Rainy Season

In the morning the sun never rose. Thunder boomed in the mountains. Then came the rains. The tin roof rang with thousands of heavy drops, and outside a shower of bullets rained down onto the pavement. Harder and harder, louder and louder, until my head was full of rain.

Ominous clouds

The seasons in Tanzania seem to come and go very abruptly. After a month of sweltering heat, I was quite relieved to be told it would now rain for a month. The rains do cause logistical challenges- dirt roads can become impassable, malaria and other diseases related to water become more prevalent, and construction work can be halted.

A waterfall in the hills at Fieldbase

Opportunistic shower!

In the last week (05/03/18) I have visited three rural villages in the Kilombero region on a project support visit. Each of these villages has a need for toilets at the school (the average school has one thousand pupils and only a couple of poor quality toilets).
The drive down was beautiful, with an opportunistic safari on the main road through a national park where I saw giraffes, wildebeest, zebras and antelopes. We drove through mountain ranges, flat dry plains, and lush tropical hills with huge waterfalls cascading down from rocky outcrops.
In the villages, I provided an opportunity for one-to-one medical assessments with volunteers, a logistics manager oversaw the use of equipment, safety at the work site and delivered much needed supplies, and a Deputy Operations Manager reviewed the team and the project delivery as a whole. I also assisted with the visit in general, helping with individual reviews of the volunteers, getting stuck into the construction of toilet buildings for the school, and visiting the volunteer’s homestays (village families hosting volunteers for bed and breakfast).

A group contract

The first group made the most of the rain- the septic tank for their soon-to-be-plumbed-in toilet blocks was full of water, giving them an easy supply for their concrete mixing. I helped shift a large mound of earth and enjoyed the exercise and the productive task. The group gathered in the evenings to play games until dinner time.

Sunset in the village

I arrived in the second village just before a big downpour. This group found an opportunity between the rain to mix and set the huge 25ft roof to their concrete septic tank; I helped empty 50kg bags of cement and mix it with sand, water and rocks to form a mixture. We then moved it in a line in buckets to fill a wooden frame containing a supportive metal grid.

As it was International Women’s Day, in the afternoon we watched a lively football match between the girls in the secondary school and a women’s charity. On a visit to each homestay in this second village I witnessed the entire sky light up with electricity. We were surrounded by a 360 electrical storm.

Women’s football match

On the day of departure, I had the chance to take two volunteers to a clinic for treatment I couldn’t provide in the village using our medical supplies. I was amazed at the quality of medical care provided in such a rural area- the clinic housed a blood bank, a fully functioning laboratory, a dentist offering even root canal treatments, and a doctor who reached exactly the same conclusion as I had with one of our volunteers. Due to our jeep breaking down, we were delayed in getting to the clinic and so I stayed a third night with the second group.

The ambulance at the clinic

I arrived a day later than planned to the third village and didn’t have as thorough a review of their worksite progress. I did however witness the largest storm I’ve ever seen, with incessant rain that flooded the entire village. It reminded me of the monsoon scene in the film Jumanji (although no crocodiles!).
We woke at 0530 and made excellent time on our return to Fieldbase despite two further jeep breakdowns. The next morning I was due to escort three volunteers along the same road to our changeover location in Iringa. We drove through the national park and came across a herd of elephants and they’re young by the road!! They were raising their trunks in anger and so our bus driver drove off.

The herd!

Our changeover location was a strange contrast to the tropical heat and thunderstorms of the last few weeks- it was as cool and drizzly as a late autumn day in England. I ran a clinic for unwell volunteers from the expedition teams (mainly trek related minor illnesses) and enjoyed a proper (bunk) bed after a week of varying degrees of discomfort!
After having our groups allocated for our next phase, I handed over the Fieldbase medical role to paramedic Jenny, before hitting the road towards the tiny remote village my group of ten volunteers and I would call home for the next three weeks: Nandala.

 

As ever, if you would like to support my time on the project, you can donate here –

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/henry-in-tanzania

 

(Ps – so sorry for the big delay in this post! As predicted, some issues with internet service & electricity in the villages!)

 

A Colourful Debate

“We live now in a global village and we are in one single family. It’s our responsibility to bring friendship and love from all different places around the world and to live together in peace.” – Jackie Chan

What is culture? We were asked this question during our induction to our charity work in Africa by two close colleagues: one black and one white, both who had delivered many sessions wearing t-shirts emblazoned with ‘Dada Afrika’ (‘Sister Africa’). We learned that when two groups of people from very different backgrounds work together, an appreciation of each other’s accepted behaviours and beliefs can help avoid upset or conflict. As my fellow international volunteers and I have come to Tanzania to work, it is appropriate that we adopt the norms of our host country. We should avoid wearing skimpy clothing; we should expect to share our possessions; we should not become frustrated if a meeting starts an hour later than it is scheduled; during a conversation or a walk, we may find our acquaintances wish to hold our hands until we go our separate ways.

The Natural Resource Management group get ready for departure

Our adoption of a different culture helps us avoid embarrassment and facilitates connections between our teams. Knowledge of certain aspects of life here can also be personally useful; kangas (colourful sheets of printed cloth, often with African proverbs in the margins) are used to get to and from the shower modestly; clothes are washed by hand with a special scrubbing method that I am yet to properly master; in a village without cutlery or running water, learning how to eat with your hands without getting ill would be essential.

We’re led to believe that adopting cultural norms is also a sign of respect. Most Tanzanians I have spoken to with my limited Swahili are thrilled that I have used their native language; it is custom here to greet any elder person with a specific phrase, for which you will receive a polite reply. Many of the women in the charity, both Tanzanian and International, wear these ‘Sister Africa’ t-shirts made by a local entrepreneur- they celebrate their belief in a strong African sisterhood, and in doing so they support his small printing business.

Tanzanian and International volunteers making chapatis

I was sad to hear that my British counterparts would avoid wearing this t-shirt in the UK. Wearing something identifiably African is apparently not appropriate in the UK. African prints, African hairstyles, African jewellery; these are off the cards. Even if an African woman that a volunteer may have lived with and worked with for three months or more has given her a gift made from local textiles, this deeply personal and treasured item would have to be carefully considered before a public outing: cultural appropriation is akin to racism.

The UK singer Jesy Nelson was recently criticised so heavily for a picture of her hair in braids or dreadlocks that she made UK national news. She was told “this hairstyle isn’t meant for you”, and was accused of ‘offensively’ appropriating black culture. I feel there are voices missing from this discussion; being in a part of Africa where this hairstyle is a cultural norm for many black women, I asked what a UK singer wearing a black hairstyle meant to them. ‘It’s a compliment’, I was told by a female Tanzanian volunteer, a feminist and aspiring women’s activist. That someone could be criticised for style inspired by black culture was laughable.

However, there is a big difference between the representation (and therefore daily experience) of Afro-Carribean people living in Tanzania compared to the UK. When a Tanzanian child goes to school they are surrounded by people living in the same culture and wearing the same hairstyles, and are less likely to experience racism directed at these and other characteristics on a daily basis. In the UK, where a small percentage of the population is Afro-Carribean, having a black hairstyle such as braids or dreadlocks or wearing patterned African clothing may single you out as different, and may become the central target for racist comments.

Biryani rice being made by our ‘lunch mamma’ Veronica

‘To appropriate’ is ‘to take something without permission’. But who owns culture? Gaining permission for an action or behaviour from an entire set of communities who identify with that trait is impossible, especially as cultures and heritage are so internationally widespread, often untraceable in violent history, and are constantly blending and shifting. If someone wears a colourful Tanzanian patterned shirt when in the UK, should a UK citizen of Afro-Carribean descent criticise them for appropriating ‘their’ culture? Is refusing to buy the shirt for fear of offense (and therefore not supporting a local business in Tanzania) more offensive than wearing it?

The issue occurs when cultures collide and context is lost. My colleagues in Tanzania would do well to join the debate over whether their friends from around the world are welcome to celebrate their heritage and culture.

 

 

 

If you would like to support my time volunteering in Tanzania you can donate here:

Justgiving.com/crowdfunding/henry-in-tanzania

Get Over It.

My family gave me three large white Manila envelopes to open during the low points during my trip to Tanzania. They are bulky and heavy and clearly are full of delicious sweets, lovely notes and photos. The currency out in rural Tanzania is quite different to back in the UK. A single Percy Pig (a pink delicious fruity gummy sweet) is equivalent to several packets of biscuits or even a mango.
I resisted the temptation to open all three envelopes when I lost my passport, and have since kept them close by.
Recently during our volunteer mentor training we were asked to bring the most precious item we carry with us wherever we go. I brought these envelopes. When I described them to my fellow volunteers, a collective “aaw!” went around the group.
I didn’t appreciate that is there is something else I carry around every day that is even more precious than these treasured white envelopes.
My identity is what makes me ‘me’. It is shaped by my upbringing and my memories, and incorporates my genetic phenotype (my skin colour, my body shape etc). It also includes my sexuality.
Being gay is a huge part of my identity. My life choices reflect that; I’m a member of a the London Gay Men’s Chorus, a lot of my friends are gay, and I enjoy events at which I might meet likeminded people.
When I registered my interest in my current charity venture, my first choice expedition was to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. My suitability to look after young people in a resource poor environment was assessed over a weekend of gruelling activities designed to make me cold, wet and uncomfortable. I was told I passed top of the class, but my first choice of country was already full of the required number of medics. I was excited by the gender equality work occurring in Tanzania, and so I signed up. In my subsequent research, I discovered that homosexuality is illegal in Tanzania, and punishable by a minimum of 30 years in prison. Recently, several South African delegates were arrested at a HIV and sexual health meeting in Zanzibar. There is obviously much global discussion on this issue, but my role with my charity is to focus on my project. As a lone traveller joining a charity to work on building toilets and providing medical support, I did not imagine that this restriction would affect me.
On my way to Tanzania, I learnt some Swahili words from Disney’s The Lion King (see blog 2), and I made the connection that my choir had actually sang a song by a Swahili character set in East Africa. Our version of ’The Circle of Life’ was a joyous and impressive collaboration with the London cast of The Lion King musical for London’s Gay Pride 2017 (here is a link to the video). When I shared the video with my manager here, I was asked if I would show all the volunteer managers (a group of international and Tanzanian people), but after contemplation I decided not to. Deeply embedded within Tanzanian culture is the notion that homosexuality is criminal and wrong, and I didn’t feel it was right to celebrate that aspect of the song with the whole group. During a Culture and Diversity discussion in our induction, our charity carefully explained how homosexuality is now a celebrated part of UK culture, but in Tanzania being gay is not a protected characteristic and is punishable by imprisonment. This can obviously cause conflict in interactions between international and Tanzanian volunteers. I was therefore expecting intolerance or a degree of homophobia from the Tanzanian members of my group. I wasn’t expecting what happened next.

Some days later, a UK colleague and I were asked to reflect on our working relationship. I was suddenly floored by his first comment: “I’m uncomfortable with your sexuality.” We had been living together in a very rural village, and due to constraints on accommodation options we had been sharing a bed and sleeping under the same big mosquito net. I had discussed my choir with this colleague, and we had compared notes of our experiences singing at the Royal Albert Hall. That my sexuality might have been an issue then or since hadn’t even occurred to me.
Later that afternoon, I felt the weight of that conversation dragging me down. As I spoke to my manager about the conversation, I started to cry.
What I didn’t realise was that I had already shut off a large part of my gay identity; the outward, free and open part. In Tanzania, I had already been careful to avoid conversations with my friends in public in case I might offend my host country colleagues. Suddenly unable to express myself comfortably and without fear of offence or even arrest, I had to rely on my international colleagues privately for support. To have a British person challenge me in that way made me feel like I was back in the proverbial closet. All the developing I had done over the last ten years to build myself up as a complete person was abruptly denied to me. I was back to being a teenager again; trapped inside myself with my true identity.
What upset me was the ridiculousness of the comment. My sexuality isn’t something I can choose to turn on and off. It’s stronger than my beliefs, and more central than my race. My sexuality runs through me like a stick of rock; if you cut me into pieces, I read ‘GAY’ all the way through. This comment felt like it had shattered my core.
My manager and I sat for a long time together discussing my time in Tanzania as a gay man, my feeling of identity, and this comment and its significance. What I had to process was that this problem wasn’t mine. I didn’t need to hide the remaining piece of me; the one I had still been privately living and sharing and celebrating amongst my group of UK volunteer friends in hilarious conversations behind walls and doors. I needed to push the problem back to this intolerant, ignorant, insensitive man. What did he want to do about his discomfort?
That evening, I moved out of our shared room and into a house of other volunteers. Their spirited ‘Frat House’ cheered me up, and being out of close quarters helped me process my thoughts. That night, we played round after round of board and card games. I was top of the leaderboard but it was an empty victory. I left the group for an early night.
As I struggled to prepare my bed, a male Tanzanian volunteer told me my attempts at putting up my oddly shaped mosquito net were more likely to encourage the mosquitoes to bite me. He took down his net and gave it to me.
The next day, I told my UK colleague that I had been upset by his comment. He was surprised and apologetic, and we discussed our differences easily and without defensiveness or confrontation. He told me about his son (“straight, all boy, all man”), and I reminded him that as gay men are still men, I found that statement offensive. We talked about his gay neighbours, and about how one was clearly more tolerable to the community because he acted straight. He asked when I decided I was gay, and I reminded him that no one asks when he decided he was straight.
I realised that I was in a position of strength. I appreciate the differences between people because I have felt different. Developing my own identity was hard, and so I try to fill every aspect of my life with celebrating it in fabulous rainbow colours. Even since having this challenge, I feel stronger and more able to deflect intolerance rather than absorbing it or apologising for my sexuality.
Some people are gay. Get over it.

 

 

(As ever, thank you so much to those who have donated to my Fundraising Page. We’re now on 12%! Here is the link for anyone feeling inspired to donate!) xxx

Call Me By My Name

We boarded our bus just after 7am and set off through Morogoro towards Dodoma to start our Project Planning Visits in our respective villages. The town fell away and we found ourselves cutting through impressive valleys dotted with massive baobab trees.
The road was mostly tarmac, but after a short period of bumpy dirt road I started to feel achey. I shrugged it off as a side effect of the journey and soon we were welcomed by the District officials at their office. We delivered documents outlining Raleigh International’s intended projects and joined our Educational Officer to the village that would be our home for the next three nights.
We turned off the tarmac onto a very soft sandy track, passing through so many large fords over dry river beds that we stopped counting them as landmarks on our routecard (one of the many logistical tasks to complete during our visit). I imagine the road would be totally impassable in the rainy season, with the dry forded river beds becoming large rivers, and sections of the road at risk of being washed away. To our right were the mountains, and to our left a huge expanse of African plain, stretching as far as the eye could see. We passed the occasional village before arriving at our destination.

We met the village officials who welcomed us and helped orient us. The village is located in the plains below two mountain ranges and is made up of mud or brick homes and vegetable plots interlinked by sandy lanes. I was aching again as we walked around the village, but I imagined it was due to the second bumpy leg of our journey.
We visited the school where the project is due to take place, and met the appropriately stern headmistress, with a steely look and a stick occasionally waved as a threat (moderate corporal punishment is not illegal in Tanzania). Her office was filled with primary school books; they totally covered the floor and we cleared piles to the side to make room for our chairs. Outside in the school yard, over a thousand children smiled and waved at us.
We then visited our ‘homestay’- accommodation identified as suitable for volunteers or volunteer managers for the duration of the project. The experience was memorable. The rooms we were shown were very basic, with small holes in the brown roughly plastered walls for windows, a hot tin roof, and a distinct smell of goat. We were neighbours with the goat pen, which were associated with a large cloud of flies. I was to be sharing a bed (!) with Andrew, an older UK volunteer manager. It seemed we also shared the homestay with a herd of cows, a flock of guineafowl, a hen and her chicks, a selection of dogs, one black and white cat, and innumerable insects including an adventurous cockroach. I met the tough old chicken that became our dinner shortly after. Overnight, our Tanzanian counterpart volunteer, Maria, found a rat trying to share her bed. In the end, we had to laugh.

My continued aching led me to check my temperature… 39 degrees. I had a night of worrying that I was the worst doctor ever to sign up to Raleigh, and that I definitely had brought this clear case of malaria on myself.
The morning was cool. Sanitation was a little tricky, with cloudy water kept in well used buckets- it’s interesting what you come to accept when there is no alternative! My UK counterpart had fortunately brought along a malaria testing kit, and although it was out of date the negative result gave me the confidence to label my illness as minor and get on with our day.
Our homestay ‘mamma’ made us breakfast of homemade bread and sweet tea which were both delicious, and I felt quite excited to work on our project planning checklist, which included drawing a map and documenting the condition of other homestays. I took lots of photos of toilets and shower areas – some of which were positively adventurous! It’s not often you can shower in the open with a view of the mountains. We visited the site of the original Raleigh project, which was a large block of toilets. This took the school down from an average of one toilet per one hundred and sixty six pupils to just seventy one – within the government target of eighty to one. As in my previous blogs, here is the opportunity to donate if you feel inspired by the project! Donate here.

We worked our way down the checklist, looking for pharmacies, rating hazards, and searching for suitable cars for evacuation in the event of emergency. As the evening got cooler, we walked the map we had drawn to make sure it was accurate. A group of children called out “Oliver!” to me. I must look like a previous Raleigh volunteer, and I was wearing my vintage Raleigh t-shirt. I told them that I wasn’t Oliver but Henry. Dinner was a more promising salad of tomato and red onion, with rice and beans.
Overnight we heard a very strange sound, that was like a man being thrashed and whimpering in pain. I daren’t investigate but the sound kept me awake for hours. In the morning there was no sign of any disturbance. The day was hot, and we completed the remainder of our tasks early on. We sheltered under the baking tin roof and wiled away the hours.
Andrew heard music and children screaming and we decided to investigate – a game of netball was in full swing, with spirited pitch invasions and a riot of shouting and screaming when a team scored. We went walking to a shop that sells cold drinks and sat to drink them whilst watching a crowd gather for a football match.
Sitting there amongst all the children, many with moth-eaten clothes and some trusted to care for their baby siblings, I noticed that they all looked happy.
As we walked back to our homestay we were followed by a rowdy group of tiny children. They were calling me by my name.

 

Week One: ‘You Are Fat!’

Hello all! It’s been quite a week!

I’m currently sitting looking at the evening sunlight on the mountains in Morogoro, Tanzania, with a lovely breeze keeping me cool. A Tanzanian man is helping a British woman wash her clothes by the tap. Another Tanzanian, Winnie, is having help from the other girls with her complex braided hairdo. Two of the British girls have found a mango and an avocado and are carrying them around waiting for them to ripen.

Morogoro life: 

I set off last week (on the 30th January) from Gatwick airport, and I arrived at immigration in Istanbul… somehow without my passport! Not the best start to my trip. With palpitations about missing my impending connection to Tanzania, I approached my airline’s customer services. Despite the impression that the only ‘service’ offered to customers was a heavy sigh and strict avoidance of eye contact, my passport was quickly found on the plane, apparently in someone’s bag of souvenirs (!).

I enjoyed a delicious drink of Orchid root called Salep before waiting for my medical colleague, Jenny, at the gate. I did a little research about the national language of Tanzania, Swahili (the language of the coast). I was amazed to learn that I knew a few words; many characters in the Disney film ‘The Lion King’ are Swahili words, such as Simba (lion) and Rafiki (friend). At the gate, I waited and waited for Jenny, and eventually was told that the gate was closing and I must board the plane. I phoned a breathless Jenny as the doors of the plane were sealed to find out that she was at the gate, but it was too late. I therefore encouraged her to enjoy all the delicacies that Turkey had to offer, and lay across my row of seats to sleep.

I arrived in the close heat of Julius Nyere airport at 3am, and spotted another Raleigh International volunteer, an ex-military man called Adam. We wiled away the hours until our contacts arrived with a bus to take us and a morning flight of volunteer managers to our training location. Rebe, the communications manager, was extremely bright and enthusiastic and managed to perk me up and out of my exhaustion until we boarded the bus. I’m afraid to say that the next five hours of Tanzanian countryside are a blur as I drifted in and out of sleep.

Rather fortunately, as we turned into the road that our Fieldbase is located on, the bus broke down, and we were met with a big crowd of smiling Tanzanian faces. These were the local volunteer managers, who helped us to carry our luggage into the fieldbase (a photo was taken of a Tanzanian man called Peter helping me carry my bag, which is on the Raleigh Tanzania blog – thank you to the photographer Hillary for that shot!):

The Fieldbase is a lovely smart building at the foot of a beautiful mountain range, on the edge of the town of Morogoro (with a flushing toilet!!). We were welcomed with a lovely lunch of rice, pea curry, a meat curry and salad, before meeting the whole team who gave a few hours of welcome talks. By the time we were shown to our accommodation we were exhausted and in desperate need of a change of clothes. We donned our ‘longs’ and doused ourselves in insect repellent, before having an interesting dinner of chicken and chips in the local restaurant. Our accommodation is rather luxurious – actual beds, intermittent electricity, with a shower that runs hot and cold most of the time!

The week that followed is best summed up by this photo of our induction and training schedule:

Every morning we have breakfasted on eggs and bread before walking through the village to the field base, where we have been on an educational journey from ‘what is culture’ (apparently calling someone fat in Tanzania is a huge compliment) and ‘toilets of rural Tanzania’ to ‘global development- what matters and what doesn’t’. Water is chlorinated or boiled, and a delicious lunch cooked by the field base ‘mama’ never fails to disappoint. The only things I’m missing are proper milk, fruit juice in the mornings, and something sweet in the evenings.

Lunch at field base: 

Jenny arrived on Thursday and had a warm welcome. The induction has been fascinating and the enthusiasm of the field base team for their subjects has been inspiring, and their level of organisation has been unbelievable. I feel in very safe hands.  It’s also been exhausting, hot and at times a little frustrating- as a medic I felt like I hadn’t had a chance to take any ownership of my role due to our busy schedule, despite people asking me for help already with a few minor complaints. Confusingly, there are two parallel Raleigh projects running simultaneously- I’ve been learning about livelihood projects in villages which has been interesting but not directly relevant to my role, and the medics responsible for these livelihood projects have been organising the medical kits and induction and 1-2-1s for the managers Jenny and I are responsible for under the Expedition project. However, we all worked together to deliver an excellent medical emergencies training session, and I have got to know the medical kits by having a rummage to satisfy my own curiosity (another session we had allowed us to check our preferences against the Myers-Briggs personality test!) . We were allocated to our projects on Saturday in a fun PowerPoint that revealed our photos – I was allocated to the Fieldbase medical rota with the two other doctors, Dan and Gavin. This means we will be running a 1 in 3 rota which is a lot better than we will expect for the rest of the expedition!

Jenny and I:

The evenings at our accommodation have been quite fun- lots of people like playing UNO or exercising, and we’ve had a field base organised quiz. My roommate Alastair turned 25 on Sunday and we wasted no time in pouring buckets water over him- a Raleigh birthday tradition. We’ve spent a lot of time at the local hotel/ restaurant/ Bar (free WiFi!) and have enjoyed a few football & rugby games. Last night was ‘The Lion King’ movie night which the Swahili speakers seemed to love.

I was offered the chance to stay at the fieldbase or join a short trip to a project site. I chose to join a hygiene and sanitation ‘Project Planning Visit’ to a village, and was allocated to a four day trip to a village in the Dodoma region, which is about 4 hours from fieldbase. Maria (a Tanzanian Raleigh alumni), Andrew (a British manager) and I will be tasked with checking the suitability of the village for our young volunteers, including evacuation plans, risk assessments, accommodation sourcing and photos of the existing work site.

I may have limited signal in this village, and so the best way to contact me will be through Raleigh International’s contact numbers (routine, urgent and emergency options all available). We carry two Raleigh phones covering four networks, so chances are we will be contactable somehow!

I have raised 2% of my fundraising target- many thanks to Izzy and Kavita! I think I can do better however… please feel free to share this link everywhere you can! Every little helps. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/henry-in-tanzania

Will update as soon as possible.

Love to everyone,

Xxxxx Henry

Ready for take-off!

As you may be aware, I am taking myself off to Tanzania for three months with Raleigh International, a charity who work towards meeting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.  I’m really sad to be leaving my family, colleagues and choir behind, and firstly I will point you in the direction of the free webpage to leave supportive messages! https://raleighinternational.org/contact-a-volunteer-tanzania-expedition/

The pre-expedition fear has nearly passed (!), and I’ve found myself looking forward to a few months away from screens and machines.

I am travelling to join an international group of volunteer expedition managers, each with a unique set of skills. We will team up with in-country volunteer managers and a field base team, training together before being joined by young people from Tanzania and around the world.

I chose Raleigh as I’ve previously volunteered with them for seven weeks as an 18 year old in Borneo. They are a well established and respected charity and they make a real difference to the communities they work with and the young people who join their expeditions. During my expedition, I helped build a school library, climbed a mountain, lived in the jungle for a week and became a much more confident and independent person. I went on to university where I trained as a doctor, and I now work in Emergency Medicine. I have taken a career break between two training schemes to volunteer with Raleigh.

It’s taken the best part of a year to apply and prepare for this trip. I met some amazing people at Raleigh International’s assessment weekend, where we bonded over a series of challenges, such as wading through a rather chilly lake (in September in East Grinstead). We were allocated to expeditions based on that weekend and have since been preparing for the adventure, stock-piling mosquito repellent and digging out camping kit from ten years ago.

In Tanzania, we will work on three projects:

• Water and Sanitation

I’m particularly proud of this aspect of the expedition. Approximately 75% of Tanzanians live in rural communities, and adequate access to safe water and sanitation is rare. Whilst attendance rates at primary school are high, there is a significant drop in the number of female students that go on to secondary education; this is often the result of a lack of separate sanitation facilities allowing for privacy when menstruation begins. Constructing and encouraging the use of sanitation blocks at schools combats this and other issues such as the spread of preventable diseases, and provides these students with a brighter future.

• Natural Resource Management

Our young volunteers will have the opportunity to work together to tackle deforestation and drought. This is done through establishing tree nurseries, planting trees and maintaining fire breaks designed to prevent the rapid spread of fire and destruction of Tanzania’s precious forests. As well as planting trees, volunteers will work with local communities to raise awareness on this important issue.

• Community Resilience and Adventure

Tanzania is one of the world’s poorest countries, yet it also has a rapidly growing economy. With a large population of young people there is a growing need for employment opportunities. We support young entrepreneurs to set up small businesses in their communities which benefit themselves and the people around them. In turn, their communities can become more resilient to social and environmental change. We also will encourage our young volunteers to take turns in taking the lead on adventurous treks, coordinating the group and navigating across the landscape whilst learning about wilderness survival. The group will be expected to work as a team to plan an ideal site for our evening camp, prepare their evening meal and ensure the group is kept motivated. In this way, all our volunteers will gain vital leadership and teamworking skills.

During the projects, I am also responsible as a medic for the health and wellbeing of the team, and will run an evening clinic after we put down our tools (and hopefully whilst the team make me a delicious meal!)

In addition, I will spend a month at the field base, taking radio calls from teams on remote project sites and reporting back to the UK. I’m excited about practicing a totally different kind of medicine, and adding another set of skills to my Emergency Medicine toolkit.

As I near my departure date, I’ve been spending a lot of time on my packing list, and keep discovering little luxuries my mum has been squirrelling away (individual packets of fresh coffee, an array of snacks and condiments, lots of mini dental items). My Swahili is fairly limited to say the least, and I can’t carry much besides the essential packing list, but I have a few free phrase books downloaded on my trusty Kindle for the plane journey (and a huge Game of Thrones book, of course).

The preparation for the expedition has been surprisingly expensive, and I have also given up my career for three months to volunteer. My expedition place costs £2025, and my equipment and flights are additional. If you don’t yet have a cause to support for 2018 and would like to donate, you can be sure that 100% of your funds will be supporting sustainable development in Tanzania, building a healthy future for young people and communities. This link takes you to my fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/henry-in-tanzania

I’m very grateful to the Round Table Trust for a pledge of £100 towards the expedition.

I’ll try to keep this blog up to date as much as I can, but we’ve been told to expect periods of up to 19 days without signal, so please rest assured that no news is good news! The super-keen can register to receive email updates of my next blog post (form located on this page).

All my love,

Henry xxx