Korongoni Exercise Books & Paper Fundraising

Two boxes of exercise books and 3 reams of paper have been purchased thanks to all of your kind donations:
*  300 Maths exercise books
*  300 English exercise books
They're only thin paper and the kids go through them fast - so the more the better!!
The paper has been shared with the special needs class, nursery class and orphanage - paper is in high demand at the schools as it is extremely expensive and they can't afford to purchase much.

Special needs thrive on colouring in rather than creating pictures so I've purchased them some colouring books where the teachers rip the pages out for the kids to colour in the individual pages, then they put them up on the walls to brighten the class room.

Sad Fact...

Nursery school was interesting today. The kids get so excited with me in the class!! They all want me to check their work and give them a tick - the smiley face stickers work a treat and they totally love the sparkly ones - even the boys!!! I've also found out that 1/4 of the class are orphans and 1/4 have HIV - higher than I expected....and a very sad feeling when I look at these beautiful children who appear fit and healthy yet will probably have a shorter life.
I do find myself using an excess amount of anti-bacterial every day - enough to keep those company's going for awhile.

Masai Village

An eventful past few days....I've had a bad stomach which kept me at home...but not for long as I had the weekend off for a safari - woowho!! My hut early morning when we're leaving for our safari.

I stayed in a Masai Hut with the chief's son's wife and her children....what an incredible experience. Baby wouldn't go to sleep so we all got a lullaby sung to us.

One negative is that I itched all night from the animal lice crawling everywhere...but I survived with no bites!! My bed below -



Continued into N'Gorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara the next day - incredible seeing our zoo animals in their natural habitat and right next to our vehicle....


OMG with the windows down and the pop topped to open air this is slightly scary...

Swiwsco Orphanage Pantry Fundraising

The orphanage's pantry beforehand and we've managed to fill it with:.....


50kg maize; 20kg beans; 20kg rice; 10kg flour; 5kg sugar; 2kg salt and yeast; 10 litres cooking oil; soap for clothes and body washing; green beans, carrots, cabbage, tomatoe's, onions and eggplants.


Plus 3kg beef and 2 weeks worth of firewood so they can cook the food - everything is cooked in an outside area so firewood is crucial.

An exhausting mission at the markets... the kids loved it when I turned up with all the food in the boot of a taxi!!! Some carried sacks twice as heavy as what themselves - quite amazing!!

Korongoni Nursery Class

I have survived my first weeks.....I am known as "Mzungu" (white foreigner) and the little kids call this out to us as we pass....many children know English as they're taught it in school.
I've also been teaching in the nursery school (3yrs-5yrs) and they want to touch all the time - especially my hair - it causes mayhem and many tears as they fight with each other to get closer.

I love helping them with their numbers and alphabet - they all want me to check their work and give them praise!! It's an amazing feeling how much pride they can have in 'approval'.

Teaching

I've been teaching the special needs class 'Ring, ring a rosy' and 'Hokey Pokey'. They all love the "we all fall down" part and go a bit out of control with screaming and falling all over each other every time. In the end I've had to resort to a quieter game and taught the teacher 'Simon says' and replaced it with 'Teacher says' - this works a treat with them as they copy the teacher and are learning the words at the same time!!

Normal Day...

Each day begins at 7am so there's time for breakfast before walking to the programme across the fields of beans and ground nuts and into the village area's.

Each day ends with the dusty walk home being greeted by either 'Mumbo' or 'Jumbo' = hello/hi. And straight into the basin to remove the ingrained sandal marks off my feet.




With all the walking - I've only seen a handful of white people in Moshi so far and none in Soweto - it's quite daunting at times, especially when it's really busy.

Korongoni Special Needs

We finally have power back on after losing it 2.5 days ago....fantastic as I can now charge everything - I definitely have to get used to this as it goes off regularly for days at a time. Most of the schools are closed for Easter holidays so I'm going to the orphanage and 'special needs' school at this stage. I dearly love working with the special needs as they are so unique and fun and loving!!

These are a few of the kids from the special needs school - they love their games and music - they play against other schools to get into the special olympics and they don't have any uniform to play in - it would make them feel so special to be able to compete in uniforms and I would love to see their faces if we can raise enough money to give them uniforms.



These kids come rushing out of the classroom when they see us walking in the gates greeting us with big hugs and grabbing us to take us inside, saying 'teacher', 'teacher' - it's an amazing feeling to see the love they have for you.

Mt Kilimanjaro from Soweto

I saw Mt Kilimanjaro today for the first time as it's cloudy every day with the rainy season hear - it was magnifico!! Another first was eating lunch at a 'local' cafe in Soweto - a very normal bar/restaurant excepting one thing which was - eating the food with your hands....any traditional Tanzanian cafe serves food without cutlery as everyone eats with the hands....




Another definite experience is back to my backpacking days in NZ as my bed is a bunk bed in shared room....

The orphanage took longer to find yesterday as I took a different route through Soweto and got lost...being a Sunday, everyone was full of the love of god from church so it was nice to be wandering round...and, I finally managed to locate home. This is a typical 'road'....not too good for the majority of cars in NZ.

Swiwsco Orphanage

Since my recent 'panic' blog to let you all know I've arrived safely. I was 'blocked' from gmail because I logged in from Tanzania and not NZ - great security but not great for me with no email contact which had a flow on effect to my blog page and facebook page.
So here I am - all locked and loaded to keep in touch with everyone while in Moshi.....

I've been visiting an orphanage which relies on voluntary support to survive - the kids range from 2years to 18years. Here are a couple of the younger boys.

It will be great to give them something as simple as a supply of rice, sugar and washing powder for a month along with some beans and if the money goes far enough toothbrushes and toothpaste which they don't have and there's some pretty uncared for teeth around the place as a result of this.

Safe Arrival

I have arrived safely!! I haven't been able to get into Moshi yet to locate an internet cafe so this is a quick message from someone else's computer.
A very different world here and even where I'm staying the power goes on and off constantly. No hot water is something I thought I could easily do....it's a different story when you have to do this twice daily cause of the dust and dirt... :-)  Love the culture shock though!!
I've been to the local orphanage and they're in desperate need of some food so check out my facebook page and my donations page.

Maps

Where I'll be in Africa......













Tanzania (Moshi and Zanzibar) - teaching orphans and underprivileged kids basic English

South Africa (Bloemfontein) - helping out on a 'big cats' (eg lions, cheetahs, leopards) volunteer park preparing food, nursing sick animals, improving enclosures for abandoned/hurt animals.