Alan's partner Nina Yin, fellow Director Peter Daniels with partner Lorna Pagliaro, and Nina's daughter Corinna joined Alan on this year's November 2022 trip to Tanzania. It was quite the adventure; school buildings opening celebrations, safaris, big cats, rogue elephants, and lots of hugs and entertainment from welcoming Tanzanians.
New 2-family Teacher Residences were built at two of our 7 school projects in the area. Our amazing builder Restus Sanka has once again created a quality building for two lucky teachers and their families at both Tidivi Primary School and Gongali Primary School. It solves their commuting problems on muddy rain season roads, and provides a healthy environment for kids to grow up in. Teachers can now focus more on teaching. This has proven success since we have achieved higher national academic standing on all our schools with teacher residences.
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| New Tidivi 2-family teacher residence building at right |
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New Gongali 2-family teacher residences
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| teachers and guests at Tidivi Primary School |
Dave Green and wife Cheryl Alexander detoured from their African holiday to join us as honorary guests at Tidivi Primary School. For their contribution to the school's development, they were celebrated as honorary villagers.
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| Thanking donor Dave Green |
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| Cheryl Alexander being "robed" as an honorary villager |
The villagers didn't stop there. They "robed" us all..
...and sang and danced for us...
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| teachers dancing |
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| tribal dancing |
...and provided an unexpected surprise birthday cake for Alan (that we all enjoyed)
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Plaques were installed to commemorate the donors. Special thanks to all ex-cadets of the Royal Military College of Canada for their continuing support.
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| plaque for donors from Royal Military College, Canada |
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| plaque at residence for donor Lepicq family |
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| "loving families build healthy communities" |
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plaque at residence commemorating the Green/Alexander family Great hat, Dave. (his gift from the community)!
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| a happy teacher family in their new residence at Gongali School |
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| another happy teacher family in their new residence at Gongali Primary School |
We visited a couple of our other schools too.
Last year, we completed the Flame Tree Vocational Centre project, adding a Kitchen and Dining Hall, a classroom, and a Girls Dormitory. It is now in the final stages of transferring ownership from local government to the federal agency VETA (Vocational Education Training Authority). This means it will now be properly staffed with the full complement of fully paid administrators, managers and teachers.
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The flame tree seedling planted by the Centre's major sponsor, Dr Peter Pearse, has grown majestically to over 40 feet tall. It is now the beginning of the flowering season for its bright red flowers.
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| girls dormitory laundry area |
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| typical dorm room |
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| dorm shower area |
At Simba Milima Primary School, our sponsor, Safari Partners Ltd from Vancouver, has provided funding to start the construction of a new Kitchen/Dining Hall building that will also provide staff toilets.
The trip wasn't just all about the schools.
We went on a couple of Safaris with Claud Goi's Kili-Routes tour company and saw some big game; lions, leopards, giraffes, hippos, water buffalo, and a gazillion zebras.
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| leopard; a very rare sight, and this one paraded by only 30 feet away |
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| then nestled herself in a tree to stare at us indifferently |
A rogue elephant family invaded our lodge...
...and ate tree leaves before being chased away
George Goi, one of our sponsored students, bussed 5 hours from his University in Moshi to see us at our lodge in Tarangire Park, visiting for only an hour before returning to Moshi to work on a class presentation due the next day. Seen here greeted by Nina's daughter Corinna.
Thank you, Ginny and Greg for sponsoring George through his physiotherapy studies.
The staff at Farm of Dreams lodge treated us like family, with a few tears and singing and dancing fanfare at our leaving.
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| Corinna got treated to a birthday cake too, this one with a dangerous blowtorch-like candle. We still have a lot of work to do to complete 6 schools. we need funding for teacher residences, kitchen/dining halls, administration and toilet buildings. DONATIONS can be made: - using the donate button on website primaryschoolsforafrica.com - by e-transfer to psfa@shaw.ca - by mail to 3301 Wordsworth St, Victoria, BC, V8P4B9 with cheque addressed to "Primary Schools For Africa Society". Our heartfelt thanks to all the generous donors who continue to support our school building and student scholarship programs. For all you new readers, please help us support Tanzanian kids get the proper education they desperately need with your kind donations. Thank You END OF POST |
