Life as a volunteer in Tanzania...

After running the Half Marathon in Moshi, we travelled to the town of Arusha where we would be spending the next month volunteering.

Arusha is a big town which has grown up around the Tanzanian Safari circuit and people heading to climb Kilimanjaro and Meru.  The town is one of the craziest places we've been, people, traffic and noise.
We were staying at a volunteer hostel called Ujamaa which has connections with various projects in the town.
We got involved in 2 projects over the month : Nocet which is a small orphanage and pre-school based in Arusha, and Green Living Planet which is an interesting project introducing sustainable gardening projects to Schools in the town.

Nocet (New Outlook Center).
Nocet is a very new orphange and pre-school based in Arusha.  We were welcomed by the staff and soon felt like part of the family.  The kids were such fun and it was great getting to know them and all their personalities.  Gillian helped out teaching English, and I got involved in sports and games.  The orphanage also had a small garden which we tidied up, weeded and looked after.

Watering the plants. 

Gillian with Wilsom and Felix. 

 Gillian helps make lunch (Ugali). 

 Helping Abduli with his Geography. 

 Students eager to learn !!! 

Up and coming football stars Armani and Bright Peter !!

Armani, Elisabeth and Rebecca. 

The Garden we worked on. 

 Gillian receives her volunteering award !!!

and so does Dean. 

 Helping Matron make lunch 

 Teacher and her new shelves. 

Resident orphans David, Abduli, Grace and Godfrey.

Showing Godfrey some football skills !!!!

The orphanage residents Godfrey, David, Abduli, Irene and Gracie

Nocet is a very small project and they are really struggling for resources.  When we arrived they didn't have much, just the basics.  They need desks, pencils, books and even money for food to feed the orphans.  We hope to try and raise money for then over the year, but it would be great if anyone could donate some money for then now.  If you can please go to the donations link on their website http://www.nocettanzania.com/

Green Living Planet.
This project is run by a local guy Ben Mariki, who is teaching school children about gardens, agriculture and environmental issues.  He is a great guy full of enthusiam and is keen to provide sustainable solutions to the schools.  With Ben we helped to build 4 Keyhole Gardens at the Goodhope Orphanage.  We  also helped to plant acacia trees at a goverment school called Terrat just outside Arusha.  The school has 1000 pupils and only 12 teachers!  It was in a very barren area with no shade in the playground, so planting trees will provide some shelter from the sun in a few years.  We had great fun there planting tree's with the children.

• Keyhole gardens at Good Hope orphanage.

 Measuring out the garden with Ben.

Preparing the ground. 

 Sawing Wood !! 

Gardening break !!!! 

 Ready to start laying the bricks.

 Supervising !!!! 

 First row done !!! 

 Hard at work.

Finished.

Gillian's new blokes !!!!!!

 Beers and BBQ at the end of the day. 

• Tree planting at Terrat primary school.

 Watering the saplings. 

Our budding Gardeners. 

Gillian helping to transplant trees. 

Army of helpers !!! 

Digging holes for the trees!! 

Gillian's Team.

Dean's Team.

The Terrat Gardeners 

Working happily together.

Ben's Green Living Planet project is great fun for the kids as well helping them to understand environmental issues and sustainable living for Tanzanian's in the future.  Again the project is funded via donations so if you are interested in helping Ben out please visit his website http://www.greenlivingplanet.org/.