Roadmonkey’s Tanz volunteer project: 4 days building, painting and bonding

After climbing Kili for seven days, we took one day in Moshi to recuperate and do as little as possible, to recharge mentally and physically.  After an 8-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam, we began, on June 30, our four-day volunteer project at a small school for about 130 children in Mbagala, a village on the edge of Dar.

The school, known as Bibi Jann, after its co-founder, Jann Mitchell Sandstrom, comprises kindergarten through third grade, and a number of its students, radiant and lively and all from the rather impoverished local village, have been orphaned by AIDS. Bibi is the Swahili word for grandma, and a number of local bibis work at the school and with the children to provide a sense of community, maternity and good ol’ fashioned home cooking.

Roadmonkey team member Jolie Altman, right, with a local bibi, during our volunteer project at a school near Dar es Salaam.

Roadmonkey’s mission at the Bibi Jann school was straightforward: Our 10-member crew had four days to make the school a brighter, better, healthier learning environment for the kids.

Specifically, we would build 25 new school desks…

Work boots not required: Roadmonkeys Jo Ellingson (left) and Stef Levner, with George, Bibi Jann's English teacher, building desks on Day 1 of our volunteer work at the school.

…paint four classrooms…

Paintmonkeys: from left, Julie, Christine and Rollie, working with locally hired men from Mbagala village, painting the school's kindergarden classroom.

…add, at the request of the teachers,  instructional murals and English words…

Bibi Jann English teacher George inspecting progress in one classroom.

…install natural gas cook stoves to replace the more expensive and environmentally destructive wood charcoal stoves the school used to cook kids’ lunches…

Two natural-gas stoves -- a waaay more environmentally friendly, and cheaper, way to cook school lunches than burning wood coal -- that Tanzania Roadmonkeys bought by collecting tax-deductible donations from their own social networks.

…and install a virtually maintenance-free purification system to provide the schoolchildren clean drinking water for the first time!

Roadmonkey Susan Patel with the A.J. Antunes UFL 420 system, bought by Roadmonkey through tax-deductible donations gathered by our expedition members.

In all, the 10-member Roadmonkey team raised more than $11,000 in tax-deductible donations to fund our volunteer project at the Bibi Jann school — a wonderful testament to the group members’ dedication, hard work and teamwork.

Women at Work: from left, Rollie, Julie and Susan, of the Roadmonkey crew, after a day of painting classrooms at the Bibi Jann school.

We took breaks, too, to spend time with the children, an energetic, welcoming and thankful group of people whom we were honored to have a chance to meet and work for.

Why we did it, part 1.

Why we did it, part 2.

After our fourth day of work, all of us were exhausted but gratified, knowing we’d given the school, the children, the teachers and Tanzania our best collective effort.  What a way to spend your summer vacation…

Roadmonkey at rest: With Bibi Jann school teachers, construction workers, painters, plumbers and bus drivers.