Leaving home again

Just when this place is starting to feel like a home, I have to leave. I left this morning among friends and family. I had people come to carry my bags, want photos with me, giving me gifts and wave me off on the bus. I felt so lucky and only just managed to hold back the tears. I was told by all to greet my friends and family, to have a safe journey and was assured God will be with me on my travels to my home. It was also mentioned that i musn't forget my people here in Africa and that i was welcome to come again. I was also lucky enough to have a small party with the women's group which included a lovely meal (chicken of course) and many kind words from the leaders. I was also given a Kanga from the group (with of course chickens and eggs on). i will miss this place very much and am sad I won't be there when the chickens come.

I took photos this morning of the chicken house as Joel Mbura had worked till late last night to finish putting up the logs for the roof. Great work. We have also almost finished the fence and the Iron sheets will go up on monday. We have put off the date of the chickens coming as we want to have the building perfect before they come. The issue of the local logs vs timbers was solved by Bonne who found a man with a farm willing to sell us good straight logs at a small fee. Good save and it enabled us to continue building.

The bricks for the hostel wall foundations have been completed and that project just awaits money and a good fundi to build.

Although I have left the village, I will still be involved with the Kanga Project and the Rural Women Development Association and I hope to continue helping them. When personal funds permit, I hope to return to see the projects thriving and peoples lives changed for the better. I have faith and so do they.

We welcome Beth Temple to Ilongero in January to oversee the projects and apply her skills to help the growth of the chicken business. She has experience in Tanzania (so knows some languge) and I think will be using this site also to update. Thankyou to her for showing an interest in these projects and more for wanting to help.

Please continue to check into the Kanga site and this blog site to see the progress of a little organisation with big dreams.

Signing off,
Janey

What comes first ?

The chickens or the house ?
Well for now it’s got to be the house. We are now on a time limit to finish the house as I have ordered the chickens for the 18th Oct and the house needs to be finished by then. Good incentive I thought.
At this exact moment people should be working on it while I am in Singida with three of our women's group members training in chicken keeping and rearing. We have two days training in Singida with a chicken expert at VETA (Vocational Education Training Authority) and then two days in the village with all the members. Doricus Mbura, Fatuma Ali and Mirium Monko are all great students and extremely excited about what they are learning and seeing; especially when we work out the money we can make. We have some theory training as well as some practical training. We have just completed our first day and are full of important information.
I will write again next week just before I leave this area to give a final blog in Tanzania. Hopefully I will be telling you about how the chickens are settling in and how lovely their house is. Thanks for reading.