re now back to mixing concrete for the floor. This is the last big job to do so we are sucking it up and getting ‘er done. Having to stay pumped for it too as we’re gonna be doing this for the next couple of days. We’re sooooo close now. Two highlights from today were:
1) After lunch we went into the village to give them vitamins, school books for their library and pens and paper for the school kids (It’s all stuff brought in by the team). The village committee and a load of kids were there to accept them. It was like Christmas but without Santa. Good thing he wasn’t there as I think he’d of passed out due to the heat.
2) I had that chat with the trailer.
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
1) After lunch we went into the village to give them vitamins, school books for their library and pens and paper for the school kids (It’s all stuff brought in by the team). The village committee and a load of kids were there to accept them. It was like Christmas but without Santa. Good thing he wasn’t there as I think he’d of passed out due to the heat.
2) I had that chat with the trailer.
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: A hard day of work
We worked hard today! I shoveled dirt, filled potholes in the road leading to the school, mixed cement to patch the pillars we poured a couple of days ago, sanded cement pillars, and painted the big outdoor oven. Actually I did not do all of this by myself, it was a group effort. The group also raised the trusses for the roof and tied/nailed them into place. The best part of the day was when the students from the primary school came and moved wheel barrow loads of sand for the foundation of the floor. Tomorrow we will pour cement for the floor. It was hot and sweaty work, but it sure feels good to see things falling into place. Tomorrow we will finish the roof in the morning, and then visit the primary school in the afternoon.
Deep Pannu
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Deep Pannu
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: A disagreement with the trailer
I got bitten by a crocodile!!!!!!!!
Actually, no I didn’t. But I did manage to injure myself today and I’m trying to pass it off as a crocodile bite. We were filling a hole in the road to the school with the dirt from the work site (nothing gets wasted here) and I had a disagreement with the trailer. The trailer won of course and for good measure scalped a good chunk of skin off the front of my shin. Ow!!!!!!!!! I was hoping we were going to deal with it Tanzanian bush style where we use ants to bite the wound shut and use bark from a tree and grasses to dress it. Apparently antiseptic cream, gauze and a bandage is way more effective!!! The trailer is in the background of the shot with me holding my trusty shovel. When we’ve we’ve finished the job me and my trusty shovel are gonna have words.
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Actually, no I didn’t. But I did manage to injure myself today and I’m trying to pass it off as a crocodile bite. We were filling a hole in the road to the school with the dirt from the work site (nothing gets wasted here) and I had a disagreement with the trailer. The trailer won of course and for good measure scalped a good chunk of skin off the front of my shin. Ow!!!!!!!!! I was hoping we were going to deal with it Tanzanian bush style where we use ants to bite the wound shut and use bark from a tree and grasses to dress it. Apparently antiseptic cream, gauze and a bandage is way more effective!!! The trailer is in the background of the shot with me holding my trusty shovel. When we’ve we’ve finished the job me and my trusty shovel are gonna have words.
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: Visiting the secondary school
Today we had to work hard at the secondary school where we are building the kitchen. The kitchen is coming along well and it is rewarding to see the results. Part of our group visited the secondary school where we had a question and answer session with students in grades 8 through 12. They asked very interesting questions and we enjoyed answering to the best of our ability. Thankfully the teacher and headmaster spoke English as none of us were able to speak Swahili. It was nice to be in their classroom and to be able to share part of this experience with them.
Deep Pannu
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Deep Pannu
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: Work continues and we meet the students
Back at the work site today. Fortunately there was no concrete mixing – phew! But there were more trailer loads of sand to be shoveled up and added to the pile in preparation for when we do need it. Anyway, today was more about checking the pillars out and getting the roof up. Our new kitchen is finally starting to look like a building... Well, kind of! More importantly, we took time out just before lunch to actually meet some of the students. They sang their national anthem for us which was awesome. Serious lump in your throat stuff.
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: Experience has surpassed my expectations
Where to begin........My experience thus far has surpassed expectations. The group, work project & accommodations have come together so well. There has been much laughter & joke telling as we get to know one another whilst working on the project (which is on-schedule) or sitting around the campfire in the evening before dinner.The new kitchen for the school in the village of Matipwili is beginning to take shape.
Our journey into Matipwili from Kisampa Camp, our stunning base, takes us through lush scenery. Each day we see something different, wild life so far include Colubus Monkeys, Baboons & Crown Thorn bill birds. The children in the village are delightful and seem to take pleasure in our arrival at lunch time when we take a break and enjoy a traditional home cooked meal by the locals, who are very friendly and supportive of the work we are doing here.
After just few days we have experienced so many different aspects of life here in Tanzania, too many to write about, many more to come. This is a surreal experience in a beautiful country and having great co-workers. I am really happy to be part of this trip with Developing World Connections.
Judith Hall
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Our journey into Matipwili from Kisampa Camp, our stunning base, takes us through lush scenery. Each day we see something different, wild life so far include Colubus Monkeys, Baboons & Crown Thorn bill birds. The children in the village are delightful and seem to take pleasure in our arrival at lunch time when we take a break and enjoy a traditional home cooked meal by the locals, who are very friendly and supportive of the work we are doing here.
After just few days we have experienced so many different aspects of life here in Tanzania, too many to write about, many more to come. This is a surreal experience in a beautiful country and having great co-workers. I am really happy to be part of this trip with Developing World Connections.
Judith Hall
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: National park and beach time
We headed to Saadani National Park today. The plan was to see more animals and then head to the coast to hit a beach up. We were told the park is relatively new as far as these things go so the animals aren’t that familiar with humans. They’re a bit shy apparently – no kidding (just want to reference my comment from before about 12 people in Land Rovers again here!). That being said saw my first giraffe which was mind blowing. Didn’t realize something so big with such long legs and neck could be so graceful. And hide so easily when it wanted to too. Weird right. You’d think they’d stand out for miles – they don’t! And with the thought of having to mix more concrete tomorrow the beach was the icing on the cake. Swimming in the Indian ocean says it all.
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
Matipwilli, Tanzania: A friendly visitor...
We’ve got two days off now and today we have planned for a day safari and a night safari around the camp. Two things I’ve learnt are from both these trips are:
1) Always have your camera in your hand turned on at all times and...
2) Twelve people being driven around in two Land Rovers with spot lights doesn’t really help coax the wild life out.
That being said I did see some cool animals. The colobus monkeys were pretty rad, you should google them. They have totally white babies apparently. I guess it’s so you don’t lose them if you put them down. More importantly I saw this in my bed first thing before rolling over this morning. Yikes. Not only have I now got the ‘thousand yard stare’, I’ve also developed an OCD thing where everything gets banged, flipped and then looked inside 3 times…. EVERYTIME!!!
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
1) Always have your camera in your hand turned on at all times and...
2) Twelve people being driven around in two Land Rovers with spot lights doesn’t really help coax the wild life out.
That being said I did see some cool animals. The colobus monkeys were pretty rad, you should google them. They have totally white babies apparently. I guess it’s so you don’t lose them if you put them down. More importantly I saw this in my bed first thing before rolling over this morning. Yikes. Not only have I now got the ‘thousand yard stare’, I’ve also developed an OCD thing where everything gets banged, flipped and then looked inside 3 times…. EVERYTIME!!!
Matt Pettifer
DWC Participant
Tanzania, January 2012
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