Brisbane Grammar

Hello to all from Brisbane Grammar School in Tanzania.

We arrived in Dar Es Salam a little tired but happy to be in Africa.

Our first night we checked in to our hotel and it was my job to sort out the rooms and hand out the keys, we also bought water for our team and organised a restaurant for our 1st meal. We had a great time, food was excellent and we saved $3.00 each.

The next day we took an all day bus with the locals to Moshi, we had amazing views of Kilimanjaro as we got close to Moshi. We were dropped off in the middle of the bus station, but we managed to persuade the driver to take us to a round-about where we got picked up by Tommie, who is in charge of our project. We arrive at Camp Tanzania, had showers, food, a briefing by Tommie and then all in bed by 8.30, we were exhausted but happy to be in the foothills of the mountains.

Today is the second day of the project, we are helping to build a new dinning room and kitchen for Mbokomu Primary School, it's hot and hard work, but we take it in turns and the local craftsmen we're working with are great and teach us how to do everything. My job was to build a lental for the top of the wall so the roof will be supported above the doors and windows. We did it all by hand, no machines here. We made the wooden support/mould, fixed them over the steel rods that add strength, then poored the concrete in to the wooden support, it will take a few days to dry, but when we pull the wood off, it will look great,...I hope!!!

Also all the local kids were in school and we had a lot of fun with them, they were very excited to see us, and they kept our rugby ball which we gave them in the morning, it's better than the shoe they were playing with before. They are all really happy and their English is pretty good, there are two gap students here that have been teaching them English and helping building too.

OK, i've got to go, as it's time to start work again. Hello to everyone at home and school. We go to town tomorrow, because it's Sunday, we're all going to use the internet, so hopefully you'll hear from us again.

Bye for now, Tom.