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.

Update from BSD via Matilda (for December 2010)

Hello,

Matilda sent us this update for December last week. We always love hearing from her. Lovely news about the sporting achievements! I've put a few explanations in brackets and italics where that might be useful.

Dear Tanzanear Chairperson and Comittee Members,

In December there was some issues which happened at the school. The pupils were on Holidays and the school was quiet, but still there were issues as follows.

1. The Ministry of Education organised a National atheletics games which involved  all Primary schools in the country to select

     nice players to go to Kibaha  Coast Region  to compete. Twenty deaf pupils from our school were chosen. Those who live in Dar es salaam.

     Our pupils from Dar es salaam did the best. They were awarded nine silver medals and a cup. This achivement was the result of

     Tanzanear who gives us a lot of different plays (African term for sports or play equipment)  and it makes the pupils fit. Thank you Tanzanear.

2.  In December there is lady known as Shekha (A Tanzanian friend of the school, who is an estate agent in Dar es Salaam, and who has helped the school for three years now) gave to the pupils some clothes, an old printer which still needs her help and

     75,000  Tzs.  which will buy milk and eggs for the Boarding pupils. We thank her.

3.  On the 10th December  The HARK Board met under the Chairman Mr. Hamza Kasongo and nice programes were discused (see http://www.sound-seekers.org.uk/our-work/hark-projects/ for more details)

      to make our pupils happy when they get ear diseases not to stay in long lines at Muhimbili ENT but to be attended at once.

      And also they talked about deaf adults  how to attend them. The meeting was done  at Buguruni School for the deaf.

I expect that we'll get an update from Umivita soon,  and I'll post that too. Here's a random photo, just for interest:

It is Matilda in the school farm, with a massive breadfruit. It's not a very good picture of Matilda, actually, but it is a great picture of the breadfruit. 

Lucy

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. 

The lockers are finally here!

Thanks to the great generosity of the Caledonian Society, and expert help from Alison Bissett and her nine-year-old assistant Eddie, the lockers have arrived at Buguruni School, for the boarding pupils. It's so important for the children to feel that their few possessions and clothes are safe. It means that they can have a little area in the dormitory that's theirs, and it helps them know that they are valued.

The Caledonian Society really wanted to donate something that the pupils themselves wanted, and the lockers were a clear winner.

Alison is also helping to make sure that there's a sensible system for locker keys - we are lucky to have so many super-brains on the case. 

More photos of the Starkey Hearing Aid day and the Scottish band

Morning all

I've just been sent more gorgeous photos of the Starkey Hearing Aid day and also of the wonderful Scottish band that the Caledonian Society brought to the school. The children love music, especially percussion (because it's easier for them to feel the vibrations) and they were loving having a bit of a dance - as were the teachers! You can see the teachers throwing some shapes in the last picture.

Many thanks to Michelle Hawkins, as always, for the beautiful snaps.

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 !

Exciting database reconciliation

Work goes in between Committee meetings, of course. This is John, our new Treasurer, and Lucy, spending a rainy January morning combining the newly computerised accounting records with the membership database. We expect the winter evenings to fly by as we finish this off.

Stuart, another Committee member, is John’s son. He brought us coffees occasionally, albeit with a rather grudging attitude. And he forgot the sugar in Lucy’s.

John has just commented that he always likes to match his shirt to the wallpaper, but this does require changing his outfit  quite often.

Next up, I might try to post some videos of school.