A couple of pictures from the Nelson Thom school in Tanzania

All of us here in the office would like to thank Quest leader Chris for sending us these images from Tanzania this morning. From speaking with him we know that the team are doing really well and that work is progressing along nicely. The sanding down of the windows is proving to be a chore but they are digging deep and forcing themselves through the tedium so to complete the job. Over half way through their expedition now and the reward of a Safari is on the horizon as well as a few other surprises waiting for them this weekend.

Keep up the good work.

Quest4Change

We do love a team snap!

Supporting the Nkoaranga school by helping to renovate the school.  

Epsom and Ewell High School working hard in Malawi

Muli Bwanji from Kachumbe!

We arrived Sunday night safely after an exhausting 29 hours of travelling. The morning of our first day we had orientation around the village which is surrounded by beautiful mountains. In the afternoon the whole community came together and welcomed us into their village. This was an amazing experience for all of us and we all got involved with the traditional dancing with the whole community, and Luke entertained the crowd with his Diablo.

For the past five days we have been working hard on the project site; this involved us putting together a playground outside the feeding centre for the children of the village, many of whom are orphans. We have learnt lots of new skills making furniture and making swings out of tyres and wood and painting. Between our hard work we have been eating locally made donuts!

Every morning our quest leader Nettie has been getting us up at 6am for exercise sessions which involve running and circuit training, which is hard and fun at the same time but we know it will help us conquer mount Mulanje. Our meals are prepared each day by our cook Judith who is from Malawi. Everyone has enjoyed the food including the mice which are a local delicacy (some people opted out of eating them!).

Overall the group are in good spirits and we can’t wait for the rest of the trip!

Nelson Thom update

Chris has just managed to find time to send in a fantastic update from the NT guys out in Tanzania...  

"The guys arrived pretty tired and bleary eyed into the school on Tuesday.  We had a delicious treat for dinner - rice and meat, which went down well.  On Wednesday we joined the school's daily parade - think school assembly but on your feet, marching around the school grounds, with lots of singing.  Once we had been given a proper tour of the schools, the NT students were visably shocked by the conditions and this left them raring to get stuck in to the tasks at hand.  

Weds, Thurs and Friday's tasks have revolved around sanding and preparing wood for the roof, which the fundi's (builders) have been putting together, with our students assisting them from the ground.  There are also lots of cracks and holes in the walls that needed filling.

We have had a football tournament and frisbee skills session so far and the Tanzania students are super excited about all the sports events.  This weekend its that old English classic, rounders.

So far the NT students have been eating lunch everyday with the Tanzania students, and have been tucking in to Ugali, a staple of the local diet.  Today we had lunch with all the teachers which was very special, and meat was served - a real treat.

Speaking of meat, Dan H, Johnny and William tapped into some carnal instinct last night, stepping up to kill dinner, for our BBQ chicken evening.  This has gone down extremely well as you can imagine.
 
This afternoon, (Friday), we have split into three groups and are learning about life at either, the orphanage, the primary school or the secondary school.  At the primary school, it is farm day on Fridays which means students bring their tools and work on the school farm, learning new techniques whilst also maintaining the schools food supplies.  At the secondary school, the students have been getting well into the cultural exchange, teaching each other card games from their respective countries.

On Thursday night we had a fantastic Quiz and the 'team with no name' reigned supreme.  On Wednesday we had a really special evening with a visit from a local musician and his keyboards, singing Swahili tunes to us all night - it was lovely.

That's all for now.  This weekend we are having a rounders tournament, and some of the students will be doing a traditional home-stay.  Some of the students will also be dining at the teachers homes, and we are all very excited about church on Sunday".

Chris & Rose (Q4C Leaders)  

Epsom and Ewell High School's first few days on the project site...

The team are almost midway through their first week on the project site, can you believe!!

Monday kick started with a fantastic welcoming ceremony, with many smiling, curious faces, from both the Malawi and UK students, lots of singing, and even more dancing!

The team were due to put in a half day's work and were so keen they just wanted to keep going to complete the tasks!  This is a fantastic news - the team are clearly hard working and committed to the tasks at hand, which will serve them well in the coming days and weeks, especially under that beautiful warm Malawi sun!

On day two of the project work, some of team went into town to the market, to fetch maize and other food for the team.  They would then take the maize to the maize mill for flour making, to turn into Nsima - a staple food of Malawi eaten with almost every meal...  See here Nsima being cooked on a traditional three stone fire...  

The Educational playground project should be underway today, which will involve a lot of digging in some pretty hard ground!  This playground will be a much needed resource for teachers wishing to take learning out of the classroom and introduce some fun into their lessons.

Here you can see a similar playground that was put in place by volunteers at another Quest school in 2012.  To give you a quick example of a game, the students can divide into two teams.  Each student in turn must find the tyres with the right numbers and math symbols on them (written in chalk earlier), completing the sum called out by the teacher.  If they get it right, they can have a point for their team, and sit on their tyre, making the game harder as it goes on...  A very simple and effective way for children to learn outside the classroom.
Watch this space for further updates as the team get stuck into their first week and look forward to the weekends activities...

Nelson Thomlinson's first team update...

And so it begins...

After months of hard work and preparations, Team Nelson Thom are underway with their project...  After two flights, one shuttle bus and four countries, the team arrived safe and sound into Nkoaranga yesterday afternoon, in time to settle in and get a good night's sleep, ready for an energetic first day on the project site.

The team are now well into day one of the project work at the school site, and are sure to be caked in mud and cement by the time their mid-morning Chapati and Chai break comes along.

Big high fives should go to Nelson Thom teacher Hayley Southwell and Quest4Change Leaders Rose and Chris for ensuring the smooth running of the trip, and of course, to all the other teachers, students and parents involved, both in the UK and in Nkoaranga - Awesome work everyone!

Watch this space in the days ahead, as news of the team's hard work winds its way back to us here in the UK office, along with the odd photo or two...

Until then, tuonane baadaye!