Utete, TZ – Students work and play hard with garden shop team

For the third time in four years, two groups of students from Parmiter’s School, UK came to visit the KCM garden shop in Kindwitwi village. The thirty students and six teachers spent fourteen days working side by side with garden shop employees and local families. The students contributed both funds and their labor to projects that included building a house and toilet, installing water connections, and making compost.

For the students, the trip was the culmination of two years of fundraising, planning, and training. Each student was responsible for raising the money for their own travel and project contribution. To raise the money, the students organized creative fundraising events like talent shows, discos, dinners and raffles.

The trip was an opportunity for students to develop leadership and project management skills. The students were responsible for every aspect of their trip including planning their daily work schedules and budgeting for their accommodation, food and travel.

Both eighteen people groups arrived in Kindwitwi village exhausted after a six hour journey on rough Tanzanian roads. They were welcomed by the KCM Garden Shop team along with Better Lives coordinator Michael Oliver. Each group’s first tasks were to camp, meet their hosts, and plan a daily schedule for their seven days in the village.

The following day started out with a tour of Kindwitwi and the surrounding farms, which was an eye opening experience for many of the students because it is a very poor village with many families living in crowded mud huts.

During the fourteen days, the students followed a rigorous rotating schedule of project work, cooking for the group, and maintaining the camp. The students did very well to complete the following:

Build a family home
Install a water connection to a home
Install a water connection to the kindergarten school
Build a kindergarten school toilet
Build four hand wash basins at local schools
Build a shade roof over compost piles to improve their quality and lower water costs
Make 1,800 kg of compost

One of the project highlights was helping KCM employee Jumanne Magogo build his house. Jumanne had received a house building loan from the students and Better Lives, and the students helped build it. The house was built using local materials like rough timber, sticks, and mud. A home built this way in a quality manner can last 10-15 years, and can even last indefinitely when well maintained. The students worked side by side with Jumanne and his family to build the house. It was a good experience for everyone, and Jumanne and his family were very appreciative of the help the students provided them and now look forward to many happy years in their home.

Another highlight of the trip was implementing the water connection to the Kindwitwi Kindergarten. Water connections usually require digging a trench. In this case the connection required a 72 meter trench. Kindergartener parents, local leaders, and Parmiter’s students toiled from 8am – 12pm in the hot Tanzanian sun digging this long trench. The work was difficult and the temperature was high, but spirits were equal to the task as locals and students laughed and sang throughout the morning. The students contributed funds to pay for the water connection at the Kindergarten and it will be the parents’ responsibility to pay the water bill and maintain the connection. It was a beautiful sight seeing all the stakeholders working together.

In addition to project work, cultural exchanges are an important part of the trip. Students were given opportunities to learn how to prepare local meals in traditional Tanzanian environments. Some students relished the opportunity to cook chapatis, local donuts and a traditional “one plate” meal called pilau. Pilau is served on a big plate in the middle of a mat placed on the floor. Traditionally, families sit on the mat and eat from the same plate with their hands. Each group also had the chance to dance in a traditional “ngoma.” The term “ngoma” translates to drums and is the way that many rural Tanzanians celebrate a big occasion. A band of four drummers and three dancers start playing and dancing around in a circle. The dancers will lead the dance and participants are charged with following the lead dancer around the circle. Almost the entire village showed up for the dance on the final night to say goodbye to the students and to show gratitude for all their hard work.

The student’s trip also included a safari to one of Tanzania’s many impressive parks, a challenging mountain trek, and some relaxation on the Indian Ocean coastline. Better Lives and KCM are truly appreciative of the Parmiter’s student’s efforts fundraising and working hard on the projects. Karibu tena Tanzania (Welcome back to Tanzania) !