Maasai Culture

During my time in Ololosokwan I had the following conversation with a Maasai teacher at Mwalimu's School.
Teacher: Do you have cows?
Me: No
Teacher: Where do you get your milk from?
Me: The shops, but I have two horses
Teacher: Is horse milk nice?
Me: I dont know I only use them for riding
Teacher: Riding to go and have a look for milk!

I had to laugh!
Below is a picture of the school cook, a Maasai woman.

Mwalimu's School-Ololosokwan

This is a fantastic little school just outside Ololosokwan that Nomad Trust has been supporting for a number of year.  Through it's biggest donor, Christine Davis, the school is now partnered up with The Unicorn School, in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.  Some of the kids from the Unicorn School sent out letters to kids at Mwalimu's school.  Here are some of the pictures.

Ololosokwan Primary School Vegetable Garden

A while ago Gabriel, one of the teachers at the school approached me about starting up an environmental afterschool project-which included replanting of trees around the school to try and control soil erosion, as well as starting up a small vegetable garden to supplement the childrens food they got at school. The vegetable garden is looking amazing, and they have replanted plants around all the school lawns and classrooms-see below picture-the new plantings are covered with thorn branches to stop the local goats eating them! 

It is also great to see that the WFP (World Food Program) is now also supporting Ololosokwan Primary School. 

Trip to Nduara-Ololosokwan

It was great to make it back to Ololosokwan to follow up on some of our projects there, I spent the first day at the Ololosokwan Primary school checking up on the solar, laptops and printers that the Gates family kindy donated.  They were still in use and all I had to do was update the anti-virus software.  The teachers love having the use of the laptops and being able to access internet! when exams come round it means that a huge amount of time is saved as the teachers no longer have to hand write out hundreds of exam papers!

Gabriel, a teacher, connecting to the internet-the best signal is by the window!

Kilimanjaro Marathon

THE MT. KILIMANJARO MARATHON
HAS WON THE #2 AWARD AS
"WONDER OF THE WORLD MARATHON"
FROM "RUNNER'S WORLD"

 #4 BEST INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURE MARATHON" BY FORBES MAGAZINE

Running for charity.

My half marathon training has begun in earnest and I am finding it a painful experience!  The altitude, the blisters, the lack of running fitness.

I will be running in the Kilimanjaro Marathon in February 2012 to raise money for the Nomad Trust. http://www.kilimanjaromarathon.com/
My boss, John is putting my efforts to shame by doing the Kili Man http://kilimanjaro-man.com/

Please sponsor us-a dollar goes a long way in this part of the world.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/nomadtrust

Books for our environmental library

A big thank you to Kristen's mum for getting us a set Science books for the new environmental library being built in Usevya, Katavi.
We are still looking for lots of other books and educational materials for the youth center, to find out more please contact me on Nomadtrust@nomad.co.tz