My experience in ecological house building in Tanzania

Volunteer work after completing my studies

Tanzania - deepest Africa and thus my dream travel destination since I made the decision to go on a short trip around the world after completing my studies! Even if the corona pandemic made planning quite difficult, I persisted and purposefully went my way and after a little research became aware of "Rainbow Garden Village", a mediator for volunteer activities all over the world.

The “ecological house building” in Mtwara, Tanzania, appealed to me the most. In retrospect, this decision turned out to be made for me and I have never regretted it! Definitely to be recommended!

How to get there

My plane landed in Dar es Salaam late at night or early in the morning at 4:00 a.m. on a Saturday. But that didn't stop Emanuel, my friendly and funny host for the first night, from giving me a good-humored, pleasant welcome. Emanuel helped me carry my luggage and invited me to his cute Bajaj, the traditional means of transport in Tanzania for short distances in town.

After a short night we organized cash, a SIM card, a bus ticket to Mtwara and my first traditional Tanzanian dish - Chipsi Mayai! From then on I would have loved to be able to feed on it every day. Then we explored a little Dar es Salaam and paid a first visit to the beach. There I became aware of my unique selling point of my weakly pigmented skin, because from then on all eyes were focused on me.

The locals immediately won my heart with their loving, always smiling demeanor and their always positive curiosity about the obviously strange. From then on, I couldn't get rid of the status of a celebrity - from now on, asking about selfies was part of everyday life. Emanuel and I enjoyed the sunset over a Serengeti beer. The next morning I took the bus again early in the morning for 10 hours to the south of the country to Mtwara, where my project was located. This is where my volunteer work began.

Areas of responsibility

Highly motivated, the training started on the following day. My main task was, in cooperation with the "Fundis" (that's how experts for a certain craft activity are called in the local language Swahili) to build a round hut out of brick and a conical roof out of bushes. I quickly made friends with my “Fundi” colleagues and had a lot of fun mixing cement, pressing bricks, building the bricks Lego-like on top of each other and everything else that was involved in construction. I had the most fun building the roof, because you climb on elastic, curved little trunks, which represent the scaffolding, and stick small bushes into each other, which lead away the rain, so that you stay dry inside.

At the end of my time in Mtwara I was allowed to let off steam and plan and build a small playground for the children. This included a small watchtower with a suspension bridge and a planned small slide, which I was unable to complete due to the short time of 6 weeks of volunteering.

Home & Living

I was accommodated in exactly the kind of small round hut I built myself for the residents. My fellow volunteers had to share one, but I had a bungalow all to myself. Inside there was an approx. 1 meter wide bed and a couple of beautiful self-painted pictures by our talented artist Brudi Bushman. A true friend and entertaining fellow. Showers and toilets were shared with the other residents of the Aflii Center and we ate together on the roof of the facility with a great overview of the stage and the football field.

Essen

As already mentioned, my favorite dish was Chipsi Mayai, an omelette with fries and a bit of salad. But there were also other exciting dishes such as ugali, pilau or small fish with rice. Every morning and evening prepared by our loving cook. I absolutely cannot complain about the food, each time very tasty and sufficient from the amount.

leisure

In our free time, as volunteers and close local friends, Brudi and Henry did a lot together, be it weekend trips to the beach or a motorcycle trip to Henry's home village of Ndanda. We never got bored or there was never a bad mood among each other. Every working day we got together for dinner and drank a beer at the bar. Not to be forgotten are our fitness sessions with Brudi after work with homemade dumbbells.

Special experiences

For me personally it was the most instructive experience to see how one can be just as happy in life with the simplest means and few belongings - oh what am I saying - far happier than many privileged Europeans. Even if there was a lack of running water (let alone warm) and electricity, clothes were washed by hand, you adapted to the given living conditions and were still happy, or precisely because you didn't have so many things to worry about could be the way you look at it ...

Experience report by Pascal, September 2021