CHIHANGU Primary School

Chihangu Primary School : Mike Gilford of Church Stretton CE Primary School


Our long awaited arrival at Dar es Salaam airport at 6am on the morning of 25th July 2008 lived up to expectations. There was an air of organized chaos as we passed through customs to baggage reclaim. We were relieved to see our bags appear, we loaded up luggage trolleys and began our adventure.

That first day was spent settling in to our accommodation and travelling through Dar es Salaam, we also went out to a beach for lunch and our first swim in the Indian Ocean. Dar is a busy vibrant city where only the very brave drive a car. There are no traffic lights or obvious rights of the road, but there are lots of houses, cars and motor bikes. The way to traverse any junction seems to be to close your eyes, accelerate and hope nothing hits you!

After a delayed flight on Precision Air to Mtwara (Precision Air clocks are set two to five hours slower than normal), we were transported by bus to a welcome and greeting at St Michaels Church in Mtwara. Here I first experienced the magic of digital photography – I took out my camera to take some photos of children dancing and, having taken one photo, was mobbed by the subjects of the picture, desperate to see themselves on the camera display. This response never failed to amaze me and was a fantastic way of starting to get to know people. Everyone wanted to shake hands and were amazingly friendly.

After our welcome at the Church, we had a four hour journey, largely over dirt tracks, from Mtwara on the coast in the South of Tanzania, on the border with Mozambique, to Masasi. There we stayed overnight, attending a service in Masasi Cathedral at 7am the following morning. The singing was absolutely fantastic and the Cathedral service, which started with perhaps twenty people at 7am, had probably over 200 people attending when the service finished at 10.30am. Much to my surprise, I was asked to speak to the congregation at the end of the service on behalf of the group that I was with. Luckily I had a translator, George, and everything I said seemed ten times longer when translated into Kiswahili.

Later that Sunday, we travelled an hour to Newala by Land Rover, where we stayed in a convent which was certainly a first for me! The nuns were absolutely fantastic, looking after orphans, running a school and teaching me Kiswahili; they seemed to have time for everyone. We spent Sunday afternoon with the staff and governors of Karume Primary School. Looking around the empty school, which was very stark and bare with barred window, brought home to me the enormous advantages that we have in England and particularly in Church Stretton – we are very lucky!

After looking around Kerume Primary School the following day and meeting with the pupils, I left the group that I was with (from St Laurence’s Primary school in Ludlow, including my wife Kate) and boarded the Land Rover for a 50km drive north to Chihangu Primary School. The journey was fantastic and for me was full of anticipation and expectations. The countryside became increasingly remote as we progressed into the bus! As the Land Rover came close to the school, we could hear drumming.

Chihangu Primary School is very remote. There is no running water and no electricity. I felt very alone—even though there were probably over a thousand village elders, pupils, parents and staff waiting to welcome me. When I arrived there was two hours of dancing, singing and speech making as part of my welcome, culminating in the giving of gifts. The wonderful carved stool and masks now adorn the entrance area at St Lawrence Primary.

I found the time I spent at Chihangu an amazing experience. The people I met were generous, warm and very friendly. They have very little in terms of material possessions but in many ways they have much more than us; they have time for one another, they don’t hurry anywhere, they look after one another and find laughter and pleasure in the simplest of things. We are privileged to be able to establish a link with Chihangu Primary School.