News

Of course Tanzania suffered enormously from Covid restrictions and as 80% of the
country's economy rely on tourism it has been a very challenging time for lots of people.
Add to this that our safari guide was taken very ill and Waterhog Africa was not able to
help much besides sending monies to alleviate some of the worst situations. Our girls had
to study from home and working on line was certainly not an option for those families
who have no electricity or connection to the internet
LAKINI
The Tanzanian are very resilient people and managed to get through this difficult time with
the girls taking and passing their exams . Esther has only one more year at school before
becoming a qualified Electrical Engineer and has chosen not to go to further studies but
find a job as soon as she is out of school. With distinction in most of her subjects she
should have no problems finding a suitable position
Moureen is doing well too in the secondary school and at 15 years old is still unclear of
her choice of profession. She has to conciliate her capacities with her preferences and
mainly with the opportunities in the job market. Not easy in Tanzania where there are so
few opportunities finding work but in the tourism industry and there are already 10
candidates for one job.
Moureen is a lovely, kind and thoughtful girl so we hope she might try for teaching as there
is a definite lack of commited teachers mainly due to the poor renumeration and hardeous
teaching conditions.
The Engosengui well needs some work and this coming year we will make sure it is
restored to its best working condition and connected to the sanitary school network

No travelling to Europe for Mokulu, as planned and no travelling to Tanzania for us
BUT plenty happening in Arusha despite it all
First of all the girls:
Ester got the best division in her last examination, in Secondary school in Tanzania there are five divisions, division 1 which is the best, division 2 is still very good, division 3 is average, division 4 is quite poor and division F is a fail.
Ester passed with grade division 1 and 9 points which is a record hardly ever achieved!
She is a clever girl who is dedicated to learning to achieve a career which will support her and her family. We are so proud of her and we know she is proud of her achievement and who knows how far she can get... Tanzania needs clever ladies in every industry and also in politics... We trust Ester will be among these pioneers. She has the motivation, the brain, the determination to achieve whatever goal she sets herself.
Watch that girl!!!!
Maurine is in her Secondary school. She passed her exams and was offered a place in a government school as she managed to score a good pass; A in all exams but for 1 B
She is in a day school so had to stay at home because of the pandemic. However after 3 months she will be allowed to transfer in a boarding school where she can resume her studies among her peers and carry on with her academic achievements.
Both girls are growing so fast and are really now young ladies but for us they will always be; The girls!
The project of building a house for Moshi has progressed as far as the completion of the house with the windows and connection to electricity achieved just before Christmas. Moshi and his family have moved in with the latest addition of a baby boy, Richard in July 2020. The next step will be to drill for water and build a well to help the dwellings on the other side of the housing estate where our first well was completed
So not so bad for a year which tested anyone's positivity....
We are on target and can't wait for travelling to resume to allow people in Tanzania to earn a living again and for us to go and witness the progress

In March 2014 we returned from Tanzania having offered young Mourine an
education at Nalopa School. Before we left we promised Mourine that when
our grand daughter Emily was 10 years old, she would join us and visit
her at the school
We relayed this promise to our then 4 years old grand daughter who
straight away started working out how many years, days were left before
her trip to Tanzania
Since then, every birthday Emily reminded us of the counting down to
February 2019 and each Christmas and birthday she never failed to save
her money gifts in her "for Africa" money box.
On 20th February 2019 the BIG day arrived when we honored our promise.
Emily took all her savings (£150.00) to the Travelex Office in Heathrow
and received 420.00.00 Tanzanian Shillings. She immediately felt very
rich.
She had told us that she wanted to buy some goats for Mourine's parents
to help them because they were so poor and had lost the help of their
young daughter now boarding at Nalopa. Mourine's parents had a herd of goats that were slaughtered to celebrate the coming of age of Peter,a Massai tradition.
Mokulu and Lossi (Mourine's father) reckoned that Emily's bounty would be enough for a billy goat and 3 lady goats, the beginning of a new herd.
Of course we also started collecting as many CDs as we could gather, 400
in all, which with projector, screen and hi-fi filled our luggage
allowance. But we were only going for one week so needed a minimum for
ourselves. Emily spent many Sunday afternoons choosing and filing the
CDs in cases labelled with age and sex preference groups. She had no
hesitation in leaving Cinderella out of the 10+ years old boys CD case
but agonised on where to file "Jungle book". We also spend much of our
time together visiting the charity shops who helpfully saved us board
games and toys. Chichester Baptist Church also contributed many of these
offerings.
From October 2018 to February 2019 we worked on obtaining a new passport
and visa for Emily, vaccinations, legal parental agreement for a minor
to leave UK, malaria tablets prescription etc..and you can see the
photos testifying the fulfillment of our promise to those 2 young girls
Most importantly on this trip we made a further promise to come back to
drill another well close to our first well
The first well attracted many families to settle nearby but is now not
coping with people queuing from 5 am to 9 pm
We bought a piece of land on the other side of the settlement where we
shall drill another well to help this community
Furthermore we shall build a home for the safari guide Moshi and his
family.
Just before Christmas 2018, Moshi's widowed sister in law passed away
and Moshi and his wife took over her 4 boys, the African way!!
With their own two girls and living in 2 rooms Moshi has been
struggling to keep the 8 of them fed, clothed and homed. Moshi never let
on about his predicament during our trip and was always cheerful and
looking after us from 5 am to 10 pm. He even managed to bake a Birthday
cake for Emily out of a metal suitcase and cheered us on with singing
and dancing. He made our trip enjoyable and carefree whilst he had so
many cares of his own to attend to. He never let a pancake, a leftover
of vegetable go to waste but was forever handing out our leftovers to
needy children and their families. We met Moshi's family and all agreed
to help with Mokulu masterminding buying the plot of land, organising
the building materials and work.
So here it is , our new promise is to dig another well on this plot of land, on Moshi's land where he will have his 5 bedrooms house and look after the well to make sure everyone is getting water free.
Emily of course is already saving for the furniture that Moshi and his
family will need in their new home.

Our first container was ready to sail to Dar Es Salaam at the beginning of May
The Salvation Army has kindly offered to help us clear it through Customs to be on its way to Arusha where Mokulu will reception it and deal with the distribution of all the generous gifts we have been collecting for the past 6 months

TWAM, http://www.twam.co.uk/ were an inspiration for this first container. They have so many varied, useful and much needed hand tools. They welcomed us, gave abundantly and guided us through the lengthy procedure to putting together the container, filling up all the relevent paperwork, shipping it and clearing it once in Tanzania.
We are very grateful to Carte Blanche, http://www.carteblanchegreetings.com/ who offered many boxes of their delightful teddy bears, umbrellas and chlidren's fleece blankets . They will delight the children in the Masai community as well as the orphans of the Engosengui home in Arusha
Terry and Richard were ready everyday at 8 am to help gather the gifts and put them together before filling l up the container and Garry Crymble supervised and gave a strong helping hand in the packing and loading to ensure every single inch was filled.
It was then up to Mokulu to deal with the Customs and transport Company in Tanzania and make sure that the container arrived safely in Arusha
Beginning of September we had the photos showing us the distribution of our gifts to the schools, needing families and individuals we had promised to help on our last visit.
The smile on their face made it all worth it!
We are now busy preparing for Mokulu's trip to France where he is coming to learn about cheese making, vegetable growing and promote our charity.
This will be in May.2014.... Soon enough

Time went so very fast. The 1st week was spent shopping. A new set of clothes, shoes and books for our young Maurine. She will be 8 soon.
We had another full day with Maurine and her Mum when we did more shopping and managed a visit to the farm and a picnic. It was great

We found another young girl to sponsor. She is called Esther. She is 10 years of age. Esther has been in private medium English school since the age of 7 and her overall ranking is first for the school. Unfortunately her father died 9 months ago and as there is no welfare state in Tanzania, her mother is now POOR. Poor in Africa means poverty stricken. Esther is kept at school because of her academic results which are exceptionnal . Obviously Esther will help the school to achieve a good ranking nationally. However Esther is wearing worn clothes which are either 3 sizes too large or too short. She must share books, pencils and exercise books with other children.
When she goes home there is no electricity and no water. Esther's Mum cries and shares her fear of being evicted as she is 8 months behind with the rent. There is not enough to eat and Esther must bear the family's burden of poverty. The School manageress told her that Esther cries in the middle of lessons.

So now Esther has new fitting clothes and shoes, she has her own books and even a watch (it was her dream!). She is a boarder so she is eating properly and can study as there is electricity. She does not have to share adult's problems which are beyond her understanding and ability to solve.
One week after her admission in the school we saw a transformation in Esther. She is now a smiling lively happy child and she will go a very long way.


We then went to Dar Es Salaam. Hell!!! 16 hours to get there in 2 days and another 2 days to come back. The roads are full of enormous pot holes. Cars, lorries and buses break down, break their axles and stay in the middle of the road for hours. Dar Es Salaam; the ghettos, the heat is so humid that it helps stick dust to your skin, your hair.... One never feels clean

We had an appointment with the Salvation Army who are kindly going to help us clear our container from customs early June
OUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thousand of m2 with thousands of peoples. They are looking after children who have no hope; Albinos. In Africa Albinos are considered "SPECIAL" children. BUT SPECIAL IN AFRICA IS NOT SUCH A GOOD THING. The albinos children are thought to be special gifts from "the gods" and in many communites they are offered as sacrifices by the local witches. These children risk their lives daily in Africa hence their being protected by the Salvation Army. There are also lots of children physically "challenged" When a child is missing legs in Europe he can access a wheelchair or prothesis. In Africa there is NOTHING!!!
These children must wear artificial limbs which don't fit and give them further problems. There are no wheelchair and the state of the roads and lack of pavements would not allow their use.

Back from Dar Es Salaam, we took a week off and went on a safari to find new interesting places and activities to act to our safari programm.
We went for a camping safari : 20 l of water per head (drink/washing/cooking...) not nearly enough but every other aspect of this safari was amazing and
THE ANIMALSs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. We stayed in gites (electricity and water available from 19 ot 22hours only, at other times solar lighting). We stayed with our guide,our cook and our friend Antonio the biologist. It is thanks to Antonio that we are allowed to stay in these guest houses which are so well located and we are given very preferential rate .These houses are reserved for biologist, botanist doctors and researchers who work on location.
In the evening we would sit outside on the patio with bats flying hardly a meter from our heads and listen to the roars of the lions and the whining of the hyenas

We had a magical week which helped us to recharge our batteries and gave us much needed energy for the last step of our journey.

We went to visit the Engosengiu primary school (4 to 13 years old children); 1771 children and 35 teachers. One book to share between 6 pupils. NO WATER. The children are falling sick since in Africa one eats with one's hands and at lunch time the children bring their meals but can't wash their hands before or after the meal.

There are 6 WC (holes in the ground in a cubicle) for the boys and as few for the girls but here again no water. It is not so surprising then that the children fall sick and the smell!!!!!!
The football/games ground is home to dust tornadoes and in less than 5 minutes the red earth gets into any orifice. We stayed outside only for a quarter of an hour but it took me half an hour under the shower to get rid of all the dust. The children don't have running water at home!

We have offered to dig a well and are now looking for companies who can help us with gutters and piping to bring the water from the well to the different buildings

On the last week we went round car dealers to locate a reliable but inexpensive pick up to help us deliver the tools/bicyles and books which will arrive in the container end of May beginning of June.