Tanzania

After a teary farewell no one seemed up for a rendition of the wheels on the bus go round and round...However all were looking forward to getting home and the mood was lifted by more donuts than any one bus load could manage, although Robin had a good go on the way to the Trafford centre.

Polly Meets Baby Isaac 2011We Met Hensley 2004

We held an evaluation session in Bigrigg Village Hall, and worked in ever changing groups so people could swap their experiences of the last 3 weeks with lots of different people. We used ‘old school’ flip chart recording, and will use everyone’s ideas to help plan the future.  We looked at what had been best, what might be improved in future, and what people hadn’t liked (fortunately, not much of this one!!) – and then went on to talk about what had surprised people, and finally started to plan what might happen in Tanzania next summer.

Today we visited Harrington primary school, Beckstone Primary. The school was on a almost vertical hill but Mary managed to beat the mini van into submission and we got there eventually. The primary school was certainly impressive and even the English students were surprised at how well off the school was! We were greeted by an electronic board outside the main entrance and welcomed by music in the hall, which had flat screens showing pictures of school visits.

It was the second day of our drama project at St Benedicts school. We had already sorted out the plot of our “play” the day before but we still had all the dancing and singing to organise. Tanzanians Leading The Way

Wow, today was awesome! We did some funny games to get warmed up, and then picked up where we'd left off yesterday. Charlotte had written some scripts for us so we could be more confident with our parts and also so we'd be able to give everyone something to say more easily. We had to rearrange the groups around to make them more mixed, and then we could get started properly.

At the start of the day me and Gasto went to church, Gasto was asked to get and perform a song to everyone and of course he said yes the song he sung was called Zion. Gasto told me that churches in Tanzania are very similar to the one we went to.

On one of the better days of this years summer; the link was to do its first march through Whitehaven for the Carnival. Starting the march, it was clear from the early stages that the streets were going to be packed, as the group marched through the streets signing the likes of "Tuselebuke" and "Maria" with a few more songs. The Tanzanians were becoming more and more used to the large crowds, as the likes of Gasto and Lazeck started leading the songs and dances. Crowds seemed to be impressed by the march as photos were taken and videos were recorded from all angles.