Zebras and Giraffes – Tuesday, 13 July

Our drive is scheduled to leave before sunrise in the hopes of seeing a lion – very exciting. So we are up at 5:30am, it looks to be a beautiful morning but is very cold so we are all wrapped up in fleece jackets and the blankets from the beds. We climb on to our jeeps and head down in to the plain. As the sun comes up the animals start to come out, slowly at first. We see a herd of buffalo drinking new the water followed by a herd of wildebeests, which always make me laugh as they look like they are all wearing funny wigs. As we drive through it is a quite morning, as it seems like the animals are slow to wake and to come out similar to how they were yesterday. Regardless the landscape is beautiful – bright, earthy and extremely calming. We come across a herd of elephants with their babies, with zebras alongside. In the distance are giraffes, two warthogs and two silver backed jackals. It really is amazing to see all of these animals amongst one another – it is like looking at a picture. As we get closer the animals turn take a look and decide to head off deeper in to the plain. At one point, we see one lone elephant running – very fast I will add – across the plain. Apparently he is in search of females as he is ready to mate, which we know because as the guide explains, he is secreting hormones form his eyes, making it look like he is crying. I have never seen an elephant run that fast but apparently they do. We do see a lot of birds, too many for me to remember. However, the most memorable are the guinea fowls who are beautiful with grey and white polka dotted bodies and bright turquoise heads. In addition, we see several eagles, who when they expand their wings to take off from the top of a tree are magnificent to watch. No lions but a good morning filled with lots of other animals. Personally I love the zebras and giraffes. As we drive back up to the lodge, two elephants run across the road and as we pass the water hole, there are 7 giraffes, all male (their skin is darker) drinking.

After breakfast we start our journey back to Dar. As we leave Mikuni National Park, a pack of baboons saunter down the road almost saying good bye to us. They are brought up by the father of the pack who is enormous and slowly walks past our bus. Our journey goes quick and we are back in Dar by late afternoon for a trip to the market. The market is filled with crafts – kangas, paintings, wooden statues, jewelry and many other African made treats. Negotiating is always part of the process and can be quite fun. Several people bought masks and shields – which I looked out but was too spooked to actually have one hanging on my wall at home. We are headed out of dinner this evening as guests of Wilburd, the gentlemen who is leading all of the construction at the Burguruni School.

We leave for Wilburd’s house, which I am quite excited to have dinner at someone’s home and enjoy homemade cooking. He lives not too far from the convent, however, traffic in Dar is a nightmare so it takes an hour and half for us to get there. He and his family live in a very pretty neighborhood, where the houses are quite large and protected by security and large gated fences. The gates swing open to a lovely house with an enormous backyard, where we will be eating. Wilbard has been great to work with and his family is even more lovely, his wife Rose and their two daughters. The evening is great and we are served a delicious traditional meal of plaintains with beef in a coconut curry sauce, spiced rice, byrani,spinach, BBQ chicken, peas in coconut sauce and BBQ goat. Everything is really delicious. I find out more about Wilburd who is an engineer by trade and who had lived in Germany for many years with this family. As his children got older, he felt they were losing touch with their Tanzanian roots and he decided to move back where they have been ever since. He has used his skills to build his construction company, who gives a tremendous amount to the school and in his free time is building a house in the country where he also has a vineyard. We were not able to try his wine but he does give us a bottle to take back. A truly lovely evening where we all feel overwhelmingly welcome by Wilbard and his family. His daughters are planning to come to New York where I want to make sure that they are my guests at least for a meal or two.

The Journey to Mikuni – Monday, 12 July

The Journey to Mikuni – Monday, 12 July

We leave for Mikuni bright and early. The journey itself is about a 4-5 hour bus ride barring that we are not stopping too many times along the way. We load on the bust and most of us take advantage of a few hours of shut eye or simply making fun of each other. It is a great opportunity for everyone to get to know each other a bit better, although we have all met briefly most of the group knows one or two people not the larger group.

Getting out of Dar is a bit chaotic, as one can imagine leaving any big city. We pass the main bus depots, which continue to make me laugh as they are bursting with people arriving and departing, merchants selling all sorts of goods ranging from cold drinks, hot chai, fruits, cashews, chickens, sheets, shoes, pillows and yes just in case you need one a fire extinguisher. I find this fascinating as each bus departs with twice as many passengers as you can imagine will fit. The great news is, is that you see the same merchants when you are making stops along the highway just in time when you need a cold bottle of water, a coke or a chocolate biscuit.

Once our of Dar, we pass many small villages along the way, each having their own specialty be it cashews, woven goods like baskets or messiah members in town buying supplies. The villages are colorful with happy children heading to school in their uniforms.

We make a few stops but arrive up the lodge at lunchtime. As we drive in to the national park, we are surrounded by elephants and giraffes – I have never been this close to animals and am beyond excited! The elephants are enormous and the giraffes absolutely gorgeous. The lodge is located about 30 kl inside the park, so we keep on driving. The lodge is gorgeous! Luxury tents overlooking Mikuni National Park, I feel like we are suspended above the park just at the tree tops. And each tent is equipped with electricity and warm (we can’t say hot but it is running and warm – hooray!) water. We sit down to an amazing lunch filling up before we head out for our first ride.

We start our first ride in oversized jeeps with no side and back window. As we drive down in to the park, we are overcome by flies which is apparently normal although they hurt like a bugger when they bite. We get in to the park and I am amazed of how quickly we begin to see animals. Zebras are dancing in the light, giraffes graze across the open plain and elephants wander in the search of water. We also see the silver back jackal, buffalo, elands, impalas and baboons. We have a short break at a watering hole, where there is an enormous hippo basking in the sun and enjoying an afternoon drink. The plain is as you would imagine, wide open space surrounded by mountains with Sisile plants, and African trees jutting up here and there. As we approach dusk, the light gets more and more amazing – absolutely gorgeous as it reflects off the red earth, creating long shadows behind the trees. As it reflects off the animals, they take on a magical golden hue and for some reason they seem to take on a very calm and serene persona, almost waiting for us to get close to have a look.

I don’t know how to describe a safari except for awesome. You get so close to the animals that it is unbelievable and what I am surprised at is the fact that they are not afraid – they hover almost like they want their photo taken. We drive until the sun sets, which is a gorgeous blood orange color that hovers above the mountains until it is supposed to drop, as someone told me a long time ago – just like an egg that drops below the surface. The temperature drops immediately – we are all freezing and start to head back as quickly as we can.

We get back to camp in the dark, where the electricity runs until to 10pm and stops after that. We run back to warm showers – unfortunately mines is working so I head up to the main lodge to do some writing. The main lodge and restaurant overlooks the trees tops and as I sit there writing, I am startled by a tree baby followed by a jenta cat. The animals actually startled me a bit because it is so dark at the lodge you can barely see your hand in front of your face. Which is great because you can see all of the stars that shine brighter than I have ever seen before.

We sit to dinner enjoying the sounds of the park envelope us while we sit around the table. Part of the restaurant has a lounge area that is does not have a roof, so after dinner we sit under the stars and watch the bush babies get closer and closer as they are curious to see who we are. As the electricity is about to go out, at 10:30, we are encouraged to head back to our tents to get ready for bed before its pitch black. Two messiah men escort each us to our tent to make sure we get there safely. It is a perfect place for a great night sleep as you are surrounded by nature, the beautiful sounds of the trees and the only light from the stars above.

Finishing Our Task and the World Cup Finals – Sunday

Finishing Our Task and the World Cup Finals – Sunday July 11

As it is Sunday, the larger group attends mass right at the end of our road. They had to que up to attend, which many of them had never done before and similar to what I experienced last week, the service was beautiful with beautiful music and singing. As they attend mass, I actually head to the internet café where I need to get some things done (and post the latest of the blog).

In the afternoon, we get to work on getting up as much paint as possible, as none of us thought to bring clothes to protect the floor or the students furniture. Andrew puts on David Bowie and we are all working, singing and laughing as we scrubbed up paint. If someone would have walked in, it would have a been a funny scene of 10 of us squatting on the floor trying to remove as much of the paint we had dripped with handmade contraptions – water bottles with nail holes and metal scrubbies to get it up. The jokes got worse, which seemed to go hand and hand with the worsening of the solvent fumes. We got most of it up and moved on to the furniture. By the end of the, it looked really great. We had accomplished a lot and at least there was one floor complete with the 1st floor almost there. The ground floor continues to need a lot of work, which we will pick up again when we are back next week.

As we clean up and get ready to leave, many of the students return to the school after their break. As they run to see who the strangers are, they jump in delight to see Hammish, Cameron, Judith and Nigel while they introduce themselves by their sign name and ask how they are. They are curious, full of energy and all want to shake our hand or give a hug.

When they start to go in to the dorm, they are surprised and extremely excited, running around with smiles from ear to ear. This is why we all came, to see what a small difference in what we do can impact a child’s life and how they go to school. Without having to worry about if their bed is there, broken or the mosquito nets are working and hanging, they concentrate on school in order to better prepare them for secondary school and what to do after secondary school.

I walk back through the village saying hello and thanking them for welcoming us to walk through their village every morning, as it is not often they have so many of us passing through at one time and what we don’t realize is that this is their home where we could potentially disturb the normalcy of their lives. They have been welcoming, kind and giving – particularly when I have asked for chapattis, cassava chips or vitumba, which are fried rice balls/cakes eaten in the morning. All of which are delicious.

The light is magical, particularly as it becomes deepened with orange and pink reflecting off of the reddish earth. The young children are double dutch jump roping and begin to laugh as I walk up to see if I can join in. Others are playing football or running out to greet the strangers walking through their community. Always yelling “jambo” and wanting to shake our hand or give us a high five. It is a perfect way to end the day, as it gives us all the chance to reflect on what we have achieved, the vast amount that is still left to do and why.

It is last night at the convent before heading off to short safari. We stop for a beer prior to dinner as a group before sitting down. Dinner is always somewhat similar but tonight we had chicken and a gorgeous tomato salad along side our rice and greens.

It is the World Cup Finals tonight. We are all routing for Holland in the hopes of winning! The boys (and men) head off to the Irish Pub, an expat bar in Slipway where many expats will be gathered to watch the game. The girls head to the local café (the bar in the complex). We attempt to watch the game on an old 13 inch TV, actually once we are able to locate the game – which took almost 30 minutes. A funny experience to say the least. We all make it through half of the game before heading to bed. Really a rather boring game of course until it went in to overtime at the end. Maybe it was a good thing we did not see the entire game, as Holland went down in defeat.

Painting, My New Rafiki and A Night Out - Saturday 10 July

We arrive at the school around 8:30 and are happy to see that some of old furniture has been cleared out, which has given us more room. As a team we get back to work on the painting with the goal finishing all the trim before the end of the day. The guys are tasked with painting the ceiling which ends up with some paint fights along the way. Doors are being made for the bathrooms and we have the school contractors begin to repair the beds – many of which need new slats made and the nails removed. We work through the afternoon finishing a little early as its Saturday night and we are going out for dinner tonight.

Right outside the school, I meet a new friend, the local vendor who sells water and biscuits. He loves what we are doing and has cold water awaiting when we run out at the school. He also helps me with my swahili which is not getting any better to say the least! I am looking forward to seeing him over the next several days while we are here.

We head towards Slip Way, which is on the peninsula and where a majority of the expats live. As we drive through to the restaurant, we shift from local shops, pubs and street vendors to very large houses, stores catering to expats and an area that has shops and some good restaurants. It overlooks the sea and is quite beautiful. Visiting the grocery store made me think back about Shanghai, eagerly awaiting a new shipment to come in with things you could not get ordinarily – skippy peanut butter, diet coke and cleaning products. Funny enough – we went wild stocking up on the cleaning products we needed – gloves, dust pans, daisy soap and bleach. One very large purchase of the evening in the group was baby bell cheese, which they paid £13 for!!! The most expensive cheese they will ever eat! Welcome to expat life.

We have a drink sitting outside – gorgeous, as you can still see hundreds of stars and head up to dinner at a restaurant called the Sea Cliff. The food is great and the atmosphere better, again looking over the sea and eating under the stars. A great evening, although a few of us said it was a bit surreal given we were surrounded by other tourists and expats, which we had not seen around town since tonight. Personally, I prefer eating at the local restaurants to get a true sense of life here and enjoy authentic African cuisine – which I have not had something that was not delicious.

Back to the hotel for a good night rest before a manic day ahead of us tomorrow to prepare for the return of the students from their holidays.

Our Group is Complete - Friday 9 July

Friday morning another family will be joining us and Andrew their son has been on gap year and has been teaching in Uganda for the past four months. Very touching he has not seen his family in 4 months so he has gotten up early to meet them at the airport. They join us at breakfast and it is a flurry of excitement with all 18 of us.

Off to the school to arrive by 8:30 for the next round of painting. Four extra hands and it makes the work load much easier. Wilburd, is a contractor, who is helping with the project overseeing the construction. He is a perfectionist which is good keeping up us all on our toes and ensuring that everything looks really good, which we all want as the students are very excited about getting back. In addition to painting, we wash all the windows and begin to repair the their beds, all the students stay on campus sleeping in the dorm on bunk beds. We were very lucky to have enough money to get new mattresses for most of the students and repair those they could be repaired. In addition, Nigel and Judith organized a new water system to be put in that allows for running water rather than using the taps – essentially pumped water outside that is filled in buckets and used for the toilets and bathrooms. In addition to the water, the electricity is being repaired and will be back on, we hope by Sunday evening.

During out tea break, we have a special guest, Debra who has been in Tanzania for the past 4 years supporting the efforts of Judith and Nigel with on the ground help and working closely with the students to better understand what they are looking for in terms of improvements. Their priorities are water, new beds and shelves for their clothes, as they currently store them in their suitcases under the bed. She reviews some statistics of the country which are rather staggering, particularly in ensuring that children are enrolled in school and that disabled children are given the opportunity to have a specialized school that will allow them to succeed rather than struggle at basic primary and secondary schools. Since starting Burgurini has just under 300 deaf students who are being taught and cared for, most of which would not have been given the opportunity for an education if the school did not exist. Amazing when we think of all the resources we have. When you meet the students, they are smart, caring and extremely observant, wanting to share as much with you as possible and wanting to know as much as they can about you. As I mentioned, they are extremely patient in teaching us sign and do their best to communicate either by writing in the sand on the ground or on small pieces of paper. Their English is exquisite. We swap stories and they make sure that all of us are walked back to and from the convent everyday. It is amazing what little we can give can stretch across so many students here and have the impact to change a life.

Following our guest speaker, the students are eager to help us so we put them to work on the cleaning mosquito nets, mattresses and the rooms where we have finished painting. They are terrific in helping and laugh alongside all of us. Another great day and it seems as if we are making progress.


We walk back to the convent through the small village that is bustling with people cooking cassava chips, chapattis, selling half cakes and oranges. The children run up to screaming “jambo” and are enjoying a game of football, using rolled up ball of newspaper with tape around it. They are friendly and welcoming.

We are all exhausted when we get back to the convent, so it is a relative quick dinner with everyone heading to bed. However, before we do, it had been Nigel’s birthday the week before, so we sing a joyous happy birthday and celebrate with brownies that we brought with us and big fresh pieces of papaya.

Getting Down and Dirty - July 8

It is good to have the group here and we start the day with breakfast at the convent. We are having both breakfast and dinner here, which makes it easy for us to move as a group and it is great having meals all together. We are all excited as we having eggs as a special treat, outside of the normal toast and juice. The group is busy and eager to get going so we head over to the school to be there by 8:30. As we soon find out, a few of the older students proudly meet us each morning for our walk – greeting us the sign of “hibari” (how are you?) and smiles from ear to ear. They are thrilled to have us here and escort us through the local village.

Despite the size of our group, we have a tremendous amount to accomplish with the main focus being the dorm. The students are on holiday until Sunday evening, when we will need to have at least one floor completed for them to sleep. In addition to the paining, it needs a massive cleaning – bathrooms, windows, floors, furniture, etc followed by all the beds getting organized with new mattresses put on the beds. We get to work, coordinating small teams to tackle the different painting that needs to get done – dividing up by colors. We paint like mad people through the morning until tea time and despite feeling like you have done a lot of work, in reality we have just made a dent. We stop for tea at 11am, which will be every morning – a break that we all look forward to for hot tea and Tanzanian V – a doughnut like cake that is not too sweet, hard boiled eggs and fruit. After the break, we aim to get through at least the first coat across the top floor. Luckily we do.

Lunch is at 2pm, where Mamaoshi, the cook who is like our big mama has been cooking for all of us over the course of the morning. I find her out back with a vat of rice and sorting through spinach. Lunch is very similar every day but always tasty and it is great to sit down. Luckily the weather has been relatively cool which is good for us. We get through the rest of the first coat after the lunch and we are dirty, paint covered and exhausted by the time we finish at 4:30pm. We have another sign lesson and a few of us head back ahead of the others.

I sneak off to the internet café close to the convent. The café is a line of 6 monitors that as I soon find out work sometimes and sometimes don’t. The funniest bit is despite that the lines don’t work always, “Facebook” comes up first and works regardless of the connection. The two young adults who there are feverishly typing away on their homepage. After several attempts, I give up and head back to the convent for a shower and dinner.

A few of us split a beer and head to dinner. Another great dinner, although a bit of surprise it is all vegetables, we suspect it is because they need a bit more money for more supplies – meat and eggs. The vegetables are delicious, as they are everyday – convinced it is the lack of pesticides and chemicals on the fruits and vegetables – everything is delicious. They cook with natural ingredients for example potatoes cooked in coconut milk, fresh tomatoes and onions – simple and delicious. I am completely exhausted so I head to bed early and am asleep by 9pm. Listening to the sounds of Dar – city sounds, some music and a far off DJ. The city has a certain pulse that calms a bit at night but has a certain undertone that is quite exciting.

The Art of Communication and Swahili Sign Language – 7 July

For those of you who know Judith and Nigel (and me), a big hello to all! We are working hard and be good on Monday nights, we miss you!

Being in a new place and surrounded again by city noises, I am up at 4:30 – curse the evil of light sleeping, as this is even early for me. I make my way down just before 6am to where the head Sister is preparing breakfast and not happy that I have arrived before everything is prepared. Despite being in a big city the roosters crow and the animals soon come to life. We have a simple breakfast, I have introduced the Killer Bee Honey, which is a hit and wait for Judith and the other members of the group to arrive. They arrive earlier than expected, which is great, we give them a chance to freshen up as we head to the school early.

The walk through the village is rather spectacular, with children in uniforms heading to school, while those to young help their mom’s prepare hot chapattis, cassova chips and chai. The colors and pulse of the village are bright under a cloudy sky and a welcome sight. When we get to the school we get organized and begin the undertaking of refurbishing the dorm- 3 floors which need painting, cleaning and organizing. The 4 of us get to work with the painting while we wait for the remainder of the group to arrive. The dorms are in decent shape, much better than what I saw in Babati, although Nigel has mentioned that all of the difficult manual labor had been completed before we arrived, like filling and rebuilding the walls. We focus on the 2nd floor and as a team we quickly tackle what needs to get done. It is amazing what a little paint, cleaning and bright colours will do for a room. The group today is 12, made up of a group from the St. Columbas back in London. As we work together, it has given me a chance to get to know everyone here, a terrific group of people who not only have come together to help but all as very good and long time friends. Funny enough Petra Slater is one of them, who we know from playing tennis last year in Hyde Park.

We get a lot accomplished before lunch and are feeling good about the progress. The water and electricity are not working yet at the school but we work around that. Lunch is made on the premise for all of us and the staff. The kitchen is out back and like a traditional Tanzania kitchen, large pots over open fire. The rice pot is big enough for me to climb in to – literally. If find the head of the kitchen out there stirring enough rice for 30 singing and laughing away. She is amused that I have offered to help and teaches me how to stir rice the proper way. Lunch is delicious - rice, peas in coconut sauce, beef and mchichi.

After lunch, we head back to work to finish at least painting the 2nd floor. At 4pm, we stop to join the students for our first Swahili lesson. The kids are great and are very patient in showing us the alphabet and simple words. They explain their thoughts by writing in the sand and having us repeat in sign. We each get a sign name, mine is the movement of smoothing your hair, as my hair is so crazy! Hilarious. After our lesson, they walk us back before dinner.

The group has dinner at the convent, where we have many laughs. We are expecting 4 more tomorrow. The group is really terrific and it is amazing how they have all come together from their church to do this. As we are all very tired, it is up to bed by 9pm.

Buses, Red Dust and an Interesting Plane Ride – 6 July

I head over to the bus stop just before 6am and luckily enough have time for a quick cup of chai off the street vendor at the bus stop. The tea is piping hot, strong and sweet – luckily a quick hit of caffeine before we depart. We get on the bus and don’t take off until just before 7am – essentially an on time departure for 6am in Africa. We head off again with an overstuffed bus and I anticipate to arrive in Arusha by 9:30am.

About an hour in to the trip the bus stops, as the engine breaks down. We are stranded for about an hour while the driver and ticket collector work on the engine. We stand on the side of the road hoping for the best and trying to avoid as much dust as possible. They announce to get back on the bus and it is a made crush to get back on. The engine starts, stops, starts and stops again but after the third try a few backfires we are on the way. We pass through the heart of the Mesaih land, where men herd cows and women are tending to the market – the colours are brilliant and the women still dress in traditional wear with long beaded earrings neck jewelry. It is beautiful to see. Unfortunately, 30 minutes later we break down again, however, only a 45 minute delay and we are headed off again.

6 hours later we make it to the bus stop at 11:30 – we move quickly to catch my flight. When we get to the airport, which is overcrowded with tourists coming off of safari’s or climbing Mt Kili, all headed back to Dar or to Zanzibar. The flight is oversold so I don’t make it and in panic begin a search for a seat on any flight to Dar. Douglas, who is the driver is helping me and at 12:30, the TSA man comes through – for $200 cash I can fly to Dar via Zanzibar. I quickly pay the cash, my bags are whisked away and I am whisked through security – no boarding pass nor do they even know my name. I board a 9 seater prop plane with 4 other passengers headed to Zanzibar – I am thrilled to be headed to Dar and more importantly this is luxury in comparison to the bus. We land in Zanzibar and I am asked to wait in the transit area while we re-fuel. 10 minutes later there is a man yelling for the “mazoonga” with the ginger, curly hair and blue fleece, not realizing its me I don’t respond, he finally comes over and we walk out to the plane – I am the only passenger – what a riot! 20 minutes we land in Dar and I am off to meet Nigel Roberts, who leads Tanzinear with his wife Judith, and their son Hammish at the Burguruni School for the Death.

Dar Es Salaam is culture shock, particularly coming from Babati. It is a very large city, with 8 million people in a small space. It is hot (hooray), bustling and manic on the streets. In addition, the standard of living appears better with higher end cars, electricity running through neighborhoods and both women and men dressed slightly more casual.

I arrive at the school, where it is slice of tranquility among the chaos of the city. It is tucked off next to Msimbazi Center, on a large piece of property that is green, with a large soccer field, swings and cows. The school itself needs work, hence why we are here mainly in painting and cleaning. However, the goal is to raise enough money to provide an audio center to have the students fitted for hearing aids. The students are on holidays, so I am honored to meet the head teach Maltilda who is grateful for the work we are doing.

Nigel and I have stroll through the local village which is the route to the school before heading back to the convent, where the group is staying. We will be joined by 8 more tomorrow morning, including Judith and Cameron, their other son, followed by 5 more on Friday morning. The convent, similar to the school is a secluded area – like a gated community where there are several churches and places to stay. Hammish and Andrew join us with several of the students returning from the water park. The four of us have dinner here, where the food is homemade and where we will be having dinner for the time that we are staying. Sister Apolonia runs the convent and is entertained by us, she is kind with the heart of gold and a fist of steel – nothing gets past her. It is comfortable, peaceful and very friendly. The rooms are simple and clean, no hot water but luckily we have electricity and the semi-finals are being shown. There is a café that the nuns run, selling simple snakcks, soda and cold beer. I (we) all find it quite amusing to see several nuns at the end of the day enjoying a cold beer.

Sadly My Last Day in Babati … for now - Monday, 5 July - Photos