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!

2 schools setting out for Africa this July . . .

Here at Quest4Change, we're really excited to be wishing all the best to two school teams who are heading out this July to work hard on our projects in Africa...

On the 13th, we'll be saying safe travels to 13 students and teachers from Epsom & Ewell High School, flying out to Malawi and Zambia for 4 weeks. The second half of the expedition will involve a challenging trek up Mount Mulanje, before experiencing lakeshore life and heading off on safari in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.




But before all their travels, the team will be living in Kachumbe, a tiny village outside Blantyre, helping to renovate a local feeding centre at Manyowe.  The work will be hard but surrounded constantly by the smiles of the children in the communities, who will take advantage of the group's visit to play plenty of games!

. . .

Also playing games will be the 18-strong team from Nelson Thomlinson School in Cumbria, working with local schools in Nkoaranga village on the foothills of Mount Meru in Tanzania, coaching sports and doing renovation.

For 12 days, the team will be working and playing hard, spending their mornings on renovation of a classroom block and afternoons on sports and other lessons with both the primary and secondary schools in the area. And after all the hard work has finished, the team will also be enjoying safari time in one of the top national parks, Tarangire.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE UPDATES AS THE TEAMS JET OFF...