Some images and thoughts from the past month, or so!!

Clinic shaping up; paint on the ceiling, water in the taps, storage cupboard fitted and floor covering going down soon! Still lots to do, but beginning to look good.

Tanzanian people are so very proud; highlighted every day during my time here but more so in recent times when I visited Zanzibar for Sauti za Busara "Sounds of Wisdom", a music festival celebrating East African music and culture. The people of Zanzibar have had no power for the past three months; yet they still managed to pull of a fantastic music festival in an amazing fashion. The warmth and hospitality of Tanzanian people never ceases. The culture, the kiswahili language and the history are very strong.

Kesho Leo from the air! I had previously been told that when you fly from Arusha to Zanzibar you can see Kesho Leo. I was lucky enough to see for myself a couple of weeks ago. What a sight, apologise for the bad pictures but I did get a tad excited when I saw Kesho Leo and didnt take much time to think about the pic taking process.

Kids and colour; these were some of my first impressions of Kesho Leo on return from Zanzibar.

Characters involved with foodwatershelter; What a team! fws and Kesho Leo are certainly blessed to have these inspiring and hard working individuals involved. Simoni, Aggie and Masswai have such joyful, cheeky and genuine personalities; they always bring a smile to our faces at the vollage. Mudi and his family are very dedicated to everyone at Kesho Leo and always supportive of the community, Kesho Leo residents and volunteers.

Mamas sewing: I am so very proud of the Kesho Leo Mamas and how they have embraced sewing. It has been difficult for them to be learning on machines that are not of great quality; something that has at times made quality and quantity a bit tricky. However in the past couple of months the Mamas are really showing their creative flair, embracing the opportunity and many of them really understand that it is a business and a financial program of Kesho Leo. I think from the smiles on their faces you can really see that the Mamas love it. I also have loved sewing with them. I so look forward to seeing more of the Mamas creations in the future, the fabric here is just amazing and provides great scope for some unique creations.

Village of Sinoni: Well, I dont really have many pics of our village. The experiences are not something easily captured in an image. However, it is amazing to feel to the warmth and atmosphere that this place possesses.

WARNING : Vegetarians beware the following content contains meat.

Well it’s been just over 5 weeks since my beautiful Wife and I flew into Kilimanjaro airport and I have learnt very quickly that pole pole (slowly slowly) is the way of Tanzania. But this is definitely not the case when a pig-soon-to-be-pork is involved. When Don presented me with the challenge of turning a newly butchered pig into a dinner for 20 I jumped at the task. As people who know me will know I just can’t go past the opportunity of a good roast.
It was the day before the big pig roast and I thought what better way to have a roast than to have it slowly cooked on a spit. Sounded easy at first but this meant that I had to build a custom fit spit roaster for our BBQ out of nothing in one day.

Don and I discussed other ways to cook the large amount of meat and decided on a combination of methods. First the spit roast, second ; hot coals in a pit with dirt over the top and third good old oven roast. Due to the lack of refrigeration we had to move quickly and Friday afternoon the pig left Kesho Leo for the last time. By midday on Saturday I was presented with tubs full of pork...actually I wouldn’t call it pork yet as there was still a lot of preparation needed.

While waiting for the meat to arrive I started early preparing the fires. Once those were under control and after a call to my father (a butcher) I began the challenge of turning chunks of pig into chunks of pork, all with a small paring knife which Sarah had bought me that morning. Surprisingly after I was done they did resemble a piece of rolled pork you may buy from the supermarket...almost, obviously my fathers’ talents as a butcher were not passed on to me.

With lemon and pepper pork cooking in the pit and pork and ribs roasting in the oven, I began the monotonous back breaking task of monitoring the spit roast. By mid-afternoon my routine went a little like this: chop wood, turn pig, put wood on the fire, move coals, chop wood, turn pig, put wood on fire, wipe sweat from brow, chop wood, turn pig...I think you get the picture, this went on for 5 hours.

But it was allllll worth it. With Amy’s help in the kitchen preparing rosemary mashed potatoes, honey carrots and green beans and the most amazing apple sauce I’ve ever tasted we were able to pull it all together.

There was a sigh of relief when we realised that the meat was off, the vege’s were cooked (and as chef’s we had of course taste tested it all) and it was perfect...if I do say so myself.

Guests and volunteers were left with full bellies and a smile on their face, what more could you ask for?
...except left over roast pork for lunch the next day!!! Woo Hoo!!

(Disclosure: only one pig was hurt in the making of this blog, all for a deliciously good cause of course)

By Glen Muller

Baby girl born in fws ute!

On Friday, I waved good-bye to the volunteer village and went on a four-day safari with my parents who are visiting. On Monday, day 4 of the safari, I received a telephone call from Mudi, Kesho Leo's Assistant Manager. (Yes, the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater has mobile reception!)

Mudi quickly assured me that everything was ok back home and then said "Miss, I have some crazy news. A baby was born in the ute this morning."

I was shocked, to say the least.

From time-to-time, we lend our ute (pictured below) and a driver to friends and neighbours. The ute can be used as a quasi-ambulance and take sick people to hospital or it can be used as a quasi-hearse and transport bodies to funerals.

On Monday morning, one of our night askari (security guard) called Mudi and asked if we could drive his heavily-pregnant sister to hospital because she was in labour. Mudi, the mother-to-be and her mother all piled into the ute and started driving to hospital. Mid-journey, the threesome was joined by a baby girl!

Mother and baby are healthy. Mudi is still recovering from the surprise. The ute has been cleaned thoroughly!

The Kesho Leo chekechea (pre-school) is in full swing and includes members from over 50 families in the local community! We have 3 different classes taking place for different age groups and thanks to Amy (a fantastic short-term volunteer with FWS), we now have an English and Kiswahili speaking teacher for each group.

The future generation of Sinon have been learning about ‘growing things’ this month, including fruits and veggies and what they need to grow, and also about ‘living things’ including all those lovely creepies and crawlies that seem to have made their home in our classroom!

After reading 'the enormous beetroot', the children had great fun recreating a tug-of-war pulling extravaganza and learnt just how much force is needed to pull their teachers to the ground!
The older children also did a hilarious re-enactment of Jack and the beanstalk for the nursery class…complete with very loud mooing cow…and we talked about the moral implications of Jack taking the giant’s money without asking (opinion was divided).

We’re looking forward to watching Don, Elvis and John catch some fish from the pond next week and practising some more of our amazing writing and counting skills.

In after-school tuition the older children have been getting to grips with geometry,verbs and comprehension – not as boring as it sounds…and the younger childre have been having lots of fun doing colour, counting and vocab games. Lucas - our social welfare liason with FWS has also been helping out with the afternoon tuition sessions and has been providing some much needed translation for mathematical formulas and encouraging the children to ask questions and voice their opinions.

The Mamas English classes have also been going really well and the Mamas are growing in confidence at using the English that they know. After a class where we learning about different tenses, Helena very proudly informed Don: “Yesterday, I went to school, Today, I am digging manure, Tomorrow I will go to the market...” Safi sana Helena!

We’re watching ‘Madagascar’ on the big screen in the school room tommorow evening (the joys of mobile projectors) so am expecting lots of questions from Mamas and children about singing lemurs and other exciting things!