Our 3 months in Yamba have been the most incredible and rewarding time of our lives.  It is one of those rare experiences which are impossible to describe to others.  You must see for yourself.  We loved it - so will you.   Whatever your skills or age get in touch with POD and go and meet, work and live with these wonderful people.  We miss the many friends we made in Yamba (young and old) and are planning to return.

I was a little unsure of what the building team in Yamba would have in store for me. Speaking little Swahili also brought a degree of anxiety as I anticipated using all my charades ability! However, as soon as I met the team I knew there would be no problems, the team were friendly and welcoming with a small english vocabulary. They did work extremely hard but were happy for me to take regular breaks.

I was posted at the school aiding the regeneration effort of both the toilets and classrooms. These were great projects to be a part of as they will obviously bring so much ongoing benefit to the village. I have been lucky enough to experience rapid progression of these areas during my short stay and had a chance to see the huge amounts that have been accomplished by VA this far, for this I feel very privileged and thankful to those who made it possible.

    

Ellie Saltrick visited Yamba as a member of an expedition from Godolphin School. She says of her time with Village Africa:

My experience there was incredible, life changing even! The children taught me a lot about myself and everybody made me feel so welcome. I enjoyed every single moment of my time there. Just being with the children automatically made me smile; they truly are amazing.

I think you're doing a fantastic thing for these people, and these little changes make dramatic improvements. I hope that I contributed to this if only in a tiny way by teaching.

I just wanted to say thank you now. It really was the best time of my life; words cannot describe any of it!

Silke Buhr visited Village Africa as a marketing volunteer in July 07. To view photos of her visit please click on the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/silkebuhr/sets/72157600898297329/

Jan - April 07

Village Africa is a very special project; it is in its first year of taking volunteers.  It’s all new and exciting, watching and having an input to the project taking shape.
 
Village Africa or as it’s locally known "Vyaadahikana", works in two schools at the moment with possibilities of working with more.  Yamba Primary school has about two hundred pupils on average, with twenty five pupils per class.  Yamba is like a local village school from home. It is a tightly knit community; everyone knows everyone and many are related one way or another. It’s a lovely place  to work. We are treated like one of the locals or even better like kings.

Milingano Primary School has over nine hundred pupils. It is more like a large town primary school from home, but there are on average seventy children per class, which is rather daunting the first time you walk in front of the class, though I soon became used to it.  The children are willing to learn and are keen to please you. They loved to help carry my school bag and bottle of water and they loved singing the English songs I always finished my lessons with.  I know that I have helped the children of Milingano, even if it was for a short time. I am sure they will remember us as I will always remember them.
 
We as TEFL teachers work Monday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. This gives us enough time to relax a little and plan our lessons for the next class. Then it's play time with the children that live near by. This can be anything from reading, puzzles, extra English lessons to football in the market square.  
 
Village Africa has the volunteer, work, play and explore balance just right,  with enough teaching time to feel you are making progress and having an impact, but not too much, so that you feel overcome.   It also gives you time to relax in the community and really get into village life and get to know the locals.  Every other weekend, there is a planned trip so you get to see a bit more of the country too, as well as enabling you to stock up on the supplies, as not much can be bought locally.
 
I really enjoyed my time in Tanzania and working with Village Africa made the experience extra special.  I have memories that will stay with me forever, thank you for helping make my dream come true.

Wow, what an amazing experience! When I first started researching volunteer projects in Africa I wasn’t sure if teaching was what I really wanted to do but after the first week in Yamba I felt like a natural and I’m so glad I chose this project.

From the very beginning we were welcomed into the community and could never be found without a loyal bunch of children in our wake. The school is remarkable and teaching in Yamba was just a delight. I’ve never come across such keen and hard-working children. At first I found it hard to keep up with lessons preparation and marking; and having never taught before I was a bit nervous and worried I’d run out of ideas on different teaching methods. Things soon fell into place, however, and by the end of my time on the project I happily took extra lessons and realised the children just want a teacher- you really can’t go far wrong.

As big music fans, Rose, Becky (fellow teaching volunteers) and I took the chance to begin an English choir with some of the older girls at school; we had such fun! Although we got off to a bit of a shaky start (they weren’t really getting my ‘Beatles’ efforts) things soon got better and it was great to see them learning without even realising it.

Another huge advantage of this project is the fantastic location. You will not find a more dramatic or stunning setting than Yamba and Milingano. Waking up to find yourself right at the top of a beautiful African mountain is truly amazing. The views from Yamba were some of the most striking I saw throughout the travels I made through Tanzania: photos just cannot do it justice. 

I couldn’t have wanted a more challenging, fulfilling and exciting experience and being so immersed in the community makes the experience all the more authentic and special. The people were so welcoming and the kindness and generosity they showed us was unbelievable and so humbling; these people have nothing yet they’ll always find something- be it rabbit, sugar cane or pumpkin - to offer you! We truly have a lot to learn form such a close-knit and friendly people. I will definitely be back to Yamba in the future.

“I have fallen in love with Yamba - the place - the people - the children and the peace! To view Tina's webblog please click www.offexploring.com/tinaintanzania

Please view Downloads page to read an article written by Village Africa volunteer Sarah Jones entitled "Teaching in rural Tanzania". The article can be found on pages 25-27.  Copyright 2007, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw.  All rights reserved.  Reproduced with permission.

I’ve had such a great experience working with Village Africa in Yamba.  I put a big emphasis on sport in the learning environment.  My girlfriend and I managed to receive lots of sports equipment as donations.  It was great to come over and play sport with the children.  They don’t have the exposure to a lot of different games and sports and their ball normally consists of plastic bags rolled tightly into a ball tied together with anything to hand – old bits of string, banana leaves etc.  So it was amazing to see their faces when I pulled out new leather footballs!  They love to play sport and there is a real competitive edge in the village.  From pre-school to adults, they all want to learn new sports and different ways to improve.  After school and in my spare time around the village, I played sport as much as possible.  We could keep the children entertained for hours with just a simple tennis ball.

We ran after school clubs with the teachers, showing the children different training exercises to improve.  We introduced badminton, cricket, rounders, volleyball and netball to the children in the village.  The only problem we had was keeping the numbers down.  Everyone wanted to play.  We would start off playing a four person game then word would get round there was sport to be played!  Soon we had big groups of children watching, eager to participate in any way they could.

We introduced a big piece of circular cloth used in UK primary schools called a parachute.   We would have people standing around holding the edges and shaking the parachute up and down.  On top would be tennis balls.  When the parachute was shaken they would fly all over the place for the children to catch and throw back on.  When this was introduced to the local father, he thought we used it to parachute down to the villages at the foot of the mountain!

The children have a real energy and enthusiasm.  They enjoy just spending time with you and the sports equipment is a bonus.  Like most children in England, they love to play and teaching them a sport they have never seen before with brand new equipment will have them chanting your name and they will have smiles on all day.  You will definitely tire before they are bored and want to stop.

Yamba has a lot to offer and you can really experience an African way of life in the village, away from the towns spoilt by tourism and commercialism.  Just the walks alone offer marvellous sights and with a guide he can explain how they use a lot of nature’s products: leaves for medicine, wood and banana leaves to build houses etc.

I have helped out on farms, learning the daily life and diet of these subsistence farmers.  I have even used a sugar cane press with some of the locals.  When any meat is served for dinner, a boy from my Standard V class and I will slaughter the smaller animals for the housegirls.  You can get as involved as you want in the community.  The people are truly friendly and welcoming and can make you feel that Yamba is your home.

When it was coming to the end of term, all the volunteers and teachers worked alongside each other for a sports day in school.  We played the years against each other in football and netball and even had relay races for the whole school.  As the football and netball matches were being played, numerous activities were set up in the background for the spectators from volleyball to hoops round a stick.  Everyone was involved and it turned into a memorable day.

As a backpacker over the past years I have travelled around the world, which included three teaching projects in Bali, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Now in my late 60+ years I was very privileged to become part of ‘Village Africa’ teaching English at primary level for three months on the roof of Africa in ‘Yamba’.

Real, rural Africa!  What an unforgettable, amazing adventure even at my age.  Age proved to be no barrier with the children (watoto) and the warm hearted, welcoming farming community of Yamba. 

Not to be missed.

It is possible.

Vyaadahikana

This week I have been 'shadowing' our house girl Stella. She has been teaching me to cook African food, wash clothes in a stream, cut and cook spinach (from the field to the table in 2 hours) and carry things on my head!!! Great fun!

Joanna has summed up the experience she is having living in Yamba with the following:

"a dream fulfilled...I never expected to be so involved and included in a rural African community, the people are amazing and just by being themselves they make you reflect on the whole meaning of life and good values"

A Typical Day in Milingano

I wake up most days at around 6am with the sound of the cockerels and the housegirls Melania and Jois, busily preparing our breakfast in the kitchen which is separate to the house, just outside my bedroom. M and J are both fantastic and I love them to bits. In spite of the loud greetings I hear them calling to passersby, I usually doze off again until they start clonking cutlery around in the living room.  When I say living room, what I mean is a room with an enormous wooden table, which the carpenters recently made especially for us to save our backs, as compared to them we are giants!  We have four bright orange plastic garden chairs to sit on and a very small side table.  It is sparse but so much better than I had imagined it would be!

I usually climb out of my mosi net at around 7am, get dressed and go outside to the 'bathroom'.  On the way I greet the housegirls, who always say 'Good morning sister, how are you?', and the children playing outside the house next to ours.   I use a cup to get some warm water out of the bucket (heated earlier by the housegirls on a charcoal stove) and pour it into a plastic bowl to wash my face.  The loo is a hole in the ground in the middle of the bathroom (a bit like a shed!), with a wooden cover.  It smells a bit pongy but it's not too bad. Going to the loo in the day is far more pleasant than at night as you don't have to deal with the cockroaches that come running out to see what is being deposited!

Usually by the time I have washed my face, breakfast is all laid out on the table.  A plate, a glass (or a jar as we keep breaking glasses!) and a cup and saucer for each of us, usually a plate of bread in the middle and a flask of boiling water for our tea.  It has taken some time, understandably (especially considering they only have a large pan and a charcoal stove to cook with!), but M and J now make pretty fantastic bread in the form of a kind of bun round.  When we first moved in you could probably have knocked someone out with it or otherwise had hours of fun making playdough shapes! Now though, it is light and almost the texture of cake but less crumbly. I'm so impressed!   Thankfully we have discovered you can buy Marmite and jam in Tanga otherwise it would have been a very dull breakfast. We occasionally have a bowl of ugi for a change, which is a runny porridge a bit like semolina, made from maize flour. It takes some getting used to but with plenty of sugar it's pretty good!  We use powdered milk in our tea which also takes a bit of getting used to but it's not bad.

School is only 5 minutes walk away so we head off at about 7.45am.  As soon as we reach the market square we are surrounded by children eager to carry our bags for us.  It took a while for them to understand how our backpacks work but now they just sling them on their backs, stick their own bag on their head and off they go! Most children wear school uniform although they do not have to. Usually their shirts only have enough buttons as they need to retain their dignity and sometimes not this many! They are generally an off-white, verging on brown colour, often with at least a few holes or even great big rips here and there.  The girls wear royal blue skirts below the knee and boys wear long shorts.  Most children wear flip flops or plastic sandals, some are barefoot and occasionally I spot a  pair of shoes and black and white stripey socks!  Most school bags are old plastic carrier bags or very poor quality draw string bags, which always reveal through the holes the dirty books they carry in them. 

When we arrive at school most children have already been there since 7am and are doing chores or standing to attention in assembly outside.  We often witness caning at this time which is horrible to see, and something the school is working on eradicating.  We greet all the staff by shaking their hands and either saying 'onga' (kisambaa) or 'good morning'. Most of the staff speak basic to good English so that makes things easier.  We have to sign in, writing the Kiswahili time rather than English time, which is 6 hours behind.  Their clock starts when the sun rises at 6am (0:00 Kiswahili time).

Lessons start at 8am, and I usually have about 4 a day to teach, using the time in between to make resources, mark books and plan lessons. As most days there are not enough teachers, I often make my lessons overrun or teach extra 'fun' lessons in between.  When we arrived in Milingano, neither of my classes could say much more than 'Good morning teacher'.  (This is nice as the whole class stands to attention as I enter the room - so Victorian!)  So we had to start at the beginning, teaching the alphabet and basic greetings.  Here they have about 5 different greetings and several different responses all based on 'How are you?' so even teaching 'hello' was a challenge! We've ended up making up all sorts of cheesy adaptation of songs from the Sound of Music to help children learn simple phrases.  My standard 1 class is still the hardest work as the children have not yet learned to read and write.  With 80-90 children in one room and not enough desks would be a challenge in their own language, but they are only just learning to write in Kiswahili so English is really tough. One of the things that holds them back is that many come to school without a pencil or only a tiny stub, sharpened by a razor blade which they carry in their bag! Standard 3 is easier as about 2/3 of the 50-60 children who attend can write.  I still can't believe that I enjoy teaching kids who are aged between 10-17 years old so much! We have great fun and I never have any behaviour problems from them.

Just after noon we wander back home for lunch with our little entourage of pupils, and J and M give us some more bread.  They sometimes whip up a sauce made from vegetables but we're not keen on that so we usually have a 'salad' of carrots and peppers or cabbage and tomatoes. Occasionally the children give us eggs and when we have been to the farm in Lushoto we have some sweaty cheese or homemade strawberry jam to liven up the bread!

We head back to 'shule' an hour later. Many children wait for us outside our house or stay at school during the lunch hour.  A lot do not eat any lunch. Some take home made snacks to school and some go home to eat the staple food, ugali.  This is a kind of stodgy food made from maize flour.  We generally don't eat this as it takes a lot of getting used to!

Lessons finish at 2.30pm when the children do more chores, such as sweeping the classrooms.  They are usually sent home at about 3pm unless we decide to do some sport with them.  So far we have taught them the fun of relay races (including egg and spoon, which they love!), rounders, stuck in the mud and football. The school has its own football kit which was donated to them a few years ago but has not had much use as they had no football, so Kirstie's arrival with a brand new England ball was well recieved! They really want us to teach the girls netball so we are going to make some posts and try to get a ball for them.

Most days when we get home we spend some time entertaining the increasing number of kids who hang around our house, playing games, singing songs, drawing pictures in the dirt... The ground is perfect for drawing on with a stick as it is like red clay so when it dries it goes hard and dusty.  I occasionally get some paints or pastels out to do some art work but usually this ends up with me being surrounded by kids so I either give them pencils to do their own drawings or just draw one of them.  Recently I have started getting adults knocking on my door asking me to draw a 'photo' of them!

Our showers are ready at 4pm as this is the best time to avoid being bitten by the mozies.  I say shower, I mean a bucket of maji moto (hot water), collected from the river and heated on the stove.  Using a cup you just pour the water over yourself. It actually works quite well and is much better than some of the cold dribbly showers we've had in cheap hotels here!

Some evenings I teach an English class for adults. I usually only have 5 or 6 students but it's fun and most of them are people I now consider to be my friends. 

It gets dark at 6pm so Jois lights our kerosene lamps before serving us dinner. After a trip to Lushoto or Tanga to stock up, this is often a delicious selection of vegetables cooked in their own juices, accompanied by potatoes or rice. When supplies are starting to get thin, it is more likely we have lentils or beans with rice and cabbage.  Occasionally we are given a gift of a chicken but these are so skinny we don't usually bother to buy them.  We have loads of peanuts and bananas to snack on and usually a good supply of oranges (which are green here!) from our shopping trips.   It's amazing how plain our food can be and yet we enjoy it so  much - probably because we know we are eating luxury food by local standards.

We send the girls home after dinner when they are replaced by Godfrey, our night watchman.  He is a lovely guy who takes his role very seriously! When he is not killing spiders or other 'very bad' insects for us, he is either patrolling outside or sitting reading the children's books we brought over, to improve his English.

We usually have a few games of cards or Yahtzee in the evening before retreating to our bedrooms ridiculously early to read or listen to music.

 

The rainy season has started early so our walk to work is now a bit less pleasant  On Monday it rained non stop and as a result my class of 50 kids decreased to 9. Very odd indeed.  As most of them have a long journey it's not surprising. Plus it's hard to teach with the noise of the rain on the tin rooves.  Also, most children work hard in the fields sowing maize, hoeing etc.  Everything is done by hand (no machines) so it's all hands on deck once the rains start. We were out there ourselves helping last week!  It's really Spring like here now. Everything is really green and there are ducklings and chicks around. 

We've started adult classes 2 nights a week, so there's less time for relaxing now. The pace of life though is still a world away from home. The Africans even find it funny how fast we walk around the place!

 

All is still going well and the kids have yet to transform themselves into monsters – thank goodness. I’ve been told that I have natural authority in the classroom – not sure where that came from! We must be doing something right as the children keep giving us presents. We received enough bananas last week to set up our own stall in the local market! No more rabbits or chickens have yet to be donated though so our life of beans, lentils and cabbage continues for dinner! Actually, it’s not too bad.  It’s amazing what our house girls come up with.

I’ve now taken on a new class as well so am pretty busy. 232 are currently registered but fortunately only about half of that turn up and of those, I only teach half (about 60 odd). There aren’t enough desks to go round so some sit on the floor which is not ideal (particularly given that we are giants compared to the locals!) but we muddle on by. 

One of the volunteers (Kirsty) has brought a football with her so we’ve had a number of after school football matches which the whole school (and most of the village!) come to. They usually play with a ball made out of plastic bags, but despite this some of the boys are really good. We’ve also introduced rounders into their lives. Surprisingly hard to teach when you don’t speak the local lingo but we’re getting there!

It seems quite odd that my days now consist of teaching, making resources (drawing pictures and making flashcards) and entertaining kiddies. Rather different from life at home. I’m also now a bit of a card shark as there’s little else to do in the evenings once it gets dark (around 6.30)

Milingano, is in the heart of the Usambara mountains. Yamba, the HQ of Village Africa, is right up in the mountains and we were there for our first week's training. It's cold and damp a lot of the time but really stunning place. You feel like you're on top of Africa. I had 3 fleeces on at times but the people there often have no shoes or jumpers. Not surprisingly, 20 per cent of under 5s don't make it (often due to malaria and other such diseases). Milingano by contrast is hot and dry.

Accommodation is basic but fine. We have a number of resident creepy crawlies in the toilet hut but I'm getting used to it .  No electricity but kerosene lamps aren't too bad and my headtorch (very stylish!) is doing the trick. Pretty strange having "staff" (2 house girls and a night watchman) but it's what the local teachers do and it's giving local people much needed jobs. 

The welcome was amazing. In Milingano people danced around the drum and we joined in. We were given a special lunch and speeches were read by the chairman and Father Dennis, the local priest.  We then passed through a couple of hamlets where more people greeted us with dancing, singing, drumming and cheering. In one dance we were welcomed into a circle by women who carried us on their backs! The people here are tiny compared to us because they are so malnourished but they are very strong and carry heavy buckets and sacks up and down hills everyday.

Finally, just before sunset, we climbed the last stretch of the beautiful mountain on foot up to Yamba. It was incredibly steep and we struggled, even in our trusty walking boots, but the locals just skipped up barefoot, carrying our water bottles on their heads!

In Yamba people continued to greet us warmly. We had practised on the journey saying 'onga?' and replying 'tiwedi' which is the local language, Kisambaa, for how are you.  People thought it was hilarious that we were speaking Kisambaa! At last we neared the top and suddenly the women all started picking us up and carried us to the top! I was at least 3 stone heavier than the woman carrying me but she wouldn't put me down even when she was walking over stoney ground!

We've had a tough first week at school. Things are very different here. Besides the fact that the classes are huge (between 50-232 per class, although us volunteers teach a maximum of 100 at a time), there are often not enough teachers so many classes sit without a teacher all day, children are caned because the teachers don't know how else to control them, there are no resources except blackboards, there are not enough desks and not enough classrooms. The children provide their own exercise books and a pencil which they carry to school in a tatty plastic bag on their heads. Many children cannot afford books or pencils, which presents teachers with problems when setting work!  However, I try not to let all this bother me too much, I love teaching the children. They are very keen to learn and sneak into classes even when they are not supposed to be in them. They are so excited about us being here and are thrilled when I give them a sticker or get out a toy.  This week we made up a song to teach 'hello, how are you?' and every evening we hear children singing it over and over!

We have been eating amazingly well... I thought I was going to lose weight but I think I'm putting it on!  People keep bringing us gifts of food (live chickens, rabbits, spinach, maize, papaya, sugar cane etc) and our house girls are amazing cooks although last week we did have an awful lot of cabbage, beans and rice!  We also have a night watchman called Godfrey who delights in being the hero, killing poisonous spiders and caterpillars that make your skin itch if you touch them. As Sarah said on our first night... there is far too much wildlife in the toilet for our liking! As you lift the lid cockroaches all come running out! It is after all, just a 30 ft hole in the ground!  I am getting used to the bucket showers though.  Milingano is hot, so a warm bucket of water splashed over with a jug is quite nice!