A rainy welcome

20.04.2011

Mambo everybody, there is a new voice on the blog! That’s Francesca, the new help2kids Assistant Manager. Let me introduce myself as the newest member of the help2kids team in Tanzania.

My name is Francesca Tettamanzi, I’m 23-turning-24 years old and I come from Italy. Before coming to Mbezi Beach I was a fund-raising intern within the United Nations in Turin. My academic background is in conflict transformation and emergency resolution. I already had the opportunity of travelling around Africa: I was a teacher volunteer in Tanzania and Kenya and I was running small social-rural projects in Rwanda. Since my first time in Africa, I fell deeply in love with this continent and I am very overjoyed about this new job.

I already love the kids and the Mamas, and they are getting very close to me too. Life here is day by day full of new discovers and I’m super curious to see how it will go in the next months.

So, Karibu Sana in Tanzania for me!

Apart from the everyday life which is full of constant running around and laughing kids, we had the chance of taking part in a big event in Dar es Salaam. Last Saturday me, Cassie, Desi and Kristina participated to the “Walk for Water” marathon, a charity non-competitive march. This event was aimed at creating awareness about the global water crisis and targeted to raise funds for a water project in Bagamoyo, where the access to water is very poor. A 6 km march, a symbolic way to inform people about the distance that women have to walk with buckets on their head to the water wells in Bagamoyo. Despite the strong sun and the early wake-up, we really enjoyed it and we made it, as you can see from the picture!

Our super volunteer (and blog writer!) Desiree had delighted the kids with a new activity: the shakers! Every kid has worked on his-her own shaker, a dried newspaper balloon filled with beans. They really enjoyed making shakers and now we are having a lot of fun, playing and singing. Let’s see how these new musical instruments will turn into our new soundtrack for the orphanage!

These are Desi’s last African days and we are all going to miss her very much: Asante Sana for everything Desi, you have been a special volunteer and your help has been precious and indispensable.

The rainy season is now in its harshest phase and we are in the midst of it! And I’m not talking about a normal storm with a few drops of rain but about an improvise and intense shower!

Floodings are very likely to happen and after a big rain all the streets turn into swimming pools and it is very hard to drive. We experienced it some days ago on our way to the hospital: we were stuck with our car in a huge lake, not able to move and with the water up to the hood. Fortunately, we have found some very nice people and they helped us in getting out of the flood.

So, lesson learned: never drive too fast in a flooded road or you will have to sail with your car!

That was the “funny” side of the rainy season, but unluckily in Africa rain means mosquitoes. All the newborn standing water puddles have created the perfect habitat for mosquitoes to reproduce. And, consequently, also the probability of getting malaria is increased. In fact, after the long series of sick kids (plus our Cassie!) that we have had to deal with on the past week, we had some more ill patients. One of our kid, had malaria for the second time in 10 days: after the 5-injections treatment during which he was very brave now he completely recovered and returned our lovely happy child! Also another sweet boy was taken to the hospital because of a bad urinary system infection caused by a parasite: but now, thanks to medicines and our Mamas’ care now he is fine. We really hope that this rainy season will not cause any other troubles and that our children can avoid getting malaria.

The last big news of the week is that Cassie and Kristina, our volunteer from Germany, moved in the new help2kids Guest House and we are working very hard to make it a nice and lovely place to host guests and volunteers. We started buying all the furniture (some beds, a fridge, a stove, mosquitoes nets); next week we will try to organize for all the rest. Let’s hope to get good offers at the local market. For more details about the Friendly Gecko Guest House check out our website soon.

So, this is it for this week. Thanks for reading my blog and stay tuned: more news are coming soon!
Kwa heri!

Francesca Tettamanzi (Italy)
Assistant Manager Orphanage help2kids