Live updates from the October 2016 visit to Tanzania

Friday

What a lovely last day we had at Martin Shamba. We arrived to be introduced to about thirty children to teach them some skipping games with a few large ropes. Mrs Winfield demonstrated and the children watched. It was amazing how quickly the children picked it up and had such fun and it turns out they were all fantastic skippers. The children then wanted to play tug of war and once Miss Henderson and Mrs Eggleton got on the girls side it was an easy win!!

We then went over to help with a cooking workshop. We helped peel the potatoes and plantain, prepare the garlic and even scrap the coconut!! It was a wonderful experience and we all chatted and laughed as we worked. The food tasted delicious too!!

The new school kitchen is coming along each day and David is going to send us photos so we can keep up with the progress. All very exciting!!

The Skype was just fantastic. Mr Scarecrow went down a treat and is standing proud in the garden. It was amazing to see you all and share songs together!! A fantastic moment for everyone!!! It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone and all the new friends we have made but it wasn't goodbye, but farewell until next time.

The final journey to Martinshamba

Stanley enjoying his final journey to school. Check out his new outfit :-)

The proud owner of new boots from Charlie Glover

Cooking workshop

We helped to cook our dinner today. Mrs Winfield was peeling very hard bananas, Mrs Selby was peeling garlic and Mrs Eggleton was peeling potatoes. Miss Henderson avoided the cooking 😄

Making coconut milk

Banana stew

Coconut milk being added to banana stew

Girl power.

We joined in to help the girls.

Tug of War

Boys and skipping ropes!

The boys decided to adapt the skipping!

Skipping 2

Skipping

Mrs Winfield showed the children how to skip using the long ropes that we bought over. The children were amazing and within minutes they were skipping so fast!

Farewell

A final verse of Tanzanian and then it's goodbye to our friends at Martinshamba. It's been a fantastic week for us and it was hard to say goodbye to the staff and pupils. Until the next time.
Kweheri

Thursday

We woke up to another beautiful morning and set off with David for school. When we arrived the children were already hard at work in the garden! David took us over to the garden and showed us how the children grew and planted seeds. It was great and we even got to have a go.

After that some of the teachers from Somers park school came to visit Martin Shamba and we proudly showed off Conrad's scarecrow in the school garden. The children loved him and found him very funny. We're sure he will be very happy in his new home.

Today was a special day. It was an uji celebration today and we were shown how the uji is made and the children were all very excited to be having the treat of milk and sugar on their porridge. Today every child in school had Uji for teatime. Last time David visited us we had a special assembly and afterwards Danielle Hardwick's Nanny and Grandad kindly donated some money for us to be able to provide the children with a treat and today was the day!!! The children were utterly delighted so thank you so very much.

We then taught some of the older children how to play the recorder. We're surprised you couldn't hear us in Malvern.

David very proudly showed us a wonderful certificate today that said Martin Shamba had the most improved exam results in Tanga. How fantastic is that??? Brilliant.

Journey to Martinshamba

What is the same?

What do you think is different?

The kitchen has started !

Treat time

Today thanks to Danielle's nan and grandad, all the children had uji with sugar and milk.

Turning down the cooker!

Stirring and adding cold water.

Making Uji

First they added rice and cooking oil to the boiling water.

Uji time

Today's porridge is sweeter than normal.

Teatime

The children collect the food ready for the staff lunch.

Preparing to plant a seedling

David showed the children what they needed to do.

Now it's their turn.

The children get stuck in.

Now it's our turn.

The children collect the manure on the way to school.

Gardening

We had a chance to see the children working in the garden

Planting hedge cuttings in the garden.

Recorder Lesson

Well what fun we had with our young recorder group.

Awards

Our fabulous football team receive their medals.

Wednesday.

Mambo!!

Well it was a very early start this morning as we asked David if we could be part of their school assembly and that starts at 7:30. As we arrived at the school we could hear the fantastic sound of all the children singing "Big Red Combine Harvester" and we thought of you all back at home. The children then sang their school song and the Tanzanian National Athem which was wonderful.

After that we were taken to the Nursery class to watch a maths lesson. The children were busy counting with their straws and bottle tops and we certainly made a new friend or two.

Next we watched David teach a maths lesson on co-ordinates. The children all worked very hard and waited patiently for their turn to use a ruler.

After teatime we ventured off to another school for the great "Tanga Tournament." The children warmed up with some games of crickets, using the cricket set we sent over two years ago. Then began the gripping football tournament that kept us on the edge of our seats. The children did us proud despite the boiling sun.

Looking forward to skyping you later.

Mrs Selby makes a new friend.

The Tanga Tournament

Our team played fantastically in the football strips we sent them two years ago. What a gripping match.

Playtime

Two girls decided to make their own see-saw. We were very impressed.

Cricket

The Tanga Tournament began with cricket. How fantastic to see our cricket sets still being put to good use.

Year One

These children are learning to count. Can you see the bottle tops that they are using to help them?

David teaching standard 6

Coordinates lesson in standard six. Total silence when David was facing the board. Love the one clap when someone does something good.

Heading back to class.

Assembly

Children singing the national anthem.

We head off to school.

Rather a bumpy ride to school today.

Jambo!!

Well it's been another very busy day here in Tanga!! It was an early start and off to school this morning to meet the children. We took all of our resources for "The Hungry Caterpillar" and it was fantastic to see the children enjoying the story and having fun with the beautiful butterfly wings. We had a meeting with some very important people to the school, they were a bit like our school governors. They wanted to say how much they enjoyed being linked with our school and they loved the idea of Tanga time!!!

After our our tea with the staff, we went into town to meet the tailor who is going to make our outfits! He is making dresses for us and a new shirt for Mr Jackson Read and David. We can't wait to see them!!

Keep practising our Mr Scarecrow song as we taught it to the children today and we think they may give you a run for your money!!

trim.20EAE1B8-24BC-49CB-BDB5-9D8AACEE7BB0.MOV

trim.3EDE9C75-0824-4FC2-92B9-CEAC043980F2.MOV

To the tailor

We walked through town to go to the tailor to have our dresses made.

Mr Scarecrow

Standard 4 singing and signing Mr Scarecrow.

BOOM!!

Boom chika boom continued...

Miss Henderson singing 'boom chika boom' with Standard 5

Standard 6 singing a song for you

Do you recognise it ?

Year 4 Letters

Year 5 letters

They loved reading your letters.

More Year 3 and 6 letters

Year 3 and 6 letters

'Asante sana' for your letters. They loved the photos of you and the class.

Children receiving letters

Year 2 letters

The children asked us to read your names to them. The teachers helped the children translate your writing. They loved seeing a photo of you and the class.

The Hungry Caterpillar story

Standard 1 (6 year olds) really enjoyed the story.

Mrs Selby playing a warm up game.

Jina langu Mrs Selby.
Mimi kwenda Great Malvern Primary School.

Mrs Eggleton to the rescue

A young girl spilt her boiling hot uji down her arm. She cried out in pain and Mrs Eggleton wiped away the uji and poured water over the burn.

Dala Dala

The journey home from Tanga was a cheap one. 20p takes you anywhere you want in Tanga City.

Shopping in Tanga for material for our new African outfits

We are heading to the tailors to get measured up in the morning. Shall we get a shirt for Mr Jackson-Read? We think pink is his colour this season :-)

Day 3

What an exciting day. After our breakfast we were collected by David and taken to the Tanga Region Education offices to be met and welcomed to Tanga. After that we were taken to Martin Shamba school to begin our first school day. We visited each class to see the children at work. Their school day starts at 7:30! The children were all very pleased to see us and greeted us with great excitement and lots of noise. We felt like superstars. The teachers made us a delicious lunch of potatoes, yams, plantain and bread which we all ate together. In the afternoon we were treated to a fantastic celebration of singing, dancing and gymnastics. What a talented bunch they are at Martin Shamba. After school we headed into the town to be measured up for our new outfits. Watch this space!!!

Gymnastics

Some of the older boys who have left the school came back to show us some of their wonderful gymnastics.

School Welcome

The children put on a wonderful dance display as part of the welcome assembly.

Science

The children are learning about circuits. In this class there are 106 children so they must wait their turn.

Collecting water.

The bucket took ages to fill because there has been very little rain this year.

Miss Henderson stirs the uji before 'tea time'.

Uji is served to the children at 10.30am every day.

Mrs Eggleton playing with tyres

I think she needs more practise !

Hand washing

Mrs Winfield tests out the hand washer.

Jambo from Nursery Class

They were so excited to see us.

The journey through Tanga City...

Martinshamba's school community.

The Journey!!!

Jambo!!!

We all met at Somers park and excitedly boarded the bus, waving good bye to Malvern for 12 days. The bus took us to the airport where we checked in and got ready for the long journey ahead.

We took off and settled down for the long flight. Miss Henderson was soon asleep and we set off for Tanzania.

After a long journey we finally arrived in Tanzania and were met by David who was pleased to see us and took us to our rooms for the night. This morning we had a very long bus drive to Tanga and David told us all about the exciting things we are going to be doing this week. We can't wait to keep you posted!! Tune in to Tanga time tomorrow.

Journey

7 hour journey from Dar Es Salaam to Tanga.