At last the contract is signed for the security fence at Mayega. It has taken two years of negotiations to resolve the land ownership disputes and thanks are due to the many Tanzanian Government officials at village , district and regional level who made this possible. Busega Scotland is also grateful for the efforts of Arnold and Valerie Barrow in getting things moving. The Mayega staff and children are delighted. They have been  bothered by village  men drunk on local brew. The fence also means that we comply with Tanzanian Children’s Homes regulations.

Chole – poor but spectacular.

Imagine an environment – green, fertile, bordering a lake with limitless supplies of water, having ‘moonscape’ granite hills and friendly, hardworking people. Why is this not a land of ‘milk and honey’ and a tourist paradise? But this is Chole, twenty five miles from Mwanza but ‘light years’ away from the developments in the city. There is no road and only 4×4’s can get there with difficulty. This is Africa of our Zambia days, and of decades before that, but with two major differences – HIV and the ubiquitous mobile phone!

It is in Chole that Busega Scotland and another local NGO, called CODEHA (Community Development and Humanitarian Assistance), are considering our second, and an agriculture-based Family Support Project, with the Chole Women’s Group. There is a local mission hospital, that may agree a health insurance scheme, and Chole is close to Kalwande, where our motor mechanics students are in college.

Busega Scotland has good connections with the area and we had lunch with the parish priest!

There is a clear need to support the Chole community and work is underway to see if, along with CODEHA, we can develop a viable project. This may be our biggest challenge yet but what a difference Busega Scotland could make.

When we are home we get asked many questions that seem to imply ‘living in Mwanza must be hard’. However much we try to reassure folk that it isn’t, we reckon that knowledge of David Livingstone, the ‘Heart of Darkness’ (the Congo not Tanzania) and the ‘White Man’s Grave’ (West not East Africa) makes our inquisitors hard to convince. We tell of the Rock City Shopping Mall, less than ten minutes from our door, and that we arrive in Mwanza on an Airbus not behind a yoke of oxen! So we needed some photographic evidence and here it is – a plate of chocolate cakes! Admittedly our first while being here but definitive proof that we are not deprived! Mrs Livingstone never managed such baking (as far as we know), so it sucked to be David. One final comment, that will make Christine’s pals raise their eyebrows – she said the cakes ‘aren’t really for us but just a trial for when our ‘kids’ arrive’, in about a week’s time! These are chocolate cakes and, I am pleased to report, made with Tanzanian cocoa.

A MORAY-based charity has been given a £2500 grant for its work in  Tanzania. The cash award will pay the yearly course fees at college for eight young people who recently left an orphanage funded by Busega Scotland. In addition, the money will also pay for their food, accommodation, clothing and footwear. Busega Scotland is run by retired Garmouth couple John and Christine Carney, who spend large chunks of the year in Tanzania.

One of the charity’s trustees is Andy Lees, an Elgin-based financial adviser. He said: “I’ve known John and Christine a long time and remember the first time they told me how they were planning to spend their retirement. “They are amazing people and we could do with a few more like them in the world.” Mr Lees, who successfully applied for the grant from theSt James Place Foundation, continued: “It’s crazy when you think of how much further the money will go over there than it would here.

“I feel very lucky to have the life I have got, but much of how you end up depends on which country you were born in.“Anybody born in Western Europe is already in the top eight per cent of wealthy people in the world. “My reason for supporting Busega Scotland is I think we could all do a bit better and do a little more.”

Thank you to the Northern Scot for publishing this article.

Mayega children were happy to check out the Busega Scotland web site yesterday. The connection was slow but it was worth the wait. They got very excited looking at the photos of the students who used to live at the centre.

The children also received gifts of colourful towels from a supporter in Elgin. Having a towel is a luxury. The youngest children had first choice of colour .

The lorry containing the bulk food shop arrived early afternoon.  Christine was challenged to be first to unload a bag of maize but she found the salt easier to carry!  It was an eventful journey home for the truck . The engine caught fire and mechanics from Magu had to be called. No one was hurt and the driver and helpers got home safely although they were very late.