Can you play cricket on the equator (...and other extra curricular activities)

It has been a delight to be back at Upendo this September, and great fun to have been able to bring some fantastic friends from home for their first visit.

We've had a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time on this trip, but there has still been time for important extra curricular activities!

A dala dala journey into Mwanza for some swimming lessons

As with any group of children who are rapidly growing up (!) the need to find entertainment outside of school that is sustaining and enjoyable is really important.

Art, additional classes and especially sports have always been important pass-times in this respect.

When we started Upendo only two of the kids could swim, but over the past 8 years we have consistently worked on water skills and safety with all of them, and swimming lessons always prove an enjoyable, if exhausting afternoon out in Mwanza.

Glad to say the kids didn't spent the whole afternoon sat on the side of the pool!

Swimming lessons over the years have always been an important project. A knowledge of the water is something many of us take for granted in the UK, but it's just not taught to children in Tanzania, and it means the kids take to water with differing levels of enthusiasm.

Nonetheless water-skills over the years have come far easier easier than cricketing ones!

Hammering stumps into ground baked by an equatorial sun (or attempting to)

But we got there...!

Still...Eddy decided to sit it out

The Roof of Africa is really, really high

This September I was delighted to return to Tanzania, with my eye's set on a long-intended challenge - climbing Kilimanjaro, and raising some money for Upendo in the process.

I was additionally excited about the prospect of being accompanied by three of my best friends, who had never before visited Upendo, or seen the incredible sites of Tanzania, and of the prospect of introducing them to the kids and showing them around.

The entire trip was fantastic, and we raised around £750 for Upendo, which has been a hugely helpful contribution to boarding fees. It's hard to find words (or phrases for that matter) to do justice to describing the Kilimanjaro climb, but 'incredible, exhausting, unimaginably-cold, hard, awe-inspiring and sometimes enjoyable' are a few.

Climbing for most of the first day is through lush rainforest. It's warm and there's monkeys - but it doesn't last!

Camp on the first evening is at 3000m, at the limit of the rainforest - and the summit looms into view for the first time. It looks close but it's 4 days climb yet.

Day 2 was a steep 800m that took us high above the forest

And soon above the clouds too

Sunset brought the first real taste of Kili's chill

The summit peaks out above the clouds at the end of the third day. The glaciers look (and feel!) a lot closer

The next day starts with a steep climb in biting cold. It never warmed up again this side of the summit!

I wouldn't have sat there

A last look at the summit before starting the final ascent. No more photos till the top...The climb was far too hard and my hands were far too cold to take anymore!!!

At the top

The ice cliffs (which are rapidly retreating)

Roads only go as high at 1800m on Kili, so any injuries need to be evacuated on one of these. It took us two solid days to get back down from the summit, so I imagine it would be a pretty uncomfortably journey down!

Back down and celebrating! It took a team of 16: two guides and 14 porters to get us and our equipment to the top and back!

The times (tables) are a changing..

When returning to my home village of Wrington (Somerset, UK), I might discover a couple of things have changed, a new bus stop perhaps or a different shade of cream on a house in Broad Street. That's fine by me, I like Wrington the way it is. I thought I liked Buswelu the way it was; sleepy, peaceful, on the fringe of the gorgeous Tanzanian countryside. Two and a half years later the changes are everywhere. New houses where formerly little plots of farm land sat, more shops and stalls selling a plethora of fruits and veg for reasonable prices (I'm still having nightmares about regularly paying £1.09 for an avocado in Sainsbury's) and cars and motorbikes roaming the vastly improved dirt roads. This is economic growth in action, but you're not here for a discussion on trickle-down economics.

The place has changed and continues to do so, for better or worse. The locals have retained their infectious, affable nature. Some things never do change, especially the continued cries of "Good morning Madam", cue my frustrated reply of "It's 4 in the afternoon and do I look like a Madam!?". The children of the Upendo family are as loveable as ever and they are growing up fast. The boys are becoming men, the girls turning into divas, although perhaps that's just Edina and maybe she's always been a diva...the important thing is that 2 years since I was last here they remain happy, healthy and looked after.

Whilst Upendo and its mission is adapting to the needs of the community (I'll leave the bosses to fill you in on the details in due course), it has been more than satisfying to know the kids are doing well and as charming as ever. It will be at least a couple of years before I have the pleasure of returning to this beautiful place, they'll be more changes no doubt, but I'll take solace in knowing that some things will never change.

An Overdue Update

It is about time that we gave you an update on developments with Upendo over recent months. We can only apologise for lack of communication prior to this, Upendo has been going through a period of significant change which has often made it difficult to know just what to communicate. We thank you for your continued, generous support. Without it, including the kind words of encouragement from those following us, we would not have been able to continue with the work we are doing in Tanzania.

Since the children were able to return to their families and relatives, the role of Upendo in their lives has evolved considerably. Our primary focus, of course, remains one of supporting the children’s continued development and we continue to facilitate access to the best possible medical care and education in just the same way as we always have. However, in terms of day-to-day care provision, the reunions have necessitated an entirely new focus on a model of care and support more removed from everyday care, which supports as far as possible the family unity as a whole, rather than our individual children. This is a model about which we are still learning a considerable amount, though rest assured that all of the children continue to live happily with their families, are as healthy as ever, and (as recent test results show) are going from strength to strength at Eden Valley School. Upendo’s main man and woman on the ground, Eric and Devotha, are spending time with the Kids, who regularly come over to the Upendo Volunteer House for extra tuition and games, and are working to provide support to the Upendo families, ensuring that all is well. They continue to act as an essential channel of communication between the Upendo team in the UK and our families out in Buswelu. No doubt you will be pleased to know that both have been making use of their time to continue with training. Devotha is furthering her computer skills and studying for additional qualifications, whilst Eric is preparing to begin English lessons (thanks in no small part to volunteer Catherine, who after working with Upendo at the start of this year is now supporting Eric).

As an organisation, we need to make use of this period of change to plan in more depth Upendo’s future direction; re-evaluating what we have achieved so far and deciding how best to apply our resources to ensure that we create the greatest possible benefit for those we are seeking to help. It is fair to say that Upendo has matured considerably as an organisation over the past 12 months, as we have sought to try-out and establish new models of family-based care. And we have become increasingly aware that there remains work to do in order to develop a working model which allows Upendo to continue developing in Tanzania with a gradually increasing role for the Buswelu community alongside a reducing level of interference in day to day running from the team in the UK.

We still have a lot to learn about the best way of working alongside families in providing care and support to the Upendo kids and we recognise the importance of not allowing ourselves to be rushed through this process. For the time being, we are comfortable that the children are as content as ever, healthy, and flourishing in school. Your support has made this possible and we thank you again for this- it is helping to ensure that the children and their families have stable lives that will ensure that they have choices in their own futures.

Best wishes,

Carly, James and Matt

How 'site' became home..

Chris volunteered with Upendo from January-April 2013, here is what he had to say about his time with us...

My memories of seeing site for the first time 3 months ago seem very blurry. It's hardly surprising, the place couldn't have been much more different from January to now. It was a building site, hundreds, if not thousands of hours of work had already gone into the planning and construction, but when I saw it I remember thinking '**** we have to make this into a home in the next couple of months'. It seemed like an impossible task and one I didn't feel up to. But some stronger souls than me got to work. Ceiling panels went up, walls got painted, showers and toilets got tiled, tile cutters got stolen, more bathrooms got tiled, earth got moved, beds got made, and finally on March 4th the children moved in. It felt like a momentous occasion, and it was. Maria did the honour of cutting the ribbon and a new era for Upendo Children's Home was upon us. To see the smiles on the kids faces on that first day as they stepped into their bedrooms and saw their own beds in their own home was nothing short of magical. Mussa and Masalu jumped straight up to the top bunks to claim their territory. People were running in all directions and shouts of joy were ringing out. The move had finally happened.

Along with 5 kids, Prisca, Joyce and Devota (our trio of Mamas) moved in and set to work. When we arrived the next day they were washing the floors and moving things around as though we hadn't been doing that exact thing 24 hours earlier. Our efforts were clearly not satisfactory enough for their liking. They kept on asking, 'Can we do this?', 'Can we move that?', my response was always 'You live here, you can do whatever you like!'

The last couple of weeks have been demanding and a whole set of new problems have arisen for Upendo to tackle. But overriding all of the challenges is the happiness of the kids. When I turned up last Saturday morning I knew all the hard work of Carly, James and Matthew and the volunteers before me was worth it. The girls were sat outside reading with Devota, Prisca was working away in the kitchen, Joyce was hanging clothes on the line, the two puppies jumped up at me wanting their daily milk delivery, and the boys were playing football with the girls who live opposite, with Eduardi screaming at me that Arsenal were beating Manchester United. I couldn't suppress the massive smile on my face. 'Site' has truly become a 'Home'.

And I said: What about, breakfast at Latifa's?

Here is the second of Andrew's Michael Winner tribute pieces... Enjoy. Perhaps the most startlingly obvious example of David Cameron’s “Broken Britain” is the immense social problem of eating out for breakfast. Only two types of people seem to be able to do this on a regular basis; the first can be found enjoying Eggs Benedict in The Ritz, and the second a Sausage and Egg McMuffin, and the third may found eating alternative food in an alternative place, where they arrived on an alternative bike with no gears and wearing so much tweed that they look like the lovechild of Chris Hoy and the editor of Fox and Hound magazine.

Mama Latifa’s cafe in Buswelu Centre falls into none of these categories, and I decided to test this radical social experiment one fine morning. I ordered the Black Pudding and Applewood smoked bacon, and Geraldine asked for the same. Unfortunately there was a problem with their supplier (chap called Mohammed I think), so I settled for the Chapattis and Beans with a side of Chilli and sat back to take in the decoration on the wall, which consisted of a poster for an extremely overcrowded Saudi holiday resort. I asked the waitress if she had ever been, and ordered a Mocha with Baileys. “Mecca?” she replied... “No, MOCHA” I said, speaking clearly. Again there seemed to be a problem with this chap Mohammed, and I had to settle for a Chai Rangi (tea with no milk).

The Chapattis were brought by the head-waitress (Latifa, aged 3). When they arrived were bursting with flavour, and although I would have traded it for something stronger, the Chai was undoubtedly the best in Buswelu. Over breakfast, we were engaged in conversation by Innocent, a charming Tanzanian man who was fascinated by what we were doing in Buswelu. When I told him we were here volunteering at a Children's home, he wanted to know more about the charity: “How is it possible”, he asked, “to run a project like that without the guidance of God's messengers?” “Upendo”, I replied, “Is a non-Prophet organisation...”

Finally, the time came to leave, and I asked for the bill. The waitress told me it had already been paid, “What is the explanation of this?” I enquired. “It's Innocent”, she replied... “I'm sure it is, but who paid the bill?” I never got to the bottom of this mystery, but satisfied with the morning's feed, I thanked Mama Latifa and went in search of a brandy.

From Andrew Phillips-Tile and Error: Grout Expectations

 

As the saying goes: Pay a man to tile your 12 toilets and showers, and you might get a half decent job done, but tile them yourself, and you’ll either become an expert or Upendo’s greatest cock-up since Chris bought return flights to Tasmania. Many of you will already have dismissed tiling as easy, and attributed any difficulty on my part to the fact that I’m undoubtedly a well meaning but hapless skinny jeans wearing excuse for a man. But like many things (with the notable exceptions of buying guns, contracting malaria, and beating rabid dogs), tiling is generally an easier affair in Britain than it is in Tanzania.

For a start: walls in Britain tend to be flat. I had never fully appreciated the significance of this fact until I set the first of 1,400 tiles onto a wall that looked like it had been plastered by Salvador Dali. Secondly, as any reluctant modern handyman will tell you: Youtube is the first line of defence in 21st century DIY. Some readers will be surprised to discover that the website which has wasted more man-hours than Anne Robinson’s surgeon can be used for anything other than watching dogs drive, cats play pianos and chubby Korean men ride imaginary horses, but it would usually be my first port of call before attempting anything which cannot be solved by BluTak alone. Here however, Youtube is no more an option than applying to Changing Rooms, and even if I had the spare 8 hours required to load a 3 minute video, the chances of the power remaining on during that time are about as likely as Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen not being arrested for homosexuality as soon as he landed.

Eventually, when I thought the battle almost won, I began to tile the floors – only to discover the difficulty of tiling a Rhomboid room with tiles that somebody (evidently with no imagination) created in some kind of shape with four right angles and sides of equal length. Absurd.

Last, but by no means least is the difficulty of dealing with a Tanzanian tradesman who's legacy to plumbing makes Lance Armstrong's to cycling look healthy. After laying the pipework in the showers, he cemented over them with an almost Himalayan zeal, in the process overtaking John Wayne as the world's biggest cowboy.

Add to all of this the presence of Betty and Gladys, two young local girls who see tiling as as much of a spectator sport as premiership football. Unfortunately I don't tile best under pressure, and although I don't mind the odd smattering of applause; a Mexican wave seems too far.

Hope you have enjoyed this, if not I will be mortar-fied...

Token girls' (semi-) serious update!

So I was going to do a blog about how great it was to have arrived back Upendo... However, I’ve procrastinated so much that I’m actually leaving in 3 days, so it’s now more of a general summary of my 3rd visit! Obviously I loved seeing all the kids again and they seemed excited too. Well, apart from Edina who ignored me for at least 2 hours before acknowledging my existence. It’s all part of her charm, I suppose! It’s also great to see that their English has significantly improved again. Although they have developed the ability of using sarcasm now - not sure how I feel about that! Joice and Ema both seem very settled now that they are living back with their families. Fortunately they are still very much involved with Upendo though.

We’re making very good progress at site. I’m clearly not capable of the hardcore manual labour, so Kat and I have been allocated the role of interior designers. Despite Eric finding the mere suggestion that I could be trusted to paint absolutely hilarious, I'm actually quite proud of our artistic masterpiece!

Chris and I have also been helping out at Under Umbrella City, which is Joshua’s primary school. After a somewhat rocky start, we are actually being very productive and hopefully making a positive contribution to their school. For entertainment purposes, I will just clarify that by ‘rocky start’ I mean that I was left alone, completely unprepared, to teach a class of about 50 4 year olds that couldn’t speak a word of English. To make it even more agonizing, it was only their second day of school ever, so half of them were crying. The other half nearly joined in when I mistakenly picked up the cane thinking it was a prop that I could use to point to numbers on the wall! As a result, we have decided that it would be more beneficial to teach the older children who can speak some basic English! We have also been helping the teachers develop their English and giving them some advice on teaching techniques. Needless to say, alternatives to the cane have been suggested and were actually quite well received. I actually have a lot of respect for the Headmistress there. She has a very difficult job and unfortunately her dreams for the school exceed her budget. I also like her because she shows her appreciation by giving me a random meal like boiled eggs, biscuits and cold, black and sugarless coffee!

I’m all wali maharage and konyagi’d out for now, but a 4th visit to Upendo is definitely on the cards!

When the alarm clock rings at upendo

21st Century Man - Chris Dunning

Leaving for a foreign land brings the thrill of the unexpected, and I could never have predicted the routine I would fall so seamlessly into at Upendo Children’s Home. Let me begin with Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays: After some toast with Marmite and a sturdy brew I head to the site of the new home, I feel like a true manly man reconnecting with my working class roots (two generations removed). The work that has been done on the new home is incredible but there’s still plenty to do, and I slip into my guise as builder/landscape gardener/earth mover extraordinaire and get down to work. Occasionally Ipod shuffle busts out some Aretha Franklin or Supremes and like any good labourer I start wagging my finger and demanding some R-E-S-P-E-C-T, but this is only temporary and before I know it I am loading the wheelbarrow and hoping all my manual labour is at the very least improving the size of my biceps. By the end of the day I find my body and face covered in dirt, and my hands in blisters: I know a hard day’s work has been done.

Wednesdays and Fridays tend to start somewhere closer to my comfort zone with English lessons for the Tanzanian workers at Upendo: Erici, Priska and Joyce. We get down to business with some two-way language and cultural exchange; perhaps the biggest surprise to Erici is the existence of Wali Mayai, or Egg Fried Rice as we know it. Now, in Tanzania you’ll find a shack on every corner selling a Chipsi Mayai (Chips Omelette): mixing chips and eggs is acceptable and rightly so - it’s delicious. But mix rice and eggs and WOAH, hold onto your goat, you’ve just blown someone’s mind.

After English lessons I head to Under Umbrella, a local school for 4-7 year olds. I didn’t quite know what I had signed up for but it certainly wasn’t comforting a dozen or so wailing children on their first ever day of school. My days as a labourer seemed a million miles away and I yearned for the toil and graft of the site. Now into their third week at school, the crying has stopped and the staples of Simon Says, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes are usually only briefly interrupted by a chicken wandering into the classroom. ‘This Is Africa’ I remind myself...

In memoriam of the late great Michael Winner, Andrew has been commissioned to fill the void left by the nation’s greatest restaurant critic in the style of ‘’Winner’s dinners”. Food on the Hoof - Maritina’s Cafe

As a child, the Goat had always been my second favourite animal. Back home in Yorkshire however, my appreciation had extended no further than their excellent dairy products, and commendable ability to eat everything within sight.  Today however, I was looking forward to turning the tables on this tenacious eating machine, and Maritina’s Cafe at Buswelu Corner seemed like the place to go.

James was first through the door, and almost immediately exclaimed ‘Duck!’, years of training at the hands of Yorkshire’s many “Duck or Grouse” signs saw me hit the floor. Finding myself staring at a pair of webbed feet however, I realised there had been a fowl-up. With some confusion, our feathered friend greeted us and showed us to our seats. I decided a joke might help break the ice (Q. How do you turn a duck into a soul singer? A. Put it in the oven till its Bill Withers...), but I’d picked my audience poorly and he waddled off to a box in the corner from which some singularly hostile stares were broadcast. Apparently the phrase “customer is king” has not yet reached Buswelu.

The Sous-Chef came to take our order, and I plumped for the ‘Wali Mbuzi’ (Rice and Goat), and Geraldine ordered the same. The speed of service was excellent, and it was not long before I found myself face to face with a steaming bowl of goat (No really, I think there might have been some face in there). A tedious fad with which all those familiar with Masterchef will be aware of is the “deconstructed” dish (for example: a deconstructed Lemon Meringue Pie might consist of a Lemon and a pile of sugar). This dish suffered from the opposite problem; the goat was not deconstructed enough – to the point that I found a fully working knee joint submerged in the murky depths of my bowl. Nevertheless the overall effect was good, and the unhusked rice complimented the copious amounts of cartilage well.

I left satisfied, but unable to shake a slight feeling of cannibalistic guilt as I digested my fellow beard-wearer.

*EDITOR’S NOTE: Please insert your own Goat/Nanny/Kid/Africa puns, as several had to be censored from this piece.*

Update - Start of 2013

Hi, This is the second attempt at a blog after the internet failed on me last time so I hope the surprisingly long time it takes for me to type a few paragraphs is not in vein.

Chris, Mel, Andrew and I have been here for just over two weeks now, whilst Kat has been here just over one, so quite a lot has happened. The kids have gone back to school so have restarted afterschool tuition, whilst work on the building has increased in preparation for the children moving in.

The kids are healthy and happy, with their English improving every time we come back. With this in mind, and as a method of further improvement, they have become our Kiswahili tutors, as unfortunately our ability at speaking it has not progressed at the same rate as their English, often to their annoyance and/or amusement. As well as this we have a few different group projects planned that will include standing up and presenting work to a group of people, a slight change from the standard dictation that the kids get in school. The results of said projects may be made available if the children are happy enough with their work, although to be fair they probably won’t care that much as long as we take pictures.

As we do not start teaching until 4.30, we have plenty of time to get work done on the building or on other endeavours. Chris and Mel are both teaching at a pre-school called ‘under-umbrella’ for two days a week, the experiences from which will be put into a blog post soon as such a placement becomes a more common thing for our volunteers to do after Tanya first went there in October.

At site we have set out a rough schedule for the next 2-3 months, with us aiming to move into the building halfway through February. At the moment we are well on track, with painting and land clearance being done by our day labourers (the volunteers) and the ceiling boards being done by the same carpenters we have worked with throughout construction. In the next few days we shall start trying to tile the toilets and bathrooms ourselves, with the fence hopefully going up in the next few weeks, depending on whether negotiations with contractors go considerably better than they did last time. I do not speak much Swahili but I do know enough to realise when we are getting done over for a concrete fence post.

Aside from working at site and with the kids, we have been settling into a new volunteer house in a new part of the village, part of which has involved a competition to see who can find out the most names and general information about people. I’m winning but I do have the advantage of knowing how to ask someone’s name and having been here numerous times before. The house itself is great, despite the water problems that seem to plague us wherever we go. The girls shower is working though and we’re happy to wash out of buckets.

We’ll hopefully be providing regular updates on our progress as we move closer to moving in to the new building, with other posts coming from myself and the volunteers as we try and focus our interests and engage with some of the issues involved with working here, as well as some of the wider positives and negatives surrounding Tanzania and the continent as a whole. By doing so we hope to promote further interest in African culture, society and development, perhaps even discussion, whilst showing that the charity work in Africa is not as simple as Westerners helping those in need.

And on that inspiring note, I’m going to go outside into the 35 degree heat to work on my flip flop tan/dirt line.

Cheers,

James x

My experience with Upendo was incredible!!

Volunteering for Upendo Children’s Home is by far the best thing I have ever done. It was a privilege to become part of such a special family. As a lone, female, first-time traveller I was initially quite nervous about volunteering. If anyone else is in the same boat, don’t be put off and miss out on a fantastic opportunity. The Upendo staff were happy to discuss any concerns, no matter how trivial, and ensured I felt happy and prepared before I left. I was met at the airport by Carly and really quickly settled in and felt at home. While in Tanzania I always felt safe. Upendo is situated in a small/un-touristy village where you are never far from a friendly face. As it was term time while I was with Upendo I spent the days volunteering at the nursery and primary school and then taught the kids after school. It was great to see how the kids progressed over the two months, particularly in English. The weekends were spent at VETA, the local college, playing football, frisbee, rounders and other games with the Upendo children and loads of kids from the village. I spent half my time living at Baba’s house as the volunteer house needed a new roof. I therefore became really close to all of the Upendo family and developed an even greater appreciation of all the hard work Prisca and Joicy do. These girls just don’t stop cooking and cleaning! My experience with Upendo was incredible and one I would recommend to anyone, I hope to return again.

Tanya Compton September-October 2012

An emotional farewell to our little Joicey

One of the main objectives of Upendo Children’s Home, in a nutshell, is to reunify ‘orphaned or abandoned’ children with relatives who are able to care and provide for them. Throughout my time working with different Tanzanian orphanages, I have learned that many of the children living in these institutions may have lost a parent or even both, but a number will have some family members who, given the choice, will look after them. Following the obvious logistical problems of tracking down relatives in a country where record keeping is poor to non-existent, the difficulty, I think, lies in deciding where the child will have a better quality of life. I believe that where possible, children should be brought up as part of a safe and stable family unit. They should have access to health care, food, shelter and education; this is their right. But in Tanzanian reality, this is rarely the case. Whilst families may love their children very much, they are all too often unable to provide for them. So, the grey area between where orphaned or abandoned children should be brought up is a constant bone of contention for me. If reuniting children with family members is an option, who am I to judge their capacity to love and cherish the child? How can I know if this will be a stable environment or whether they will be sent out to work, or worse, abused, neglected, abandoned again? With a Social Welfare system overloaded with social inequities and moral dilemmas, who should decide where these children belong? Who should have responsibility for ensuring their human rights are upheld and they are not left to fend for themselves? Can I, sitting writing from my laptop in a small coffee shop in West London make this decision? The answer to that is no. I cannot. But what I can do is continue to advocate for these children, giving these children a platform and a voice, and that we at Upendo continue to work with this community to provide a home to children who are most at need. Whilst for a number of reasons I always knew it would be difficult to initiate this objective, after three and half years of Upendo Children’s Home, I am now experiencing the issue first hand. One of the first children to join Upendo, Joice (‘Joicey’) has been not only reunited with family, but with her parents!! Joice came to Upendo when we were informed that her father was imprisoned and her mother had abandoned her; she was just five years old. Three years later, they are now reunited and living near to Upendo. After a difficult initial transition for all, we are now pleased to say that Joice is back to her mischievous, bubbly self! And Upendo is still playing an active outreach role in her life. Her parents do not have much; they cannot afford for Joice to attend school as they struggle to find money for food and clothes on their backs. Thanks to sponsorship from Wedmore Primary School in Somerset, UK, Joice still attends school with the rest of the Upendo children and still joins them regularly for play and after school classes at the children’s home. Joice is so very missed by all at Upendo; it has been an absolute joy spending time with her, seeing her confident personality grow and sharing so many happy memories together. All who have met her will know what a bright and intuitive person she has grown into. Her boundless energy levels could rival all the boys in goal when playing football and could single-handedly prepare a meal for the whole family! She is a brave, beautiful and very smart little girl and I hope that you can all join us in wishing her the best in living with her family.

Although she is not living with Upendo Children’s Home, we are still in close contact with her and her family.

You will always be a part of the Upendo Family little Joicey.

Sister Carly xx

Waterworks and the Old Upendo Place

Hello everyone. I hope this finds you all well! I have been with the kids now for 7 weeks; time is flying and I've got to know them and their personalities really well.

They're all doing very well at school and from our lessons its been great to see them progress and really understand and improve ready for their exams, the first of which is on Monday!

The site is looking more impressive all the time with all the plumbing now in place. There is only the small problem of connecting of our plumbing to the local water system stopping Upendo Childrens Home from having working taps and showers! This little job is planned for Monday so not too long!

The volunteer house is a sad sight at the moment and all who have stayed there before would be shocked by its current bare walls and roofless state! Me and Tanya are currently living at Babas and sharing beds with the kids which is great when Masalu isn't kicking me in the head in his sleep.

That said, living with the kids is great as it means they're talking in English all the time and reading every night instead of watching TV!

Prisca and Joice are working as incredibly hard as usual with two more mouths to feed and Baby Carlin is starting to talk which is a fantastic mix of Swahili and English.

Eric and Prisca's English lessons are making good progress and they've really come on in the past few weeks especially as Swahili has been banned around them by all parties!

Anyway, Tanya and I are having an amazing time and we will keep you all updated with the progressions at site!!

Love Chris

Fundraising

Everything that takes place in Tanzania couldn’t happen without the work of our committee and volunteers here in the UK, so I will take this opportunity to tell you a little more about the work we do up in the Northern hemisphere, and of course, to say a massive thank you to everybody whose hard work enables Upendo to continue to thrive. The Upendo committee meets once a week at the University of Manchester. The meetings are a good opportunity to get together and make sure that everybody is up-to-date with developments in Tanzania and the UK. We usually plan our upcoming fundraising events, awareness-raising activities and plan the schedule for the summer volunteer programme.

Fundraising itself can be very broadly broken down into events, donations and sponsorship. Events take the most amount of organising on the part of the committee, but they also have the potential benefit of attracting new support and being quite a lot of fun! Over the past few months we have held bake sales, club nights, raffles and most recently a charity fashion show.

Months of effort went into organising the fashion show. A venue had to be arranged, other charities co-ordinated, sound, costumes, lighting, tickets and publicity organised, but it really did grow into a fantastic night. Essie and Kate put together an evening which raised a significant amount of money, not just for Upendo but for other local charities - Sexpression, Stop AIDS, Read International, Engineers Without Borders and Medicines Sans Frontiers all took part in a show which saw models wearing amazing outfits ranging from Burlesque to Bollywood… through to Alice in Wonderland! However (and I may concede to a slight bias here), the Upendo models stole the show as they paraded down the catwalk to the Circle of Life and other Elton John classics; rounding off the evening with a Lion King extravaganza.

Considering the close geographical relationship between Upendo and the Serengeti (it is only a couple of hours drive), the Lion King was a natural choice for an Upendo theme. But despite the close proximity, it is probably fair to say our costumes took much more influence from the West-End adaption of Disney’s classic than they did from the wonders of the Great Plains. Nonetheless, I’m sure all those who witnessed the show would agree that the combination of Tanzanian kangas, body paint and glitter ensured that from the flamingos to the giraffes, Upendo’s models looked stunning.

(I wasn’t entirely sure about one of the elephants personally, but it wouldn’t be as much fun if everything was perfect would it?)

The night and its planning was definitely a mixture of emotions in varying intensity, peaking at the nervous excitement immediately before the curtains opened. But with ticket sales running into the hundreds there is no question that the night was a great success for all the charities involved. Although we have said it a dozen times already, we really must thank Vicki, Sarah, Kate and Essie for their fantastic effort in organising such a great event and not-forgetting all the models (even that elephant) for the time, effort and courage they gave on the night!

On top of the events organised by members of the Upendo committee, Upendo could not function without the sheer generosity of individual sponsors and organisations who hold fundraisers in aid of our projects. We thanked Emmaus Mossley in our last blog for their donation which built our roof, but we must now send HUGE thanks to Brenda Townsend (Nanny Townsend to Carly) who has been a massive supporter of Upendo and without her help we would not have reached the construction milestones that we have so far. So Asante BiBi!!

Tomorrow, we are excited to be visiting L’ecole Bilingue as this year’s beneficiary of their annual Charity Sports Day. The event has been a huge success in the past, with all of the school's pupils enjoying participating and it promises to be a fun day for all involved. We will keep you updated on how the event goes and hopefully will post some pictures!

So watch this space,

Best wishes from the Upendo Team

Raising the Roof!

Hi everyone, As always, we hope that you are all well! I’m sure many of you would appreciate a much-needed update!

Well probably the biggest news over the last few months has been the successful construction of Upendo’s roof!! Our thanks go out once again to Emmaus Mossley for their amazing help with this. Emmaus provided us with a sizeable donation for construction, which covered the entire cost of materials and labour, and they offered guidance and reassurance when it was needed last summer- Emmaus, thank-you once again!

As most of you are probably aware, the roof was a long-time coming. We initially scheduled to begin construction way back in August, but after careful consideration and a frustrating experience with the local planning department in Mwanza, it was decided to delay until our registration in Tanzania was fully complete… We just didn’t expect that to take us until January! Registration with the authorities in Tanzania had to take place in Dar-es-Salaam. Unfortunately Dar is twenty hours by road from Mwanza, which makes movement of the relevant registration documents an irritatingly drawn-out process.

Nevertheless, patience (we can assure you) is a virtue, and with registration finally complete, Carly, James and I returned for a fleeting visit to Buswelu at the end of January this year. After four months away from Buswelu it was fantastic to see all the Upendo family again, and although the visit was too short in duration for our liking, it certainly did not fall short in productivity! Between overseeing construction of the roof and playing badminton with the kids, the daily 3 hour round-trips to the bank in Mwanza were, well… tiring.

We were more than spurred on by the progress with construction however, and we still found time to take the kids swimming (just!) Their confidence in the water by the way, has improved impressively since our first swimming lessons back in summer 2010, which is great to see.

Construction of the roof was wonderful after having waited for so long, but it was also logistically challenging: In all, it required 260 sheets of corrugated iron, 1.34km of timber, sixty litres of timber treatment, and almost 120kg of nails! Transport ranged from motorcycles and trucks (which are always exciting in my view), to strapping iron sheeting onto wheelbarrows and just pushing it from the market to the building site (which I have to say rarely is.…especially when the return journey is 4 miles over bumpy ground and needs to be made three times!) It’s always good to get your hands dirty for a change though and we made the trip to site everyday to watch as the roof’s skeleton grew (thankfully, usually on a motorbike!)

The roof's completion has also enabled us at last, to connect our brand-new rain-water harvester to our water-storage tank. The roof should be able to collect easily enough water to keep the tank topped-up through the dry season. And with only the windows/doors and fitting out to go before the kids can move into their new home, I think its time to prepare for the next project in our self-sustainable children’s home… Cue engineers and your solar power plans (if any of you happen to be reading this!)

Best wishes,

Matt and all the Upendo team :)

Summer 2011 Summary

Hi everybody. I hope that you are all well! As our tired volunteers hang up their flip-flops, hammers and football boots and prepare to head back to the good old British weather, our second successful summer volunteer programme is winding down. So it is time for our final blog entry this summer, where we will take you through the highs and lows (but mainly highs!!) of the Upendo project over the last four months:

We have had a plethora of projects for volunteers to get stuck into this summer, ranging from construction (of water storage and filtration tanks, chicken coops and kitchens), to those aimed at working with the wider community (Upendo’s Community Sports Programme), and education based projects such as teaching of the kids and training of the staff. So I’m sure you will all be pleased to know that our volunteers have been kept very busy!

Unfortunately it has not been possible to implement one of the most eagerly anticipated of the projects planned for this summer; the construction of Upendo’s roof. Delays caused by Tanzanian red-tape and the very slow process of registration as an NGO over here have held up progress much more than was anticipated. Slowly but surely we are getting there, and we would like to thank Emmaus Mossley for their continued patience and support on the matter. Do watch this space for any developments.

Frustrating though the delays with the roof are, they have certainly not overshadowed the rest of the summer’s events:

A team of engineers from Manchester University have worked their magic in the creation of a functioning (if not entirely aesthetically pleasing) water filtration and storage tank, which will be filled from water collected by gutters surrounding Upendo’s soon-to-be constructed roof. The tank has a capacity of 13,000 litres, which will more than see the children’s home through the dry season (especially if this year’s exceptionally moist example is anything to go by!). Water will be taken from the storage tank when required and disinfected using the Solar Disinfection (SODIS) method endorsed by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the Red Cross. [For more information see this site]. Thanks to the work of Sam, Marsh and Tom, a clean, reliable and cost-effective source of water has been ensured for Upendo. Thank-you very much engineers!

At the beginning of August, work began on Upendo’s brand new and state-of-the-art chicken coop! Chicken farming is a means of development endorsed by Oxfam for its ease of implementation and relatively small demand on space, manpower and know-how. Hopefully it should prove a success for Upendo also, providing the Upendo kids with a good supply of eggs to supplement their diets. Any extras (and hopefully there will be plenty) will be sold in Upendo’s duka, thus ensuring a steady and sustainable source of locally generated income!

On the 1st September ‘Upendo Chicken’s Home’ officially opened its doors to fifteen hens and two cockerels. An amusing afternoon was spent vaccinating all of our birds… Hopefully we will not have to wait too long for our first batch of eggs… (or chicks for that matter).The kid’s return to school marked the end of two summer projects for this year, namely summer-school and the community sports programme. Our thanks go out to Michael and Hannah for their hard work on the sports programme. Community sports took place for two hours on a Tuesday and Thursday evening and we were really impressed with the enthusiasm shown by both our volunteers and the Buswelu community. There was a fantastic turn-out to most of the events from both our Upendo children and other local kids. Thanks to the work of Michael and Hannah we have hopefully set the ball rolling on long-lasting community involvement with Upendo.

We must also thank the Buswelu campus of VETA (Tanzanian Vocational, Education and Training Authority) for their support and use of their playing field. Hopefully the enthusiasm of certain members of VETA will ensure the continuation of community sports in the absence of UK volunteers! We will keep you updated with any developments on this, but the prospect of having a potential source of willing local volunteers is more than encouraging and a mark of the success of the well organised sports programme.

Teaching took place throughout the children’s summer holidays, with particular attention being given to English, Maths and Science. All of the children made good progress over the summer, particularly in English. We never cease to be surprised by some of the gems of English language spoken by the kids, although the over-use of the word ‘for’ is perhaps something we will need to work on for next summer. In the meantime “I am for eat mango” will suffice!

Outside of the main volunteer programme, members of the Upendo team have been conducting research on the family situations of the kids in our care, and where appropriate and possible, conducting re-unions between our children and their remaining family. Visits have been made to three of the home villages of our kids and re-unions for 24 hours have taken place for Mussa and Masalu with their mother and siblings, and Emanueli and Edwardi with their Grandmother and siblings.

And in other news, we need to welcome Upendo’s newest member of staff! Aged twenty-two, Eric is far from being a kid, but in many ways he is the oldest of the Upendo orphans, having been taken in by Baba J more than five years ago. It is difficult to imagine Upendo without Eric; although his contributions until now have remained unofficial. Starting this month however, Eric will become a paid employee with responsibilities at Upendo for working towards our agricultural sustainability! He will be caring for the chickens, taking care of the crops and staffing the Upendo Duka in which the produce will be sold. Welcome on board Erici!

Eric will join Prisca and Mama Emma - the children’s carers, and David our construction manager, as a paid member of the Upendo team. Working, of course, alongside Baba J and Mama Mtoto out in Buswelu, together they form Upendo’s (permanent) in-the-field co-ordination team.

Without the hard-work and local knowledge of our African team members we would not be able to function out in Tanzania, and for the next few months they will continue where we have left off; building on the fantastic progress made over the summer!

From all of us on the Upendo team, we would like to thank all of volunteers; Sam, Marshenka, Tom, Jackie, Mel, Ruth, Emma, Kate, Hannah and Michael for their contribution and hard work over the last four months. I’m sure you are all fully aware that we could not have achieved what we have without you and we hope to see you back next year!

For now, however: THANK YOU!!

Update

Hello! James here. I've been trying to get an update up for a couple of weeks now but a lack of time on the internet and work to do elsewhere has meant it hasn't happened, so apologies for the time that has lapsed since the last update.

There has been a lot of change and a lot of work in the last month and a half. With people coming and going, projects being finished, and plans being made for the future.

Kids

After school finished for the holidays we had a week of activities that included swimming and a visit to the Sukuma museum (Sukuma being the tribal ethnicity of 6 of the 7 children). The kids were in fine form and gave us time to transition before summer schooling, as 5 people left (3 albeit temporarily), and 4 arrived.

Summer teaching is being headed by Mel and Ruth, both recent graduates from the University of Manchester, with a lot of help from Michael and Hannah. From its beginning last Monday they have found their feet very quickly. Lessons are well planned and the children have already shown improvement. The focus is on improving their English, as whilst they have performed exceptionally at school for children who have started their education at a later stage than most, lessons taught in English have been a hinderence, as once again they only started learning the language a year ago.

We certainly hope that we are the right people to help improve their English, and giving them a better grasp of the language by the end of the summer will help in all of their subjects (except maths, which coincidentally is most of the kids best subject!)

Projects:

Community Sports Project

The sports project, which was planned by Jackie, has now been taken up by Michael and Hannah (sports students in Cardiff) and started in the same week as the teaching. We have booked the field of a vocational college on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and have opened the sessions to any local child that wants to come.

After only 3 sessions we are all very pleased with how it has been going, with the children understanding (mostly) the rules of new games, and attendance has been going up at every session. Michael and Hannah's experience in coaching children is apparent, and they are doing very well at introducing new sports and games to children in a different language, and maintaining a relaxed atmosphere amongst kids who may never have met each other or been coached by white people (AKA Muzungu).

The sessions are structured with some fun games to start, such as stuck in the mud and duck, duck, goose, followed by some games of various sports. Either in their pure form or a version modified for easier execution and understanding. Games have included longball, football, and a mixture of handball and netball. Sessions are finished with a more relaxed game such as sleeping lions, which is normally won by a number of children who just fall asleep after 2 hours of activity!

We are hoping that the initial success of this project will mean it can become a permanent fixture in the area, encouraging help and participation from the community.

Temporary Kitchen

Due to the fact that we cannot afford to build the entire design for the 3 buildings in one go, a temporary kitchen has been constructed to allow Upendo to move into the first building upon its completion.

Despite the fact that Matt and myself have little DIY experience, we seem to have built (with help from site manager, David) a building that will not blow over in a gust of wind or randomly decombust.

Instead of describing the structure in boring detail, we'll put a picture up ASAP.

Water Tank

Sam and Marsh left about 4 weeks ago, having built the tank, with their replacement Tom continuing the hard work to get the tank ahead of schedule so that it will hopefully be finished by this Friday. This will mean that the home can get filtered water, which after some treating will be drinkable.

As well as this, Tom has been working with Andrew to explore the possibilities of another project that will allow the home to work even more efficiently. Hopefully more to follow.

First Aid and English

In return for the skills and expertise learnt from our Tanzanian counterparts in construction, childcare, and everyday Tanzanian living and to allow for greater efficiency in the running of Upendo from both sides, some of our volunteers have been providing English lessons and First Aid training.

Carly (and previously Vicky) have been teaching the adults of the Upendo family and a few others in child health and first aid, and Jackie in her time here provided English lessons.

These have gone well and will provide valuable knowledge for all.

Everything Else

I'm certain that I am leaving a lot out but for now I need to go and collect our final 3 volunteers for the summer; Kate, Matt and Emma.

With this final group we can provide teaching on a more personal scale and start the much anticipated chicken coop!

We are continuing to develop our plan of action for our return to the UK in September, both in attracting volunteers and donors. If you would like to get involved, or know someone who may be interested please get in touch (enquiries@upendo.org.uk).

Apologies for a perhaps convoluted update, there are quite a few distractions around here today!

Love and light and all that xxxxxxx

Full House!

Hi all, An update to you all is well overdue and I can only blame the severe lack of electricity we are experiencing in Tanzania at present. That and a full volunteer house with everybody busying themselves so much that by 9pm we are happy to start winding down for bed!

The past month has been very busy, working at KKT health clinic in the days whilst the children are at school and then spending the evenings with our beautiful Upendo children, either playing a number of ball games, completing homework, reading a book from a fast growing childrens library or taking part in arts and crafts. The main project of which has been led by student nurse, Vicki, who is transforming the children’s art work on the walls of the volunteer house, creating an African scene display on the main wall and numerous other fairy tale esque-editions. It looks great! I will post a photo once it is finished.

As I mentioned previously we now have a full house of volunteers, Sam and Marshenka are two engineering students from the University of Manchester who have come as part of Engineers Without Borders to design and construct a water collection system from the roof of our sleeping house building to store rain water for use in the dry season. They are now 2 weeks into their stay and the tank, despite a few teething problems, appears to be progressing quite nicely (although not from an aesthetic point of view!)

We also have Matt, a graduate from University of Southampton, who has come to join us until September. Matt’s main projects will be leading the design and construction of a temporary kitchen at site along with our very own James Quayle, and he has now taken over the position of Treasurer. Despite these assignments, Matt is already finding himself to be required in all projects, from assisting with the construction of the water tank to clearing the garden of the volunteer house.

A great surprise arrived last Friday in the form of long term volunteer and very valued member of Upendo - Andrew McIntyre (‘Our Man In Africa’). Andrew has chosen Mwanza and Buswelu as his hometown, and is currently on leave from his engineering job which has seen him working in Liberia and Ghana for the past 12 weeks. We are extremely happy to have him home for a couple of weeks, once again I cannot fault his work ethic and commitment to assisting in making Upendo thrive.

James is almost a week into his second trip to Mwanza and is getting back into the swing of Upendo life. Much like Matt, whilst his main project will be to work on the temporary kitchen, he has seen himself spending long days on site assisting with the construction of the water tank.

Finally, this Wednesday saw the arrival of Jackie from Cleveland State University, Ohio. Jackie spent last summer at Upendo and she has returned to project manage a Community Sports Project for children in the local area to take part in after school and in their school break over August. We are hoping to spread the word of Upendo and integrate further with the local community.

Upendo Children

The children are doing great, they have had their 4 monthly check up to find the usual results of asymptomatic malaria and typhoid in a couple of the children, who have all now been treated, and are on usual energetic form. However, Joice and Mussa have both had to have a tooth removed. Vicki and I are planning an interactive session with the kids and Mama’s on practicing good teeth hygiene and brushing techniques.

The children are also working hard at school, they have just completed their monthly exams and we have a parents day on Sunday so I will let you know how that goes!! I am very excited to be going as their parent.

Construction

Construction of the building has come to a slight standstill at present as we continue to work out and correspond over registration of Upendo Children’s Home as an NGO in Tanzania. We hope to be back on track very soon, but for the time being we need to ensure that we are completing everything by the book in Tanzania in order to keep in line with the Tanzanian government. We are continuing to fundraise and raise awareness of our projects so as to storm on with the construction once we are registered in TZ.

Baba Carly's T-Shirts!!

These have gone down a storm! All but two are sold and so we are hoping to get some more made and shipped ASAP! They are without doubt the new trend in the village! If you haven't got one and would like one, please contact enquiries@upendo.org.uk. They are being sold at £10 each! Bargain!

OK, electricity is threatening to cut so I'm going to end it whilst I can make it coherant.

Love and Light from all at Upendo xxx