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Joe Fallows' comments on his recent trip to the Project

"I won’t lie when we first arrived in the village it was a culture shock. Going from spending a lot of time on my laptop, TV and games console to a place with no electricity at all was a big change but I soon got used to it with help from the wonderfully welcoming local people. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I feel very lucky to have gone on the expedition. It is something I will always remember and I hope to return in the future."

Joe Fallows

Working with the school

Elias, the teaching assistant, works with Alicia to teach arts and crafts – a novel lesson for these children!

The children take the opportunity to learn painting skills with Joe.

The children work hard to paint neatly in the lines! They are very patient to work in such heat but seem to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

The children are inquisitive and very friendly, although somewhat shy when it comes to practicing their English with English visitors.

The children are eager to learn. There is no misbehaviour or whispered conversations around the room. Everyone values the opportunity to receive an education.

Each child proudly displays their work of art before taking the paintings home to show their family.

A typical day at school. The kindergarten class sit patiently at the back. Class 1 and 2 sit in the middle of the room and Class 3 sit up front.

The children crouch on large rocks during the teaching sessions. A few have made a make-shift bench from a scrap of timber and two large rocks; everyone perches carefully to avoid tipping it over!

Judith, Joe, Elias, Nicholas and Mick stand proudly behind the pupils.

Our recent trip to the village

Day 1, Monday 9^th May – Deciding the location of the new eight classroom school and setting out the foundations.

Monday 9^th May – Squaring the foundations using the “3,4,5” triangular method

Tuesday 10^th May – Digging out the foundations to a depth of 550mm and moving the soil to the perimeter of site

"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;
mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Wednesday 11^th May – Digging out of the foundations is complete

"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;
mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Thursday 12^th May – Mixing mortar and laying stone to foundations

Friday 13^th May – Levelling and laying stone wall 350mm high above ground level

Saturday 14^th May – The rocks that will form the base for the mass concrete slab are laid

Sunday 15^th May – Stone and Mortar are laid to the top of the stone walling in readiness for the concrete slab

Tuesday 17^th May – Shuttering is fixed and the first part of the 100mm mass concrete slab is laid

Wednesday 18^th May – Mixing, laying and levelling of concrete to form the slab

It was a privilege and an honour to have Michael Rose, a builder from Sidmouth, joining us to lead the construction of the Buturi School. We originally planned to only start the construction of four rooms, but Mr Rose pushed to the limit and we managed to finish laying out eight rooms and he was determined to achieve more than we set out to do. As you can see from the pictures the weather was hot and humid and work was difficult but that did not deter him. His professionalism shone through and his commitment and determination was fully appreciated by the local community.

When we arrived there was three funerals within the community from different families, it meant that we had to overcome some difficulties to push through with the work required. I had a team of four that I took to Tanzania:

- Michael Rose

- Joseph Fallows

- Alicia Smith

- and myself Judith Smith

This was Joe Fallows' first trip to Africa but he took a whole wave of new experiences into his stride - the heat, the food and a very different culture and lifestyle without complaint, and enjoyed every moment.

It was also Alicia's first visit to the village project and she contributed by working closely with the school children and within one week introduced a whole new subject, Art, to the curriculum. This is a new focus for the school children, some of them had never drawn or painted with colour and reacted to this new experience with huge excitement.

I would like to thank Michael Rose for his generosity, both with his time and his talents. Without him travelling to the village and laying the foundation, this phase of the project would have cost far more to implement, in this case working at a distance would not have been efficient or cost effective.

Judith Smith

Buturi Project Blog

Hello and welcome to the Buturi/Makongoro Project Blog site.

We hope to keep you up to date with all the latest news and fundraising event details for the Buturi Project. Firstly, a bit of background about the Project...