Hi everyone. Tonight 1/2 is our last night in Dar es Salaam before catching a bus at 0630 for an 8hour coach trip to Moshi - should be interesting! The rest of the group arrive on 3/2 and we start our trek early on 4/2, following the Machame route.  Just want to say how humbled we are for all the wonderful donations and messages of support. Now its nearly time for us to do the physical stuff and hopefully get to the top - but please keep fingers and toes crossed for us!!  Bfn. Lindsay and Kevin  

NB Please scroll down this page for news of Lindsay's experience volunteering in Tanzania

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Some of you may know Lindsay has been volunteering in an orphanage in Tanzania, East Africa since November 2011. She is now nearing the end of her work in the orphanage and I will be meeting up with her very soon, and we will both be climbing/trekking Kilimanjaro in aid of the Alzheimers Society.

Kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain in the world, and the highest mountain on the African continent at 5,896m (Yikes!). The climb is over 7 days starting on February 4th, we should (we are very determined!) reach the summit on the 9th, celebrate a birthday on the 10th (the older one of us!), and return to Lindsay's orphanage to say goodbye to the children and head home to London on February 13th.

Alzheimer's disease is a physical disease affecting the brain and is the most common cause of dementia, affecting around 465,000 people in the UK. Symptoms can include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain diseases and conditions.
Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, which means that gradually, over time, more parts of the brain are damaged. As this happens, the symptoms become more severe. 

 

Most of us know someone who has been affected by Alzheimers, be it family, colleague or friend, so please dig deep and help us to achieve our target of £8000 to help support the society in their research, in the hope that they will ultimately find a cure.

 

• £5 could pay for one person to attend a half hour session at a monthly Dementia Café, providing information and support for people with dementia and their carers.
• £20 could pay for 100 copies of 'Understanding and Respecting the person with dementia' - one of the Society's most requested factsheets.
• £50 could fund a PhD researcher for one day to continue vital research into understanding the causes of dementia, how it can be treated and, ultimately, to find a cure.
•  £120 could pay to run Talking Point for one day - the Society's 24/7 online community for all people affected by dementia.

 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate -We raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

 

Many many thanks, Lindsay and Kevin xxx

Lindsay's Volunteer Log....

20.11.2011

On Tuesday I will have been here 3 weeks ... and it's been an interesting and very different 3 weeks to normal life! I have to say panic set in for me when my flight had its stop over at Qatar airport - was only there for about an hour and suddenly being stared out by everyone became quite uncomfortable! Other than that my flight was fine and I arrived in Dar es Salaam on 1st November at about 1.30pm local time. Was met by a man named Lukas from the Projects Abroad office and then I was introduced to the traffic and driving procedures of Tanzania! If you think traffic in rush hour in London is bad ... take a little trip to Africa! Then again here people don't just sit in the traffic ... they drive on pavements, they cut across petrol stations, they choose which side of the road is emptier as the one to drive on, a minor collision is no big deal - no deal at all, motorbikes take 2 or 3 passengers - all with no helmets of course (which Lukas took me on on my induction day … yes I was terrified!), pretty much everyone has a cracked windscreen, and the roads ... well they aren't roads at all! It really is a nice surprise when you hit some tarmac and don't have to brace yourself for every pothole! And then when it rains they dodge the puddles too!

My host family are 2 sisters, Sherrin who is 25 and Zyleen, 23. They are both very nice and welcoming and want us to be very comfortable in their house. The downside is they are both doctors - Sherrin works in the Emergency Department of Mhumbili hospital in Dar (one of only 4 hospitals with an ER in the whole of Africa so she tells me!), and Zyleen is an intern currently on her rotations so she changes department every few weeks. This means they work pretty much all the time, and if they aren't actually at the hospital they are exhausted from work, and so they don't have much time to do anything with us or show us around. For my first 2 weeks I was on my own in the house (and the orphanage) so it was quite hard. You are basically told to not go around on your own here, and not to go around when it gets dark, and not to use taxi's and plenty of other things which will probably just scare you all if I tell them all - it just isn't a particularly safe place to be at times and when your on your own. So that made things quite difficult for me to do anything in my first 2 weeks - that includes just seeing my local area! I'm also at least an hour away from the other volunteers so there wasn't much option for me to do much. So the term culture shock is exactly what it is. Tanzania is very different to anything I've ever experienced or seen. The way of life, the country, the landscape, the people ... everything is very very different!

My orphanage is a 15 minute walk from my house which is nice - sweating buckets when we arrive every day with just that 15 minute walk in the blazing sunshine (which I believe is temperatures around 30 degres/35 degrees). It has rained a far bit which is refresching temperature wise but makes everything and the place so dirty! I’m told there are 35 kids at my orphanage but the majority have always been at school when we are there during the day so I have only seen about 10 or so a day, They have a few dada’s who work very hard all day long doing all the cooking and washing for all the kids, I’ve helped in the kitchen a couple times - we made some donughty/doughy thing that is then deep fried - over a proper coal stove, like a camping stove. The worst thing in the kitchen is the flies - so many flies. Then helped take the heads of these teeny tiny fish which the kids eat with ugali (we have managed to escape having ugali so far … maize and waterm it doesn’t look or sound appealing!) Pilau is good though - seasoned rice, and chapati - a round bread cooked a bit like a pancake, and the deep fried donughty things. 
The youngest child is 4 months, then there is girl about 15months old - but she is there because her mum is one of the dadas. Then the kids are around 6/7, 11/12 then 17/19. So not babies or toddlers at all. Some of them speak some english which is very helpful - I am trying to pick up some swahili, but they do want us to teach the kids english because it’s a very good life skill for them to have and will improve their job prospects. There is no organisation or structure of any sort - some days I go in and there are no kids, some times I go in and they don’t have breakfast until 12pm. On my first day my supervisor - the guy who started the orphanage with his wife 10 years ago - wasn’t even there! Days are hard to plan - you really have to take each day as it comes because you never know and are never told what anyone is doing at any time! At the moment I do alot of playing and spending time one-on-one and in little groups. They love to draw and colour (they constantly ask me for paper … which I do not give until they say please :D (so if anything I will have taught them to have some manners by the time I go) - it is quite nie because sometimes one is waiting and if another is waiting by them they nudge them and tell them they have to say please! They enjoy reading - and they love these number and alphabet flash cards that I brought with me … they always want to play with them and they are proving to be quite good because there is a fair few things you can do with them learning wise. 
The conditions that they live in are - bad. You wouldn’t find people living in such places at home. In fact that was one thing I could see as I came in on my flight … all the corrugated iron roofs. There is a lot of sand and dirt, the toilets are holes in the ground and there is no running water. Which makes things like washing hands before eating difficult - but we are trying to get something done around that - with buckets! There is one main house with a small lounge and small bedroom which is the girls room, and the bedroom of the husband and wife who run the orphanage, Then there is a small out building for the boys room and kitchen. There is a big hole in the ceiling where the fan is and several very dodgy looking electrical sockets. There is a small sheltered area attached to the main building where the kids like to spend most of the time as it’s outside but sheltered. They have some carpets that they put out there and sweep everyday, But the place is very small - and you would have absolutely no idea it is an orphanage at all! I think there is actually a few other places/buildings nearby where some of the kids sleep - I haven’t quite worked that one out yet. The kids come and go almost as the please - one of them became cameraman with my camera and returned with pictures of all around the ‘neighbourhood’. I think they do brush their teeth - there is only one child who has black teeth at the front :( and she actually lives next door with her parents! She actually now also has a very bad looking eye - it is extremely swollen and pussy so I am trying to make sure she gets taken to a doctor if she hasn’t already! 



In the beginning and for the first 2 weeks I was pretty scared and feeling very out of my depth, mostly to do with the living here, and like it was going to be a very long 3 months. I am now more settled I think and am taking things more in my stride. There have been a few minor road collisions (very minor don’t worry), a ride on a motorbike with no helmet, many feelings of being utterly lost, rides in dala dala’s that really cannot possibly be road worthy (burning hot metal floors, burning sunshine, full petrol can behind the driver among the passengers!

22.11.10

The volunteers have a 'dirty day' this Friday where we are going to one orphanage that has just moved into a new - really lovely building (I say really lovely, I mean it has properly plastered walls and is painted white!) They have quite a bit of land so instead of doing the usual painting (which I am dying to do) we are going to be planting vegetable seeds so that the orphanage can start to sustain itself and the children can still eat even when they have no money. We may be getting them some chickens to so they can sell the eggs (people here sell hard boiled eggs, among other very random things) in the roads ... I did say the traffic was bad - so bad they bring their products to you! None of the children get any vegetables at all so it will be really good for their nutrition (which is bad) - so really looking forward to that. We'll be clearing the area and having a bonfire (in the already +35 degree heat!) and then the children will be helping us to plant the seeds :)  xx

10.12.2011

At the moment my plan for Christmas day will be to see my kids for a few hours (I am fortunate that although I'm far away from everything else, my orphanage is a 10minute walk away so I can go there anytime) - maybe have a little party and watch a Christmas film that is currently being sent over, along with lots of goodies and donations for the kids from my mum. They have a very ancient dvd player and tv (that only works to watch dvds) that was once donated to them by 2 people who went and filmed the conditions and the children, with the understanding that they would take the films home and try to raise donations and fundraising for the orphanage. Sadly though the orphanage has not heard from them since - and the films were made a few years ago. Mohammed who runs the orphanage believes they have raised money through the films but it has never been received by the orphanage. So I think it will be really nice for them to all sit together enjoying a Christmas childrens movie. I'm really looking forward to it - going to take in lots of nibbles and food, and play the one Christmas song I put on my ipod before coming out here (it's Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas' in case anyone is wondering!) but the kids know Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas so we can have them too.

So I have been in Dar and at my orphanage now for 5 and a half weeks. Because the next 2 weeks are spent up in Arusha that's actually half of my time at the orphanage! I'm definitely properly settled in there now (although I don't have a clue where anything is!) I think I said before that there is no supervision or organisation of not just me but the kids too - they are quite free to do whatever they want, as far as I can tell. They go out of the orphanage but they don't seem to stray too far. It has been there for 10 years so I think all the neighbours and surronding community must know who all the children are and where they have come from. There is an interesting neighbour though - the kids were playing with some rolled up socks they were using as a football - and they kicked it over the fence. They asked for it back and the neighbour said he would give it back if they gave him the 'mzungus' (that's right - me) to sell. Ah hum. But do not fear - the children are like my bodyguards when it comes to him, they make sure he doesn't get too close! The rest of the community seem to be quite supportive of the orphanage. In my 5 weeks I have seen a few donations made of food and juice for the children which they sit very quietly and eat. They always offer me their food when they are eating, I never take it, but it is really heartwarming that although they have nothing, they are willing to share with me what they have. One of the girls, Nuru, is constantly trying to give me presents of things like hairbands! The littlest is baby Jenifa (swahili names and words are spelt as you say them ... simple!) who is about 5 months. The best thing is the rest of the orphanage adore her! She gets plenty of cuddles and care from the others. She also gets plenty of cuddles and love and care from the 'mum' at the orphanage - which is really great - but I have not really seen her give much attention to the other kids. On Wednesday a lady came and spent the day at the orphanage. I have absolutely no idea who she was or what she was doing there - but all she seemed to do was sit on the couch for the entire day, except when she was telling the kids to get off the other couch so she could sleep! or when she was telling everyone to be quiet so she could pray! or telling the children to bring her food!!! I was completely confused and frankly a bit put out by it ... why would you come to an orphanage and sleep!!! So I didn't really like that very much. Because there is often a random person there, and I can never really work out what they are doing there - I don't always spend too much time watching them because I just take all the kids outside and do something fun with them - I kind of get the impression the orphanage is almost like a day care centre ... for all ages! So these grown adults come in and have some food and a sleep and then they leave. I have never seen anyone like that spend any time or attention on the kids, apart from those with food donations. Sofia is about 18months (all these ages are pretty much guesses) but she is the daughter of one of my favourite dadas - speaks no english but she always laughs at me when I help to cook because I'm too darn slow! Even though everything in Tanzania is 'pole pole' (slowly slowly). Sofia didn't like us very much in the beginning, she always used to cry just when I said hello to her! But now I get smiles, lots of high fives and sometimes even a cuddle if I'm very lucky! We have a new boy called Salem who was dropped off at the orphanage by the police because they found him wandering. I'm told his parents know he was taken to the orphanage but they have not come to get him. I don't know how true that is but that's what I've been told - only when I asked around of course! He cries alot - real sobs but when he cuddles you it is the best cuddle in the entire world. He clings on so tight! He's quite a big little boy, I think he's about 3, and he has a face like a chipmunk! Such a cutie! I found him on Wednesday crouching down on the floor with no trousers on ... when it suddenly struck me what he was doing! And that is how I found out that the children have a rota system in the orphanage of when it is their day to help out with certain things. I got one of the older girls and asked for some clean trousers for Salem, and things to clean him up - she then went and got Shamimu and Asma to help. Baby wipes! They need baby wipes! And the mess was buried with a shovel. Although the kids obviously like being together (they often share beds even if there happens to be space for a mattress each) they are always fighting with each other. Other volunteers have said they have seen their kids getting beating with sticks, which apparently happens in the schools here, but I haven't seen any of that at my orphanage - and I hope I'm not going too. I've not seen or heard any threats of that either which encourages me that Mohammed and his wife don't use that sort of punishment. The kids do hit each other though which I try my best to put a stop too! We play bingo - they love bingo! Every day they ask to play it and it can be really nice because it is about the only time they all sit in a circle (or start off that way) and play together. We play twister, we read lots of books. They teach me swahili and I teach them english, they love to do my hair (the boys too!). They shout my name when they see me walking up to the orphanage and they shout it for as long as I can hear when we leave. They like closeness and attention - I can tell that because they like to sit on you ... even when you already have 2 sitting on you! The older ones are very friendly and like to sit and have a chat with me. The little ones like to have a giggle with me! And the ones in the mid-ages just like to do everything! I'm really looking forward to the next 5 weeks that I will spend with them - I have lots to keep them busy. and a few ideas of things to do. But even on the days we don't play actual games, or sit down with a proper activity, those are the days I just feel like I'm hanging out with the kids, and they are letting me in on their day - and that is really fun because we just talk and mess about and help out with the running of the orphanage. And I still haven't met all 35 kids!