Thank you for visiting our VSO page. 

We have been accepted for a VSO placement in Tanzania which will last for 2 years. Tanzania is on the east coast of Africa and had a population of 37million in 2003. We leave from Teesside on Sat 30^th Sept at 0815 to fly to Heathrow and our connection to Dar es Salaam leaves at 1920. The flight is 9hr 40min. The time difference is GMT +2 or +3 hours (+2 at present).

The first three days of in-country training will be spent in Dar es Salaam (east coast of Tanzania), including training about money matters, safety, essential shopping places and other house-keeping issues, embassy registration, and meeting various important officials.

We will spend about three weeks in Morogoro (town 189 miles west of Dar es Salaam) where we will be trained in the local language (Kiswahili), culture, health and security and more motorbike training for John!!! We then head for a town in the north west of Tanzania, off the shores of Lake Victoria, called Bukoba.

 

We will be placed at Hekima Girls’ Secondary School and the on-site accommodation is “suitable for a couple”! The most appropriate means of moving between schools for John is by motorbike which will be also useful for the weekly shop – we are researching  the location of the nearest Sainsbury’s!

 

John will be working with Physics and Maths teachers in a cluster of four schools around Bukoba. He will be helping the teachers develop their teaching skills and developing their computer skills including their use of the internet. In common with all VSO placements there is a major emphasis on AIDS / HIV awareness which we will be promoting during their two year placement.

 

Babs will be teaching Home Economics, also at the girls’ school but as yet has no idea what this might entail although she does know that the facilities are very basic! At present she is frantically researching what can be cooked using Tanzania’s staple diet of coconuts, bananas, rice and a cornmeal porridge called Ugali. The list is endless…!!

 

We hope that we will fit into the new culture and community comfortably and will try to avoid catching malaria and bilharzias (worms wriggling around your veins). Babs is looking forward to an interesting new diet and the likely possibility of losing weight in time for Eve’s wedding on 5^th April 2007 in Sydney! John is looking forward to all the many new challenges especially being involved with students who appreciate the opportunities that education provides. We are both looking forward to keeping in touch with as many friends and relations as possible but, as we have no idea what communication problems we might encounter til we get settled, which could be the beginning of November, please be patient!

 

 

Our website                           johnandbabs.tripod.com

 

Our school's website              www.beforemytime.org/hekima

If you are happy to do so, we would appreciate your making a donation online. Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support Voluntary Service Overseas: VSO will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

Many thanks for your support.

John & Babs Charney