Day 1 in Tanga!

After visiting the council offices with Mr Hansen, Mrs Cory, Miss Henderson and Mrs Dudman headed out to Martinshamba. The children and the teachers were so pleased to see us arrive in a gold car being driven by David and were keen to show us the changes that are going on in Martinshamba. It looks so smart, with lovely new flower beds and the classrooms were AMAZING! Full of pictures and children's work and displays to help the children learn. Mrs Cory was very excited by the kitchen and is busy planning her week of uji celebration when she will add banana, chicken stock (not at the same time!) and other delights to excite the children's tastebuds. 

We were treated to a fantastic display of singing, dancing, acting and gymnastics with every class wanting to take part. Check out the videos!

Tonight we head to the tailors to design our new outfits and tomorrow we will be teaching the children all about snakes and ladders. 

Day 2 has been a super busy one! Mrs Cory, Miss Henderson and Mrs Dudman have visited all the classes from Standard 1 to Standard 6. We were blown away by the children's knowledge of how to count in English and they helped us improve our Swahili counting. We taught all the children how to play 'Snakes and Ladders' to help with counting and the children did not have any trouble understanding the idea that to land on a snake is bad! We had to be quite resourceful with finding counters to play the game with when the classes have up to 90 children in them! 

You will see from the videos that the kitchen is moving on quickly and should be completed by the end of the week. Mr Mazimbo and Mr Juma took us to harvest okra which we will be cooking on Friday. 

We are looking forward to the skipping workshop and uji with milk, sugar and banana tomorrow!  

Today David stopped off at the supermarket on the way to school  because Mr Hansen and Mr Sewell were coming to visit Martinshamba and he wanted to make sure he had enough drinks and nuts and biscuits for his guests. He wore one of his most colourful shirts and proudly showed off the classrooms, the kitchen, which is nearly complete, and the wonderful children at Martinshamba. He then took us all to help plant out the tomato plants in the garden. Mr Hansen was amazed by the banana trees and how fast they could grow! From a tiny plant to a tall tree with loads of fruit in less than a year! 

The children loved having a banana with their uji today, and Mrs Cory went to join in with snack time with Nursery. 

We we shared the letters with Standard 6 and they were pleased to be able to write back to their 'rafiki' in England. 

We we are looking forward to skipping tomorrow!

Standard 6 were delighted to receive letters from students at Great Malvern.

Can you find your letter in these photos? 

Day 4

Today we were up early and in Martinshamba ready for assembly at 7.30am! The children sang the national anthem and a couple of songs that Great Malvern had taught them. Miss Henderson and Mrs Dudman attempted to teach the children the signs to 'Thank you for our world'. 

Then we took 50 children from Standard 4,5 and 6 to teach them long rope, short rope and French skipping. The children were so enthusiastic and taught us moves we didn't know! The children loved it when Miss Henderson added music to the display we presented at the end of the lesson. 

We we went to Chumbageni Primary School which is partnered with Somer's Park Primary School. We watched the cricket and rugby tournament and Martinshamba girls did really well! 

We we are looking forward to the cooking workshop tomorrow. 

Tanga day 5

So we went into school today for our last day in Martinshamba feeling happy with the amazing time we had had, and sad that it was our last day with the teachers and children. 

The children sang to us to say thank you, and we expressed our appreciation for the warm welcome they had given us. Each year more children remember our visit from the year before and it is lovely to see the relationship between the two schools growing. 

We we all took part in the cooking workshop; just what it is possible to produce on open fires is incredible but it took such a long time and a lot of willing hands to prepare the food - no vegetable peelers, no blenders, no chopping boards, electric cookers or the other gadgets, just a few sharp knives, bowls and metal cooking containers. 

Mrs Cory, Mrs Dudman and Miss Henderson all realised their skills need work! The girls from Standard 6 were brilliant and with all the teachers we got it all done, along with lots of laughs and enjoying spending time together. 

The food was delicious and we ate Tanzanian style with our fingers. Then the teachers passed us gifts they had for us and we shared our gifts with them. The agreement was universal that the link between the two schools gets stronger and stronger and we felt sad to be leaving but looking forward to meeting up in June.