Home-Building Expedition Blogs

Our team of volunteers from Babcock International, the first to participate in the Babcock - Vine Trust Volunteering Partnership, landed at Kilimanjaro airport on Saturday evening, tired but estatic to have finally arrived. The team of twenty-six will spend the next 2 weeks supporting local builders in the construction of new homes, and a new life, for 3 families in the Moshi area.  After a quick dinner at our hostel, the team headed to bed, excited to start their adventure. Sunday began with a traditional Tanzanian breakfast of chapati pancakes, egg and plantain bananas. The team then took a stroll around…

The October General Home-Building Expedition team had a busy weekend last week, with an early start to Saturday morning as they continued to work in two separate groups between the homes of Samwel and twins Nora and Dora.  The group at Samwel's site spent the day collecting water for cement mixing,mixing cement and passing buckets of cement to the fundis along with bricks, bricks and more bricks!  The team at Nora and Dora's home started their day by passing buckets of soil to level the foundations in the rooms and then moved on to lift and pass heavy bricks close to the home…

The first week of the October Home-Building Expedition has flown by and the team are making fantastic progress on the worksites. After a half day supporting the fundis, or local builders, on Wednesday morning, the team spent the afternoon playing with the children who stay at Kimashuku Children's Home. Kimashuku was built with support from Vine Trust volunteers between 2011 and 2013 and is always a favourite for new and returning volunteers to visit. After the first week on the worksites, the houses are beginning to take shape. Once the sites have been cleared and the foundations marked out and dug, stones are…

Our October Home-Building Expedition Team left for Moshi, Tanzania early Sunday morning, with Team Leader Wendy already in-country ready to welcome them to Tanzania. Wendy was honoured to be able to attend the home-opening ceremony of Bibi Angus and her grandchildren, whose new home had been constructed with the support of our School Expedition team from West Calder and James Young high schools in June/July earlier this year. The home-building team arrived safely on Sunday evening to be greeted by our Tanzanian coordinators, Ben & Elly, and Wendy. The team took Monday morning to cover some inportant information during their in-country orientation…

Our final day in Tanzania was filled with warm goodbyes. In the morning we visited both home-building sites and were able not only to say our final goodbyes to the families and the fundis, but also to see the incredible progress that had been made in the past few days. The team was astounded by the dedication and hard work of the fundis, and was amazed to see the homes nearing completion. Having visited the sites, the volunteers were able to do some last minute shopping before heading back to Umoja Hostel for a final feedback and reflection session. The team all agreed…

Monday was a productive and emotional last day on our worksites. It has been wonderful to see the houses become homes over the past week or so. The team working on Efata’s site spent the day carrying water and rocks to the site for the fundis, learning new Swahili phrases and even being proposed to! On James’ site, the volunteers supported the fundis as they dug a large hole in the garden to provide soil to complete the floor foundations, enabling the fundis to begin pouring cement for a sturdy finish. Early on Tuesday morning, the T20 team set off on safari! We arrived at Tarangire National Park mid-morning and, within…