Farewell Letter From Gasto

Quick Stop To See Manchester Before Catching The Plane

After a teary farewell no one seemed up for a rendition of the wheels on the bus go round and round...

However all were looking forward to getting home and the mood was lifted by more donuts than any one bus load could manage, although Robin had a good go on the way to the Trafford centre.

The Girls At Old Trafford

More Posing At Old Trafford

The Guys At Old Trafford

A quick stop at old Trafford for photo opportunities...this was a first for me as well as the Tanzanians!

Chaos ensued at the check in desk with kit travelling from bag to bag to distribute the weight. All was eventually sorted and there was nothing else to do but say Kwaheri!

Big hugs all round, smiles but the odd tear in the eye as well. Both Tanzanians and Brits waved as far as we could see each other as they disappeared through the security check. 

Peter and I held back the tears on the way home reminiscing about an unforgettable 3 weeks, lamenting the departure of friends and eagerly thinking about the next time we would meet them.

Still can’t get Natembeya out of my head!

Stephen G

The Final Goodbye Of 2011, We Will Meet Again Soon...

The Goodbye Until Next Year In Rungwe

Well the morning we had all tried to put off was here and Mary was right in saying we all need plenty of tissues, i think some of us were crying before we even got to the car park. After all we had become such a close group and bonded so well that saying goodbye felt strange as we were use to seeing each other everyday more or less.

We had one last big group photo and you can see from the photo that we were trying to smile through the tears and the thing that really set the girls off was when Polly said 'We will meet again in Africa', it hardly seems 2 minutes since we were all welcoming them down at Ennerdale and the first thing Polly did was ask for a beer, where has the time gone?!

A lot of us were tired from the previous farewell evening especially Gasto as he had stayed up all night writing us a goodbye letter and Jack w has spent the night putting new music on Lazeck's mp3 for the journey home. As the bus pulled up it finally dawned on us that it was time for us to leave our guests and by now the girls were nearly drowning in tears,we all had one last big group hug and it was time to get on the coach, as they pulled away Osian brought out the letter Gasto had wrote for us saying "The mountains do not meet but people do" and simply signed 'i am Gasto', now this letter even set Osian off crying, it was a truly sentimental letter straight from the heart of one of the funniest and most willing people I have met, it is fair to say we all truly miss our guests, but enough of the sadness as we have another year ahead of us, i think we all have come out of this experience as proud Tanzumbrians and the memories we have shared will be treasured.

I think we owe a massive Thank-you to all of our Leaders, Mary, Don,Peter and Russ etc for all their hard work and i think we should all be proud of what we have achieved over the past year, Tutuonana baadaye (see you later)

Hannah F x

Role Reversal - 2004 to 2011

Polly Meets Baby Isaac 2011

We Met Hensley 2004

In 2004 when I first went to Tanzania as a student we were greeted with the fantastic news that Pollys wife Mama Joyce had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Polly proudly brought baby Hensley to meet us all and we all commented of how cute he was. Now in 2011 on Pollys visit to the UK he got to meet my new son Isaac as I proudly presented him to the link. I think they all thought he was cute too...


It was 2003 when I first really got involved with the Tanzanian link, we were working towards an Inward visit and had months of hard work and excitement to build it all up. When the Tanzanians actually arrived it was great fun, I hosted Christon Fannuel and got to meet all of the other Tanzanian students and Polly who would end up keeping me safe in Tanzania for years to come.


We had heard all the stories of how life was in Tanzania, but one cant even begin to grasp what it is truly like until you have had the chance to experience it first hand. My first real taste of this was talking for hours with Christon about his schooling, family, friends, and how hard everyone seemed to have to work. It was a great couple of weeks and I managed to teach Christon basic computing, we did some science and math and I also learned some KiSwahili, (some of :-S) which I still remember today.


In 2004 I got to go to Tanzania! I was very worried about the trip and was so close to backing out, with hindsight I think that could've been one of the biggest mistakes in my life. If there is one thing the link teaches you, it is to just get on with it, and when we got there I ended up going native. Without CRCL I dont think I would've found what is now a big part of my life and something I care dearly about. Out in Tanzania I helped to set up a computer for Lutengano school. This is the great thing about CRCL, its a small charity with big impact, the leaders allowed us to use our own strengths and ideas to guide the projects an our activities. Mama Mary made sure everyone got a chance to do what they were good at, enabling us all to make our own contribution and put our own stamp on the visit. This just wouldn't happen with most charity exchanges.


Since then I have been out on a visit by myself to work with schools, I've been a leader and hosted several times. When Isaac grows up we will be back involved as a family and hopefully he will be involved in keeping this amazing charity going for another generation.


Ashley N

The Farewell Afro-Ceilidh

The Afro - Ceilidh brought out so many different emotions in the majority of us. The whole evening was a great success with everyone joining in and and enjoying themselves. To begin with everyone was singing and dancing along, following the same steps, but as the night went on more and more people joined in and the set dance moves turned into amazing freestyle dancing. As if the singing and dancing wasn’t amazing enough, as the link always does and will continue to do so, we always raise the bar and make sure everyone has an absolutely fantastic time. The people involved in the drama project put on a flawless show for everyone, there wasn’t one single person that couldn’t stop laughing and smiling throughout the performance. Gasto’s acting skills are up there with the likes of Will Smith and Tom Cruise, actually Gasto is probably tops them, he’s such a lively and charismatic young gentleman who everyone within the link had fallen in love with. 

The Play Preformed To The Adoring Crowds

Some Tanzanian Dances

The night did have it’s downside, it was the last night we were going to spend with our beloved Tanzanians, although everyone made the most of the time we had left with them, it was still there at the back of most peoples minds. Towards the end of the evening those really upsetting thoughts surfaced and most people got very emotional. Whilst the majority of us English students were in floods of tears, the Tanzanian students were just laughing and generally having an absolutely amazing time and reflecting on the past three weeks they have spent with us.

Felister and her 3 new Cumbrian families

Felister and her 3 cumbrian sisters

Lazeck With His Three Cumbrian Families

Sam and Sylvia Were Jointly Presented With The Best Fundraiser Shield

Felister With Her Three New Cumbrian Mamas

A lot of thought went into leaving gifts we could present our guests with, we eventually came to the decision to buy each of our Tanzanians a personalised Thorntons chocolate with each of their names on which we presented them with towards the end of the evening.

A huge thanks must go to Mary and her fellow band members who provided the fantastic entertainment for the night and to everyone who donated raffle prizes and lovely food which went down well with everyone. Most importantly and the biggest thanks must go to everyone who has contributed to the organisation of the link and to making the visit a very eye opening and unforgettable experience for everyone.
I personally thought the Afro - Ceilidh was one of the best nights we have all spent together as a group. From Gillerthwaite to now, there has been so much of a dramatic change, the Tanzanians seem to have brought us all together and created one big family. We have all made new best friends for life and have created so many amazing and enjoyable memories that will stay with us forever.

Group Shot Of Everyone

Group Shot Of The Cumbrian Students

Abbie G Xxxx

Video - The Farewell Ceilidh

Iluminata & Stephanie On Hosting

Before the Tanzanians arrived I was very excited to have one stay with me but also quite scared at the same time! I was scared she wouldn’t enjoy her stay with us and also that she wouldn’t understand me! However, we had a brilliant time together from the day Iluminata arrived. 

We did lots of things in the evenings to keep us entertained. A few nights she came to watch me at my dancing lessons which I think she enjoyed but also found quite different at the same time! We played on the Wii a lot together which she beat me on some games such as boxing and bowling several times! Haha. And we played a board game called Frustration a lot which she seemed to love as she always asked to play it and even got the other Tanzanians to play it with her when they were at mine haha!
My friends and some others involved in the Tanzania Link came round to mine with the Tanzanians a couple of evenings where we played different games and generally just had a laugh. I think Iluminata enjoyed having other Tanzanian company round sometimes.

Iluminata With My Parents

Me And Iluminata At Whitehaven Habour

One night my Mum and Dad took her to see one of the lakes and also round the harbour. They had a really good time and Iluminata enjoyed looking at all the boats.

At Zest

On our last night my family took her to Zest for a meal and then we went for a little wander around the harbour. I was very sad for her to leave ours but had a great time hosting her! It taught me a lot and I may even start making my bed as she put me to shame as she made hers everyday as soon as she got up! Haha. It taught me to appreciate all we have as I found it very eye opening having to show her how all the things work which we take for granted. It really was an experience!

Stephanie G

Evaluation Morning

We held an evaluation session in Bigrigg Village Hall, and worked in ever changing groups so people could swap their experiences of the last 3 weeks with lots of different people. We used ‘old school’ flip chart recording, and will use everyone’s ideas to help plan the future. 

We looked at what had been best, what might be improved in future, and what people hadn’t liked (fortunately, not much of this one!!) – and then went on to talk about what had surprised people, and finally started to plan what might happen in Tanzania next summer.

We had planned to finish on some group activity – of course the music and dancing that we’d all been enjoying for 3 weeks, and I apologise that we ran out of time. But as I drove away with Mama Joyce to photocopy the Tanzanians’ diaries, and then to get ready for the Afro-Ceilidh later, the lads were round the back of Bigrigg Village Hall playing football, before everyone headed off to Sylvia’s for more group time and relaxation (and Jenga!!).

Here’s some comments from students’ diaries

• It was good to be able to talk to the Tanzanians about their whole experience and found out what they had enjoyed and what they hadn’t 
• We generally had a lot of good things to say and a few suggestions for improvement, but the list of “not so good” things didn’t get very long! 
• I liked the setup of it all, how we switched tables and got to put an opinion in with each category in the morning evaluation 
• The morning evaluation was a good chance to look back on all the things we had done with our guests and a chance to see just how much we had all bonded as a group despite the language barrier, it actually didn’t turn out to be a problem. 
• Was quite good to see what other people had written down. 

Mega thanks to Sylvia, Abbie and Brogan for extracting all the information from the flip chart pages and emailing them back to me so I can pull the whole thing together.

Wall Chart Of Unexpected Things

Wal Chart Of Surprising Things

Mary

CRCL In The Whitehaven News

Whitehaven News Home Page

Harrington & Beckstone Primary School Visit

Today we visited Harrington primary school, Beckstone Primary. The school was on a almost vertical hill but Mary managed to beat the mini van into submission and we got there eventually. The primary school was certainly impressive and even the English students were surprised at how well off the school was! We were greeted by an electronic board outside the main entrance and welcomed by music in the hall, which had flat screens showing pictures of school visits. The students were all ready and sitting nicely when we came into the hall and sang beautifully for us, they even sang Natembeya in Zulu which was very impressive on their part. They sang a traditional Cumbrian song while we matched their efforts with some songs and dances of our own, including the classics.

The Group Performing Some Traditional Tanzanian Dance

The Group Performing Some Traditional Tanzanian Dance

Questions time ensued but it was a lot more efficient as each class had one question each to ask and we got placed in neat groups to be shown around the school and see all the class rooms and facilities. We then came back to the hall to see the stunning performance routine they had practised for Rock Challenge based on the emotion Fear, they dancing was in time and the backgrounds were really good too. We did some for dances for the people who missed them.

Some Q and A

The Students Brush Up On Sand Castle Building

We did lots of things in the school after like have a little refreshing break with digestives and juice in the nursury and then we joined in with playtime and had fun with the wooden pirate ship in the play ground, the mini houses were fun for the lads as well. We talked a lot to the other years also and played in the climbing frames much to our delight. 

Play Time...

Making A Quick Escape

Lunch followed and we were served a traditional primary meal which brought back lots of memories, we also spread out so the children could come and talk to us about the link and why we were there and so on. It was a really great way to answer some questions and get to know the kids a little more. We played cricket too and almost everyone (excluding Polly and the other leaders) joined in. More playing was done and lots of children during this time thought it would be great to clamber all over Ried and Alana until we hopped back into the mini bus and got back to St. Bens. All in all it was a good day and both sides got a good benefit from the visit.

Playing Cricket

Out...

Tanzumbrians Visit Carlisle

Today was our trip to Carlisle! After meeting at St. Benedict’s school we all split into groups for the journey. Those of us in Becca’s car introduced Gasto to ‘The Fratellis’ which he loved! (and continued to sing all day!). After landing in Carlisle we went straight to Tullie House for the exhibition on the Romans. The exhibition was really interesting especially for some of the Tanzanians as they had studied them at school. The museum was full of artifacts and interactive games which were really good fun. The Roman dress up area seemed to be a favourite for Gasto (even if he was dressed up as a woman!). We were all given a Roman passports and given a job according to what we had answered to some questions.

Catherine & Brogan As Romans

Safinia And Illuminata In Roman Dress

What Type Of Roman Was Safinia

This provided a good laugh as there was a few who were given jobs such as Potters and some Senators for me and Lusekelo. After a quick look around the Cumbrian history section and some more dressing up we split from the adults for lunch. We introduced the Tanzanians to KFC and had a quick wander around the shops in Carlisle. We also had a group photos made for all the Tanzanians to keep. We ended the day with a quick game of Laser Quest! This was brilliant fun and everybody loved it (even though a few of us were very competitive!). Just before leaving for the bus home us Cumbrian's decided to a bit of impromptu Tanzanian dancing outside Tullie House on the side of road, much to the amusement of the Tanzanians and everybody driving past on the road!

So another brilliant day and hopefully our last remaining days will be as good as this one.

Sam

Drama Day Two At St Benedicts

It was the second day of our drama project at St Benedicts school. We had already sorted out the plot of our “play” the day before but we still had all the dancing and singing to organise. 

Tanzanians Leading The Way

Really Putting Everything Into The Singing

It was great the way we all came together and put different ideas forward on how the play should happen and we all agreed on making it into a musical (with as little acting as possible!) which could represent our aim of showing other people that all together we form a one family. Because we had already practiced a lot of Tanzanian style dancing over the past few weeks we decided to make a storyline based on those songs and dances. We then came up with the idea of using “Maria” and “Tomati sosi” to create two characters “Maria” and “Tomati,” which were going to represent our aim of the show.

Anxiously Waiting To Perform, Holding The TZ Flag For Support :-)

Anxiously Waiting To Perform..

Audience Arrives

Nothing Like A Live Performance

Once we finally all knew what we were doing (we had a lot of breaks) we set up the hall and waited for our primary school guests. Plus some St Benedicts yr 9’s! After we performed our musical “mama Maria!” we went down to the children and got them to join in with Tumogele which they loved just as much as us! Overall it has been a good past two days plus the glorious weather on Monday (not so good today though .) I think we have all had such a good time and we have all had a good few laughs throughout the project especially when Gasto sang “Maria!!”

Ruth B

Fair Trade Fashion Show

Tonight as part of the Fair-trade evening at St Benedict’s school we took part in a play we have been rehearsing for the past two days and also a Tanzanian fashion show. Our play was a Tanzumbrian musical and it contained all the songs we had learned from the Tanzanians and also all the dances. We performed for all the parents that were there and despite the nerves I thought it was rather fun in the end.

We then watched some school children do a dance to the African song Waka Waka and the Tanzanians liked that, especially Gasto who was singing along to it and being very energetic and fun as usual. The children’s performance3 was good but of course we were so much better...

Then it was time for us all to dress up, at first me and some others were against the idea but then enjoyed it as we went up the sort of catwalk. I enjoyed it all and so did Lusekelo who I am currently hosting. He said he thought it was fun and he liked dressing up. 

Mama Joyce In Some Traditional Dress

All The Tanzumbrians Showing Off Their Fair Trade Wears

Reid T

Drama Day One At St Benedicts

Wow, today was awesome! 

We did some funny games to get warmed up, and then picked up where we'd left off yesterday. Charlotte had written some scripts for us so we could be more confident with our parts and also so we'd be able to give everyone something to say more easily. We had to rearrange the groups around to make them more mixed, and then we could get started properly.

I think the highlight of today has to be Gasto's acting. His proposal to Catherine made hearts melt and when Charlotte told him to look sad, he took it to the extreme and looked completely traumatised. It was very hard to keep a straight face on stage with Gasto bawling "Oh Maria!" into his I <3 Tanzania drum! Our Tanzumbrian musical "Mama Maria", went down well with the audience, even though we had a lot of difficulty fitting everyone on the tiny stage. I think we almost stomped right through the extensions, that's how caught up in the songs we were!

Performing

More Performing

Even though there were some minor problems, the play went very well and I know the audience were impressed by all the Tanzanian songs. After the show, the audience swamped our Tanzanian guests with questions and begged them for photos; it was almost like they were famous actors! There was also a trick exchange with Gasto and Lazeck showing everyone their signature roll, and then hilariously trying to copy the gymnastics of the English girls!

We laughed so much today, my sides hurt. Having said that, it was totally worth it!

Caia V

Polly Visits A Cattle Auction In Carlisle

Today I visited the cattle auctions in Carlisle. There was a delay because Terrys cow had a disease that needed to be sorted first. Anyway eventually the trip happened. Arrived at shepherd Inn thought Terry might be talking me to a posh place like Hotel to get coffee, but it was not, it was auction place while back home could be done open shambles, with full of Tsetse fly and other type of bitingflies, but it was not the way, it was a kind Eden. 

First Cow in the Ring

Inspecting The Gait

Some Sheep

Another Cow...

An English Buffalo

Once in Carlisle we visited different arenas in the auction for Cows, Pigs and Sheep. The cows are big like English Tembo (elephants) some had thighs as thick as buffalo’s. The cows come in to a circular arena and can be walked round for buyers to inspect their gait. In Tanzania they just walk through in straight line. Live stock then leaves the arena via opening gates and straight to the buyers to walk them to the local abattoir (machinjio). I think I will take these good new ideas back to Tukuyu for our auctions there. We might not have electronic scales but we can adapt other ideas.

I think when I get back to Tanzania I will return to my profession and buy more cows!

By Polly.