Volunteer and help change lives

adelesymonds:

Could you be a volunteer like Gill?

Originally posted on gillswriting:

Volunteers needed. Love of fun a must!

Volunteering is an awesome experience and the personal development rewards are life changing. Good Hope is driven by volunteers and we want to source more of you.

We need to spread the word and sow the seed of the idea in people’s minds. Please pass this link onto anyone that you know that may be interested. Or anyone that may know someone that could be interested. Gap year travel for the young and the not so young! Professionals seeking to enhance their CV with the valuable badge of honour volunteer work awards. Students, retired people,  teachers, office workers, anyone with a big heart and an interest in making a difference in individual kid’s lives.

VOLUNTEER WITH US 

Tanzania is a peaceful, stable and beautiful country, anyone with a love of travel should visit here at least once in their lives. Mount Kilimanjaro is…

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I live in the land of slowly slowly

adelesymonds:

A great start for Gill in 2015, a year of hopes and dreams at Good Hope in Tanzania. Follow the story here every month.

Originally posted on gillswriting:

Wow I am truly immersed in the culture of Tanzania.

It is January 12th before I approach my first blog post of 2015. Slowly slowly does it! Life here lives by the pole pole rule! However, in my defence it has been the craziest, busiest and most rewarding first twelve days of a new year that I can remember. I had jotted notes that form the base of this blog post and way at the top underneath 1st Blog 2015 are scribbled the words where do I begin? Where indeed.

I sat one on my terrace one evening smeared with repellent, defiant of the sunset mossies and biting things that so love my flesh, a cold beer by my side and my annual ritual laid out before me. The transposing of important dates from last years calendar to this years. As I smiled lovingly at the annual gift from a very…

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I live in the land of slowly slowly

I live in the land of slowly slowly.

Happy Sad

adelesymonds:

Another awesome post by Gill about her volunteer work in Tanzania, donations are needed to keep this work going though. The school needs books and pens and money to help pay the utility bills and the rent for gills house. If you can help in any way, even if it is just £1, every penny counts and adds up with other donations. Go to her blog direct at gillswriting.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/happy-sad/ if her real life inspired stories have touched you at any time and you able to help. There is a donate button on there.

Originally posted on gillswriting:

Happy sad.

So many times of late, I find myself defining my mood and circumstance as “happy sad”,  I figure it must be eligible for the mighty Oxford English Dictionary as a recognised mood state. Bitter sweet, we all accept that one. I feel the same way about happy sad.

What prompts this melancholy tone on a fine sunny Sunday morning I hear you ask?

I think maybe little Agness can best explain. She listened in on my class during her break time and overheard me explain to the kids of Class A that I will be in Tanzania for Christmas day and that I was very happy but I have none of my family here. We were talking about their Christmas traditions and a typical Tanzanian Christmas day, which I might add is just like any other day but with added stress and demands for some of the kids.

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Christmas is coming …

adelesymonds:

A Christmas appeal that most can afford.

Originally posted on gillswriting:

 No help is too small.

The price of a pack of Christmas cards, a box of mince pies, a bottle of Christmas cheer, whatever you can spare will go a very long way toward helping me help the kids of Good Hope.

Asante sana marafiki. Many thanks my friends,

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Castle Good Hope

adelesymonds:

The fairy tale continues

Originally posted on gillswriting:

My life in a fairy tale continues.

We have met the kids that are protected in my everyday  fairy tale and we have spoken of the dragons that hunt them. There is a castle and real life knights, which I have referred to. So what of the Castle Good Hope?

It is ramshackle and basic, it may not have electricity  but it has walls that defy the hardiest dragon.

It is truly an enchanted place and is protected by the spell of love symbolised by its three talismans, two keys, a heart and a book. All of this is overseen by the majestic backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro, which is the national symbol of Hope in Tanzania. The keys are the keys of life, The book represents education and the heart, well the heart is love within the community.

And the knights? Today, I thought you should meet one of the knights, one whose…

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My Real Life Fairy Tale continued

adelesymonds:

Next Blog by Gill, The continuation of the fairy story of life in Tanzania.

Originally posted on gillswriting:

What of the kids of Good Hope?

How do they fit in the fairy story of life? They are the innocent victims of the poverty dragon that is for sure but what of the day to life of the kids who come to Good Hope eager to soak up and absorb every ounce of the limited education we can offer. They are the daily happy ending. Their commitment, effort, love for each other and their families and overwhelming ability to smile in the face of daily adversity is what it is all about for me.

Take Philip, great kid, studying hard. Sometimes the English we teach does not come easily for him but he tries and tries until he gets it. Monday of this week saw me institute a surprise test for Class A based on past standard seven finishing primary school exams. We covered one comprehension exercise based on…

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