April: new volunteers, new loos and Starkey are back

·         Two new volunteers arrived – Emily Troddyn and Justine Durno, both ex-Mary Hare pupils.  It was a bit of a culture shock at the beginning, but they soon settled in and are currently doing great work.  Here is a photo of them having lunch, and to prove they are not there on a jolly, a couple of photos of them playing with the pupils

·         New outside toilets – the outside toilets (courtesy of a local Dar business man) have been rebuilt and the pupils are very excited.

·         The Starkey Hearing Foundation arrived to take ear impressions for new ear moulds for a large number of pupils – thank you again to Peter and the team!  Soon some of the broken hearing aids will be replaced and old ear moulds traded for new ones!

Emily

Justine

Children very excited by the new loos

Children having ear impressions taken

March has been very hectic. And worms had nowhere to hide.

·         A team of students from Haven of Peace Academy, Dar es Salaam came to volunteer at Buguruni for 3 days as part of their Service Emphasis Week.  Our pupils had great fun playing sport and doing arts and crafts with the students.

·         “Clothes distribution” – thanks to some very generous donors back in the UK and particularly Laura White  who donated so many clothes for the pupils, Judith and Simon were able to start giving out the clothes; with the help of some of the older girls, the children were bought in one by one and each child was fitted out with the essentials and then they were able to choose an item.  You won’t be surprised to read that the football and sports kit was most popular with the boys and pretty skirts and dresses for the girls.

·         Medical programme begins – after months of finding the right people to help, the Lions Club, Amani Branch, Dar es Salaam stepped in.  Dr Hussain Hassan introduced Judith Roberts to Dr Willy Sangu, Curative and Programme Co-ordinator, Ilala (local authority), Sister Mary Kyando, School Health Co-ordinator, Ilala and Mr Ghazi Naeemullah, Welfare Association of Pakistan.  This group of people  put together a programme. Every child began with a de-worming tablet; their reactions were very different – some were elated whereas others prayed before taking the tablet.  In a couple of weeks, doctors and nurses from the local hospital will visit the school and each child will have their height, weight and haemoglobin level checked.  Those children who are in need of further medical help will go to the nearest local hospital for additional checks.  Not only is Tanzanear thrilled to be working with the Lions Club, Amani Branch and the local the local hospital, but more importantly, we are hoping that  improved health will mean improved academic results!

Thanks also to Rhea Bhadresha and Leonie Gasson, 2 volunteers who were with us in 2011 and who raised money for such a medical programme – asante sana!

·         March also saw the children all receiving eye and dental checks, again thanks to the Lions Club, Amani Branch, Dar es Salaam.

·         New cupboards for the Classrooms – each classroom now has a new lockable metal cupboard where the children can keep their school books, batteries etc. overnight.  Big thanks to the Caledonian Society of Tanganyika for making this happen.

·         A highlight of the term for the children was the arrival of Jan Poulsen, Tanzania’s National football coach (a former Danish footballer) who came to give some coaching to the school football team.  One might assume that the boys were only interested in this, but rest assured, all the girls were out there to watch and cheer their team on.

·        Another teacher got married – Janet Mwakyusa to Moses Makalanga.  Judith Roberts was invited to the wedding and found her first Tanzanian wedding an interesting and uplifting one!

handing out de-worming pills

de-worming takes place

Man of the match

Box-fresh trainers for Kaiza

Eye test (I think this is a pupil and not Samuel L Jackson)

Clothes waiting to be distributed

February: A dentist, a wedding and a cupboard

•  Lions Club, Amani Branch organized a dental camp at Buguruni – all pupils and people living in the surrounding area had their teeth checked. 
•  Simon spent another night in the boys’ dormitory, which meant he was up at 4.30am collecting water and doing the same chores as all the pupils! 
•   Richard Kweka and Priscilla Lukelo (two teachers) got married. 
•  Pupils joined the Caledonian Society of Tanganyika for Scottish dancing and were an immediate ‘hit’. 
•  Fiona Kennedy visited Buguruni to present the children with the first of the 24 new school cupboards donated by the Caledonian Society.

Scottish dancing

Fiona Kennedy

Wedding of the Century

 

January: no blues or detox needed here

Our hero, Mr Shibanda

New nursery class

Simon

• Lots of new pupils joined the school at the start of the academic year including 10 in the Nursery class
•  New teachers arrived and some teachers returned from their studies – Buguruni was flush with teachers 
• Simon Thursz, an ex-Mary Hare pupil arrived at the school for 3 months. 
• Mr Shibanda and Mr Banzi continued the English Club for teachers.

December: Exam results, holidays, goodbye to Guy and Judi and a giant Conga

• Eight pupils passed their Standard VII exam, which allowed them to move onto further education, i.e. secondary school. This is great news - in some previous years, the number was much lower. Some will go to Moshi Technical College where there is support for deaf students and some will attend a local school, which has a deaf unit. For those who did not pass, they will either go to school in Kenya (which is fee paying) where they are able to re-take their Standard VII exam, or attend a Vocational Training College. We are grateful to the staff at UMIVITA who will help with these transfer 
• Lots of very happy pupils as they went home for their long holiday (4 weeks). Those pupils who live far away are escorted home by the teachers. For those pupils who have ‘no home’ to go to, the Head Teacher finds someone who will care for them over the holidays 
• Guy and Judi finished their long stint at Buguruni. Tanzanear is hugely grateful for everything they have done. There's really too much to mention, but particular thanks for the establishment of the English Club for teachers and pupils and an IT Club for teachers. The idea behind these two clubs is to up-skill the teachers so they can pass on their knowledge to the pupils. Guy and Judi have gone off for a well-earned rest and are going to explore Tanzania – safari njema! 
•  A Scottish Band called ‘Big Jessie’ visited Buguruni – Big Jessie who regularly come out to Dar es Salaam at this time of year, came to visit the school, as part of their trip to play at the St. Andrew’s Ball for the Caledonian Society. It was a fantastic site to see the Chieftain, Paul Soppit leading the pupils in a giant conga line – the line wasn’t very straight but everyone had a fantastic time!

Big Jessie

Paul Soppit and his giant Conga

November: Addenbrooke's visit, handmade Christmas cards, a concert and an art workshop

Joanne from Addenbrooke's...

 Tom from Addenbrooke's

 Buguruni concert

 Guy and Judi

 Nursery school performance

 Miguel's art class

Art class continued

• Two audiologists from Addenbrookes arrived to give some support to Mr Shibanda, the school Audiologist.  Tom Mills and Joanne Deane had a busy week, making temporary ear moulds, repairing hearing aids, giving more training to the teachers and advising on the facilities the school already had and what they needed.  It was a busy week for them, but they seemed to enjoy themselves and said they would be back – hooray and thank you!
•  Each child received a hand-made Christmas card – in one of the luggage consignments were 300 hand-made cards thanks to Mrs Hadley and her group of friends; since Charlie, her daughter returned from her volunteering stint, this group of ladies have met once a week and made cards so that everyone at the school would have their own one.  There were cards for ‘small boys’, ‘large boys’, ‘small girls’ and ‘large girls’.  Judith and Alison had the pleasure of distributing the cards and the delight on each child’s face was super – you could see them walking round for days afterwards, each carrying their own card.  It is amazing how something taken for granted here, can mean so much to our friends in Tanzania
• A big concert was organized for all our donors and supporters from Dar es Salaam.  The guests were able to see different age groups putting on plays, dance routines and of course music; they were all marched down to their seats with the School Band leading them.  However, it wasn’t an opportunity to just sit and watch, the guests were encouraged to take part and we hope you like the photos of our guests dancing.  Thank you to Judi and George Njau (Deputy Head) for organizing this – the guests loved it and so did the pupils!
•  Thanks to Miguel Costales, some of the children were able to take part in another art workshop.  For more information about Miguel, see here 

October fun with IST

• ·         The community project with IST continued with the children from both schools taking it in turns to visit each other on a Monday afternoon.  This month the focus was on teaching the IST children how to sign, with the highlight being able to sign the Tanzanian National Anthem.

• ·         The Vocational Class made amazing Christmas decorations with materials donated by Judith and Alison.