Alex in his own words.

One of our longest-lasting volunteers, Alex Beck: read his story here

Alex bids a fond farewell to Buguruni. Come back, Alex.

Some long overdue new photos

Astute observers may have noticed a distinct lack of updates recently. For shame! Well, it's feast today rather than famine, because I remembered that I had a lovely load of photos from Judith Roberts' trip to Tanzania earlier this year. Trip isn't really the right word, as she was a superstar and went for five months. 

Here goes:

Umivita's spanky new office, which Judith project managed - many thanks to Tanzania Breweries Limited for this: you are marvellous. Click here to find out more about TBL. 

And this shows some gorgeous artwork from our wonderful friends at the International School of Tanganyika (IST)  - thank you so much!  

The new welcome sign on our super new wall at the school  - if you look closely, you can see the sign language for each letter of the welcome message. 

Charlie Hadley, one of our most dedicated volunteers ever, working with Gloria. Gloria is a lovely little girl in the nursery class. Charlie used to work at Mary Hare School and we are so happy - and grateful! -  to have this partnership with Mary Hare. Click here to see more about Mary Hare. 

This is English Club, started by Guy and Judi - two more uber-volunteers. English Club is making a real difference to the quality of teaching and learning in the school, and is offered to pupils AND teachers. 

Teachers at English Club - with Judi just squeaking in on the right there. 

I know I end all these posts promising to do it more frequently, but I am actually going to put an alert in my diary now to do something every week. You can email us at tanzanear@gmail.com to complain if I don't!

As always - thank you to our marvellous donors and volunteers. Although it goes without saying that we couldn't do anything without you, I never see that as a reason not to actually say it. 

Lucy (Chair)

Judith takes a well-earned break - and Guy and Judi come home for a bit

Hello all - you already know that Judith has been working extremely hard, living in Dar for a few months to really get things done on the ground. She's taking a well-earned break in Dubai for a few days, to see her husband Nigel - they haven't seen each other for two months!

Recently Judith went travelling in Tanzania to see how other deaf organisations do things.

Here's Alison (one of our on-the-ground representatives) and Matilda in Njombe - it's so nice to see Matilda looking relaxed.

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Dar Blah Blah 9

The gang (including Guy and Judi) also went to see the cafe run by deaf people at Neema crafts

http://www.neemacrafts.com

- it's pretty impressive, as you can tell from this photo:

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Dar Blah Blah 9

Guy and Judi are coming home for a while soon, but, amazingly, are going to go back to the school - lucky us.

Tori, Super-Volunteer! - Sounds of Hope evening in Washington DC

Hurray for Tori, one of our best volunteers ever. Tori used to live in Dar es Salaam, and has now moved back to Washington DC with her husband Robert and very tall baby Bella.

A few weeks ago she organised a musical evening in Washington for Tanzania, and sent these gorgeous photos. It raised £216, which is wonderful and goes a long, long way in Africa. We're especially grateful to Tori for going to a huge amount of trouble to wire the money to our UK account, involving many trips to the bank and emails with our Treasurer.

You can see the photos here (I hope):

https://picasaweb.google.com/JodiandAlex/SoundsOfHopeForTanzanear?feat=directlink#

and here's a couple to whet your appetite:

The band

L to R: Mary (one of the organisers), Tori and Jodi, Tori's friend

Volunteers still working hard...

Here's a picture of our volunteers having a well-earned tea break, and of Guy and Judi fighting their way through torrential tropical rain!

This picture is of the library looking beautifully clean after many hours of hard work from our gap-year volunteers.

As always, we're sending BIG THANKS to our lovely helpers for all they do.

Volunteers playing with the children at Buguruni

With thanks to Alison for taking these lovely photos, here are our current gap-year volunteers (Alex, Isla, Izzie and Lucy) playing with Buguruni children. It's so good for the pupils to have this kind of attention and fun. Here in cold grey London, we are simultaneously impressed with the volunteers' abiility to run around in the intense heat of Dar, and jealous of the blue skies.

Two new volunteers - Alexandra and Isla

Alexandra Stewart and Isla Findlay are the latest gap-year volunteers to go out to Buguruni. Here are pictures of them looking very glamorous; we expect that at the moment, they are probably a bit more dusty, dishevelled and hot than this!

Isla (planning to be a primary school teacher)

Alexandra (planning to study archaeology)

They have joined Izzie and Lucy, who were there already. Matilda told us that the girls are doing really well and having lots of ideas. She sounded very upbeat, so I think they are helping her a lot. In Tanzania, visitors are seen as a treat and a gift, so having four lovely cheery young people will be a great uplift for Matilda. 

One day I might even have a picture of the volunteers doing some actual work. Until then, we hear that Alison Bissett and Michelle Hawkins are looking after them and ensuring that it's not all work and nuns. 

Volunteers being looked after by Alison Bissett

We currently have four young people kindly volunteering at the moment - Izzie, Lucy, Alex and Isla. Luckily for them, Alison Bisset, our lovely Committee member in Dar, is looking after them - showing them where to have fun and most importantly, upgrading them to relative luxury after the convent.

Here are two of them, texting (naturally)....

and here, finally, is a picture of Alison !

Latest volunteers - Izzie and Lucy

Izzie and Lucy (not Lucy Carter, Lucy Rew!) are on their gap years after finishing their A-levels at James Allen's Girls' School. They've just arrived in Dar and as well as coping with the intense heat and a few other ways in which things are different to London, they are going to help Mr Shibanda with audiology record-keeping, organise after-school fun and games for the boarders, and help with writing and counting in the very youngest classes.

It will be a learning process for all of us - we'll put up more updates about Lucy and Izzie's progress, and use their feedback to improve future volunteer experiences. In the meantime, we hope they bring a lot to the school and also that they make it to the beach occasionally...