The Big Clean

‘No words could describe’ is such a trite phrase, generally thrown about when you can’t be bothered to think how to properly represent something. Yet a week’s research could not provide the words to fully capture the utter stench, the thick, heavy air of the dormitories in Buhangija. In the smallest kids dormitory, the mattresses are sodden with urine and crawl with bed bugs, disused mosquito nets hang from the ceiling collecting dead insects, the ceilings are covered in cob webs. The toilets don’t flush, there’s no sink in the bathroom, open defecation is common practice, the place is disgusting. It’s here that over 100 tiny heads sleep every night, in 46 beds.

The task of ‘cleaning up Buhangija’ has been on our minds for a while but was always put on the back burner as a job overwhelming in the extreme. Then we met Sam and Liliane, a couple who don’t seem to know the meaning of the word overwhelming. Liliane is a ‘Shinyang-ian’ by birth and after spending most of their lives in Canada, they returned to her home town and established an NGO (called ASMK) in honour of Liliane’s late grandmother. One of their goals for this year was to try and improve conditions in Buhangija and they have supported and encouraged us as we’ve worked together to that end over the past couple of months. Liliane’s Swahili, local contacts and natural cultural awareness has helped things to progress far smoother and quicker than if we’d been working alone. During a meeting we suggested a cleaning day so they hired staff, collected supplies, liaised with staff and even decided that it would be a good opportunity to train the matrons – they had no idea what they were in for!

And so we turned up at 7am armed with a Landcruiser full of cleaning supplies to be met by some equally bleary eyed and excited children. Our cleaning crew arrived and we were off. Beds were stripped, mattresses taken outside to bake in the sun, all clothes and trunks removed, floors swept, washed and bleached. Beds were hosed down, sheets boiled in dettol, new mattresses secured and covered in plastic. It was a long day! With one dormitory done we moved over to the older girls and began the whole wonderful, bleach filled process again. Matrons washed all the kids clothes and hung them in the sun to dry. Liliane held mini training sessions, all ‘pole pole’ and in keeping with the Tanzanian culture of not criticising, but clearly showing how achievable hygiene is and that new standards should and could be upheld.
 

At the end of the day we were putting the freshly washed sheets on the new mattresses, a few of the older girls came in to help. We watched as one girl buried her nose in the clean fabric and breathed in the scent of washing powder. She laughed and called her friends who joined her sniffing their fresh sheets. The beautiful smell of clean.

Swahili word of the day: Sabuni (soap)

Painting 'til we're Blue in the Face

In an effort to keep ourselves busy, and taking advantage of the extra pair of hands that arrived in the form of Ian, we have been doing some much needed renovation work in the AICT school over the Easter break. With the students and teachers away on holiday, we took the opportunity to sneak in and arrange a surprise.

The previous school painting days, while a lot of fun, focused on the outside of the school. Despite pleading, the inside of the rooms were left to their dismal, grey, unfinished interior - a disappointment to both staff and students. So when some special funding arrived from Ireland specifically for the Secondary School here, we knew exactly what we would do with it.

We arrived up to an eerily empty school with Ian and Whitney in tow and got to work. The icing on the cake came in the form of the School’s Academic Master, Mr. Kibasi who arrived unexpectedly and enthusiastically painted with us. Moses, our Bajaj driver, who had arrived simply to drop off Whitney also decided to stay and pick up a brush.

Painting in a rainstorm, with thunder so loud you can’t hear each other shout was quite a feat. The windows in our school have no glass so we had some fun trying to actually keep the paint on the walls at one stage! It also meant the Bajaj got stuck on the way home and we got soaked pushing it through the mud but all part of the fun.

The students in Form 2 ask most weeks when the inside of their room will be painted and so they’ll definitely appreciate their new, bright, clean (and blue, it's always blue!) learning environment.

Swahili word of the day: Mvua (rain – there was a lot of it!)

A Job Well Done

In the middle of Buhangija, there is a well. A well that is dry, broken and waterless. Like so many things in the centre, it was installed by visitors with great intentions and provided water for many months but through lack of care and maintenance, it is now just another piece of metal for the children to play with.

Its disrepair is felt keenly during the mains water outages that happen so frequently here. We can manage for 8 days without water; 350 children just can’t.

A few weeks ago Paul asked Mr Magunya to come and visit Buhangija. Mr Magunya is a retired man from our church who has managed water projects for Tearfund, Caritas and Hilfe fur Bruder to name but a few. He immediately grasped the seriousness of the situation for the children who live in Buhangija and has worked tirelessly for the past two weeks. A grandfather himself, he has also been spotted taking a quick break from work to play games with the little ones who crowd around him to watch. His attitude and commitment to working for the good of the children is very encouraging. He knows his stuff and has been able to find all the fundis (technicians) that we need – in very quick time for Tanzania.

Two weeks ago we opened the well and fortunately, found the pump in good shape - needing just one new part and a bit of cleaning to get it working again. The condition and depth of the well itself however needed closer examination and there’s only one way to do that – send a man with a bucket 15m down a rope to have a good poke around! The first few loads out of the well were full of sticks, shoes, bottles and even other buckets.

Cleaned out, the well had just over 1m of water. A quick ‘pump’ (bucket removal) test showed recharge was disappointingly slow. We decided to try to clean and deepen the well to have deeper, faster water. For 5 days the ‘well fundi’ climbed down the rope and dug in the near darkness to remove dirt, soil and rocks from the base and sides. On the last day, the buckets of dirt were interspersed with buckets of water as it started to flow in as fast as we could remove it – “good for the well, bad for the workers” was the very appropriate quote! The end result is over 3m of water that’s refilling at an amazing rate.

Re-installing the pump and watching fast, clean water flow out was a great moment and one that was much enjoyed by the children and staff. It took time but the well is fixed and should provide around half a bucket of water per child per day. The nature of Buhangija is that things are not well maintained and tend to break. In an attempt at sustainability, we have arranged for Mr Magunya to visit every three months to check on all things water related. Hopefully that will help to keep the water flowing in Buhangija for many years.

  

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Easter Visitor

Ian has arrived. After a quick stop in Dubai, he landed in Mwanza last Friday and will be here until next Wednesday. Activities undertaken so far include swimming in Lake Victoria (just Ian, we'd rather not contract bilharzia), fixing wells, getting a bajaj stuck in the mud, arguing over whether his arms are red or brown (they're very red), eating double chips mayai, hiring an arc welder (and sending it back due to significant Health and Safety concerns) and shopping for goats.

We've been filled in on all the important recent events from Ireland including the new layout at Newlands Cross, The Rock returning to Wrestlemania, the price of a mans lycra top in Penneys, how good Taylor Swift's new album is and that being here means missing a free McDonald's breakfast in Swords - so we're well up to date.

It's great to have Ian here and that's not just because of the large case of chocolate, sausages and cheese - the main things we miss from home. We're showing him the delights of Shinyanga and we think he's enjoying it. We've a Serengeti trip in the pipeline so looking forward to that. We really appreciate the effort to make it this far and a familiar face from home is always very welcome! 

Swahili word of the day: Wageni (visitors)