Okay, now that you’ve started emailing me directly, I’ll do it, I’ll do it. The blog will be written NYOOOOW!
So … there was Christmas.
Picture this: hampers!
We surprised our labourers with a “Christmas hamper” that combined an individual framed photo of them on the job with us, a loaf of bread, a small tub of margarine, and lollies for their children. They were pretty stoked, particularly Paulo, who is a father of 7. He spent a long time simply staring at the photo we’d given him before coming up to Darren and I and telling us (with Mudi interpreting) that now his children would always know and remember him long after he was gone.
Kesho Leo House Mamas & Sponsorships
Kels and Shona delivered some pretty fantastic Xmas news on the 22nd December when they asked 12 single mothers to the {fws} office to break some pretty awesome news – they had a job for the next 15 years as of next year! They were, naturally, thrilled, especially when we advised that their training (in positive parenting, health and English language) would begin on the 25th January 2008. We are looking now for supporters to sponsor this training for the next three months, at $30 per month. For more info about this – and to read profiles of our mamas – visit www.foodwatershelter.org.au/sponsorships
The Old 25 December 2007.
Knowing that we had between 15 and 20 guests arriving, I’d ordered a 10kg turkey (bit big in hindsight!) which Daz put his hand up to cook (literally, in the end!). Daz's mum Neroli came to the rescue with some Jamie Oliver tips the night before and to be double sure, when we rose at 7am (turkey to go on at 7am to be ready by 1pm), we googled “How to cook a turkey" and came up with some more tips - about weights and time-lengths. I put myself in charge of seasoning (not sure why - not like I was ever smart enough to actually watch Nan make hers!) and then had to google “turkey seasoning”. I found a Canadian Living magazine which had a recipe (no amounts - had to guess) for a sounding-delish apple and walnut seasoning. We had most ingredients (not really - but the main ones... except walnut!... ie i had an apple) so we went for that. It was... not bad. Everyone seemed to think it was great, but of course, none of them have tasted Nan's seasoning so they're all amateurs and not to be trusted if you ask me. I've told Corky that I’m going to make it my mission to be able to make Nan's seasoning by February (10 days to go!
The day was pretty good - guests arrived at 2pm, we served lunch at 2.30pm - turkey was cooked absolutely perfectly - moist, succulent, tasty. Daz is such a capable boy - he just decides to do something and then does it, expecting it to work out - and it always does. I watch him do this day in, day out with the building, so it's not surprising that he managed to make the turkey so well on his first time ever. Kels was on fire too. She cut up a kabillion veggies the day before with the help of Ben, visitors John and Lani – and all were roasted till crisp and crunchy. Corky was going to make the “world’s most delicious orange, egg and onion” salad until the last minute when I heard him muse that maybe it wasn’t “as delicious as he remembered”… it seems our fine kitchen efforts might have intimidated him somewhat!
Debbie (short white hair in pics) made us a trifle (quite posh!) and Linda (wonder woman shirt, friend of Shona's) brought us pudding from Australia and made us custard. Shona made a fruit salad (exotic, African style - mango, banana, watermelon and plums). And some legend (don’t even know who) brought us heaaaaaps of Cadbury's HEROES chocolates (small mars bars, crunchies etc) from Australia.
All ate, drank and played cricket – and enjoyed getting drenched by a whopping thunderstorm afterwards.
New Year 2008
We worked in and around the actual Christmas and New Year’s public holidays and in fact, Daz and Corky both worked on NYD. What would possess them to do that? One) we were trying to get our volunteer huts finito-ed for the impending arrival of volunteers! And two) they both enjoy working, doing the handyman type jobs, on their own without having to direct 20 always-surprising Tanzanians.
Ane ever since …
It seems like we’ve been welcoming the Kesho Crew 2008. Very exciting! It’s been volunteer after volunteer (and one hut finished…and soon another will be). It’s pretty bloody terrific for these wonderfully brave people to give up their time and money to fly to Tanzania and help us out – I feel totally, unconditionally supported. “I just want to be useful” – they’ve all said it to me in their own words over the past few weeks. It’s amazing to have people come here without anything on their mind except to help. Naturally, I’m taking them up on their offers, left, right and centre – the jobs have been flying thick and fast. Here’s who’s helpin’:
This year, we first welcomed Jenna. She began by de-mangoing our laden tree and then moved onto writing a few email replies for me, doing job descriptions for our staff, creating pinboards for the office, cooking us all a delicious spaghetti bolognaise, doing some fact-checking with our house mamas, doing the shopping and generally just helping out with any job thrown her way! Thanks again Jenna – karibu tena! (“Welcome again!”)
Lily, has been fundraising for {fws} in Australia – Melbournites will know her from the Comedy night – Chekesha. She’s here for three months and has taken on the role of Volunteer Leader – whereby she basically runs the volunteer house, ensuring we have food, toiletries, social gatherings, someone to debrief with, etc. It’s a full-time job, yet somehow she’s managed to write us a terrific Emergency Evacuation plan and Risk Assessment. Soon she’ll be helping out with running the kids and house mama lessons..
Nick has arrived as our bursar, and man, I enjoyed handing the day-to-day running of accounts over. Numbers, money, petty cash, kitty, reimbursements, cheques, IOUs, wages, pay advances, saving schemes, accounts… all yours, son! He seems to think it’s all simple and easy and doesn’t break a sweat about it, which is nice to see. Better him manning the day-to-day accounts than me then!
Heather has hit the ground running as Kesho’s volunteer nurse. She’s programmed the health education classes for the mamas – they start with water hygiene and washing, then move onto anatomy, recognising diseases, nutrition… on it goes. Today, she spent the day with one of our mama’s children. The mama left for hospital three days ago with malaria, having no choice but to leave her children at home to fend for themselves. The oldest is nine. When Heather arrived to check on them, she found them trying to make themselves some ugali (polenta). She ascertained they hadn’t a carer and hadn’t seen their mother for three days and quickly arranged for Lucas, our Tanzanian jack-of-all-trades employee to stay with the children for the afternoon, buy them some food for dinner, cook dinner with them and care for them over night. We’ll see how that one goes tomorrow when Lucas reports back. We think we might get Lucas to head out to the hospital with the kids tomorrow to see how the house mama is faring – and to let her know her children are being cared for… we’ve begun our work here in earnest.
Warren, a school principal from Australia, got thrown into the ute and told to drive without killing goat, child or donkey. He did well and so he got the job of {fws}’s purchasing officer. This means he will go into town and buy buy, buy building materials for Kesho Leo – and food, food, food for the volunteer team! He’s also put his hand up for a few gardening jobs around the shamba, a few handyman jobs.
Clare, Warren’s magnificent wife, is here to set up an education program for our house mama’s children. It will kick of next Friday and will involve mama & child game playing, learning language through craft activities and story reading…Clare, working as a teacher with hearing impaired children in Australia is also interested in visiting local schools, and in particularly Sombotini, a centre for physically challenged Tanzanians. We’ll arrange to get her out and about as soon as she’s ready!
Janelle is our all-rounder, here to help with a bitta this, bitta that – and we’ve put her to the task. She’s going to assist Warren in his gardening clean-up jobs (sheering lantana, moving the tools to our make-shift garden shed, cleaning the banana showers, emailing a bit for me, assisting Lily with the weekly shopping, helping Clare and Heather with the house mama and kids lessons. She’s also offered to clean our fridge every Sunday (“label it or it gets chucked!”) and to cook us all a big, community, bonding meal each Wednesday. Too good!
So yes, our volunteer village is operating full speed ahead. We’re putting the final touches (rendering and paint) on the last hut this week … then next week, we reckon we’ll be back up on the block, picking up where we left off with Kesho Leo children’s village, but the real excitement is naturally all around this Friday – the 25 January 2008 - when we start doing what we came here to do…
Woohoo,
Beck, xxx
So … there was Christmas.
Picture this: hampers!
We surprised our labourers with a “Christmas hamper” that combined an individual framed photo of them on the job with us, a loaf of bread, a small tub of margarine, and lollies for their children. They were pretty stoked, particularly Paulo, who is a father of 7. He spent a long time simply staring at the photo we’d given him before coming up to Darren and I and telling us (with Mudi interpreting) that now his children would always know and remember him long after he was gone.
Kesho Leo House Mamas & Sponsorships
Kels and Shona delivered some pretty fantastic Xmas news on the 22nd December when they asked 12 single mothers to the {fws} office to break some pretty awesome news – they had a job for the next 15 years as of next year! They were, naturally, thrilled, especially when we advised that their training (in positive parenting, health and English language) would begin on the 25th January 2008. We are looking now for supporters to sponsor this training for the next three months, at $30 per month. For more info about this – and to read profiles of our mamas – visit www.foodwatershelter.org.au/sponsorships
The Old 25 December 2007.
Knowing that we had between 15 and 20 guests arriving, I’d ordered a 10kg turkey (bit big in hindsight!) which Daz put his hand up to cook (literally, in the end!). Daz's mum Neroli came to the rescue with some Jamie Oliver tips the night before and to be double sure, when we rose at 7am (turkey to go on at 7am to be ready by 1pm), we googled “How to cook a turkey" and came up with some more tips - about weights and time-lengths. I put myself in charge of seasoning (not sure why - not like I was ever smart enough to actually watch Nan make hers!) and then had to google “turkey seasoning”. I found a Canadian Living magazine which had a recipe (no amounts - had to guess) for a sounding-delish apple and walnut seasoning. We had most ingredients (not really - but the main ones... except walnut!... ie i had an apple) so we went for that. It was... not bad. Everyone seemed to think it was great, but of course, none of them have tasted Nan's seasoning so they're all amateurs and not to be trusted if you ask me. I've told Corky that I’m going to make it my mission to be able to make Nan's seasoning by February (10 days to go!
The day was pretty good - guests arrived at 2pm, we served lunch at 2.30pm - turkey was cooked absolutely perfectly - moist, succulent, tasty. Daz is such a capable boy - he just decides to do something and then does it, expecting it to work out - and it always does. I watch him do this day in, day out with the building, so it's not surprising that he managed to make the turkey so well on his first time ever. Kels was on fire too. She cut up a kabillion veggies the day before with the help of Ben, visitors John and Lani – and all were roasted till crisp and crunchy. Corky was going to make the “world’s most delicious orange, egg and onion” salad until the last minute when I heard him muse that maybe it wasn’t “as delicious as he remembered”… it seems our fine kitchen efforts might have intimidated him somewhat!
Debbie (short white hair in pics) made us a trifle (quite posh!) and Linda (wonder woman shirt, friend of Shona's) brought us pudding from Australia and made us custard. Shona made a fruit salad (exotic, African style - mango, banana, watermelon and plums). And some legend (don’t even know who) brought us heaaaaaps of Cadbury's HEROES chocolates (small mars bars, crunchies etc) from Australia.
All ate, drank and played cricket – and enjoyed getting drenched by a whopping thunderstorm afterwards.
New Year 2008
We worked in and around the actual Christmas and New Year’s public holidays and in fact, Daz and Corky both worked on NYD. What would possess them to do that? One) we were trying to get our volunteer huts finito-ed for the impending arrival of volunteers! And two) they both enjoy working, doing the handyman type jobs, on their own without having to direct 20 always-surprising Tanzanians.
Ane ever since …
It seems like we’ve been welcoming the Kesho Crew 2008. Very exciting! It’s been volunteer after volunteer (and one hut finished…and soon another will be). It’s pretty bloody terrific for these wonderfully brave people to give up their time and money to fly to Tanzania and help us out – I feel totally, unconditionally supported. “I just want to be useful” – they’ve all said it to me in their own words over the past few weeks. It’s amazing to have people come here without anything on their mind except to help. Naturally, I’m taking them up on their offers, left, right and centre – the jobs have been flying thick and fast. Here’s who’s helpin’:
This year, we first welcomed Jenna. She began by de-mangoing our laden tree and then moved onto writing a few email replies for me, doing job descriptions for our staff, creating pinboards for the office, cooking us all a delicious spaghetti bolognaise, doing some fact-checking with our house mamas, doing the shopping and generally just helping out with any job thrown her way! Thanks again Jenna – karibu tena! (“Welcome again!”)
Lily, has been fundraising for {fws} in Australia – Melbournites will know her from the Comedy night – Chekesha. She’s here for three months and has taken on the role of Volunteer Leader – whereby she basically runs the volunteer house, ensuring we have food, toiletries, social gatherings, someone to debrief with, etc. It’s a full-time job, yet somehow she’s managed to write us a terrific Emergency Evacuation plan and Risk Assessment. Soon she’ll be helping out with running the kids and house mama lessons..
Nick has arrived as our bursar, and man, I enjoyed handing the day-to-day running of accounts over. Numbers, money, petty cash, kitty, reimbursements, cheques, IOUs, wages, pay advances, saving schemes, accounts… all yours, son! He seems to think it’s all simple and easy and doesn’t break a sweat about it, which is nice to see. Better him manning the day-to-day accounts than me then!
Heather has hit the ground running as Kesho’s volunteer nurse. She’s programmed the health education classes for the mamas – they start with water hygiene and washing, then move onto anatomy, recognising diseases, nutrition… on it goes. Today, she spent the day with one of our mama’s children. The mama left for hospital three days ago with malaria, having no choice but to leave her children at home to fend for themselves. The oldest is nine. When Heather arrived to check on them, she found them trying to make themselves some ugali (polenta). She ascertained they hadn’t a carer and hadn’t seen their mother for three days and quickly arranged for Lucas, our Tanzanian jack-of-all-trades employee to stay with the children for the afternoon, buy them some food for dinner, cook dinner with them and care for them over night. We’ll see how that one goes tomorrow when Lucas reports back. We think we might get Lucas to head out to the hospital with the kids tomorrow to see how the house mama is faring – and to let her know her children are being cared for… we’ve begun our work here in earnest.
Warren, a school principal from Australia, got thrown into the ute and told to drive without killing goat, child or donkey. He did well and so he got the job of {fws}’s purchasing officer. This means he will go into town and buy buy, buy building materials for Kesho Leo – and food, food, food for the volunteer team! He’s also put his hand up for a few gardening jobs around the shamba, a few handyman jobs.
Clare, Warren’s magnificent wife, is here to set up an education program for our house mama’s children. It will kick of next Friday and will involve mama & child game playing, learning language through craft activities and story reading…Clare, working as a teacher with hearing impaired children in Australia is also interested in visiting local schools, and in particularly Sombotini, a centre for physically challenged Tanzanians. We’ll arrange to get her out and about as soon as she’s ready!
Janelle is our all-rounder, here to help with a bitta this, bitta that – and we’ve put her to the task. She’s going to assist Warren in his gardening clean-up jobs (sheering lantana, moving the tools to our make-shift garden shed, cleaning the banana showers, emailing a bit for me, assisting Lily with the weekly shopping, helping Clare and Heather with the house mama and kids lessons. She’s also offered to clean our fridge every Sunday (“label it or it gets chucked!”) and to cook us all a big, community, bonding meal each Wednesday. Too good!
So yes, our volunteer village is operating full speed ahead. We’re putting the final touches (rendering and paint) on the last hut this week … then next week, we reckon we’ll be back up on the block, picking up where we left off with Kesho Leo children’s village, but the real excitement is naturally all around this Friday – the 25 January 2008 - when we start doing what we came here to do…
Woohoo,
Beck, xxx
2 comments:
............and about bloody time he said!
Geez. You'd think you were busy over there or somefing. I mean, you've got volunteers coming out the back door of your volunteer hut, it's not like you couldn't spare a lazy half hour to fill me in on your progress!
well keep up the good work anyway.
Coolio/russian shepherd boy/john frusciante fan club Pres.
I have enjoyed reading about your dreams and plans for this community and I could feel the love and care as I journeyed with you through the Blog. Keep up the wonderful work and special hello to Clare & Warren.
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