Delivering the toys to an orphanage on Zanzibar Island

We left Nagaga village and headed to Zanzibar Island, off the coast of Tanzania. We meet our friend Gigi, a peace corps volunteer; working at an orphanage on Zanzibar Island. She found us sweet accommodations and introduced us to another volunteer, Anita who helped orient us to the town. Gigi, arranged for us to meet the matrons of the orphanage and explain our project. There were about 50 children living in the orphanage, boys and girls, of all ages. Each child got a toy. They were so sweet and grateful for the gifts. We were able to interact with them for a short while before they had to continue their daily schedule. Below are a few pictures of their smiling faces! Thank YOU Family Flex children and families for bringing an extra smile and happiness to these children.

Nagaga Village.... cows, roofing, coloring books, bandages and more....

Hello! We have had a very busy few days. We left the bustling town of Mtwara Sunday morning to arrive in the remote village of Nagaga 7 dusty, bumpy, exhausted hours later. We had many projects planned for our short time in Nagaga. See the pictures and captions below.

In collaboration with the Holy Cow Project, our friend Jessica sent us with funds and contacts to buy a pregnant milking cow for the Wagumu Camp in the village of Mkangaola. Wagumu camp is a group of about 23 villagers. The mission of their group is to provide Health Education to the rest of the village. Finding the cow was no easy task. We sent many villagers in search for a milking cow. After hearing of a prospect in the neighboring village of Lisange. We hopped on 5 motorcycles and took to the dusty road. The cow was beautiful as you can see from her picture above. The haggling for the price of the cow was successful. We settled on a fair price. The cow was herded 3 hours back to Nagaga. We arrived back to a huge celebration of singing, cheering, chanting, dancing and all kinds of happy festivities in honor of the cow's arrival. The village leader was called to officiate the exchange of the cow. Wagumu camp is now the proud owner of a healthy, pregnant, milking cow. We did our job! Soon they will be able to sell the milk to pay for other expenses to keep their office/clinic open to the public-providing health services. 

Secondly, the Wagumu camp chairperson, showed us the new office building the built themselves. The office has 4 rooms. The rooms will be used for guidance and counseling, testing for HIV/AIDS, group meetings, agriculture planning and other meeting groups. They built the building out of bricks but they did not have the resources to complete the roof. With the remaining funds from the HOLY COW project we were able to buy 45 pieces of tin roofing to complete the building and to shelter the cow's hut. 

That completes Monday. It was very unTanzanian of us all to collaborate and finish the above projects in a single day!

Tuesday, we woke early to the sounds of school children singing. We brought the donated gifts from FAMILY FLEX to give to the preschool children. The teachers welcomed us warmly. The students greeted us with songs and dance. There were 70 children in one classroom. We gave each child a coloring book, a handful of crayons and a pad of stickers. They loved their gifts and were very grateful for the visit. It was a lot of fun to interact with these joyful children. Unfortunately we had to cut the visit short because we had a meeting planned with an HIV/AIDS group at the local health dispensary. 

We walked to the health clinic and meet the doctor and Bwilo the chairperson of the HIV/AIDS group. Julie donated two boxes of health supplies to the local village clinic. The doctors and nurses were very excited for the new supplies. Ace bandages were not common in the village setting. They were very thrilled see how they worked and all the possible uses for them.

We left Nagaga village very happy about our projects!!!

That's it for today! We are swimming in the Indian ocean tomorrow and resting up for our next trip to Zanzibar island. We will meet up with our friend Gigi who works at an orphanage. She will help us to donate the rest of the toys from Family Flex.

Ethiopia to Mtwara, Tanzania!!!!

In Mtwara, Tanzania, this young boy, Onesmo, explores his new toy. Onesmo noticed that all of his friends had new toys, so he crawled to the gate where he came face to face with the guard dog.  But his journey was not in vain, we heard his cries, and we came to pick him up and offer him a special toy for his bravery.

Siladi loves his new cow. This one doesn't keep him up all night out his window mooing like the one that taunts me to buy  him and give him away. MOOOOOO!!!

Baobob tree vs Shannon!!

Tomorrow, we take a bus to the small village of Nagaga to buy a cow for the Wagumu group. Wish us luck!!!