Diary - Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Operation Africa an Outstanding Success

It is indeed difficult to describe what has transpired here in Jambiani since the arrival of the “Team” from Kamloops a little over a week ago. David Sakaki and his incredible entourage of human beings worked miracles here and on behalf of HABS, the hospitals in Makunduchi and Stone Town, the local dispensary in Jambiani, the schools of Jambiani, and thousands of individuals here and elsewhere on Zanzibar. Pat and I would like to thank you all from the depth of our hearts for your selfless and untiring dedication in the service of others perhaps less fortunate than us. You are all a very big inspiration to those who have met you and who understand what motivates you and we can only hope that our paths will cross again sooner rather than later.

The team didn’t waste much time getting down to business and once the container arrived in Jambiani it was all hands on deck and with the help of many of our local soccer players and others, the massive job of offloading the contents of a jam-packed forty footer began at about 7 pm. This process went faster than expected and I think we had cleared everything by about 11 pm. We used two vacant classrooms in a local school and also a rented house in the village to initially store the 25,000 plus pieces of clothing, shoes, hospital and optometry supplies, tools, books, bicycles, school supplies, kitchen supplies and the list goes on and on. It was a really impressive example of team work at its best. I know Pat and I finally got to bed at about 2 AM but for the members of Team Africa, I’m sure some of them barely made it to bed before being on site that same morning at 6 AM to organize and to sort through things for the eventual distribution process.

Trucks were hired for trips to Makunduchi and town and also to deliver goods and materials within Jambiani itself. It was a truly wonderful experience to be part of this project and the benefits to Zanzibar will be ongoing for many years to come. Congratulations to everyone involved and once again, thank you so much David and Sue, Dennis and Crystal, Dave and Nikki, Sandy and Katie, Arlene, Corey, Liz, Cindy, Robert and Linda. We also were able to welcome Marina and Derrick who were here to see if it was feasible for them to establish a more permanent facility for TWECS (Third World Eye Care Society) whom we have worked with and made reference to in the past. This would be a wonderful thing for the people of Zanzibar if things work out as expected. We shall keep you posted.

Presently, the team will be now winding up their trip to Africa with a safari in Kenya and we would all like to wish them a safe journey back to Canada and that all good will be their constant companion. Thank you!!!!!!!!! I will be posting some pictures of the team in operation just as soon as I have received them from David and crew after their return to Kamloops. Stay tuned. :)

Prior to the visit from Team Africa, we were very happy to have spent time with some truly bug hearted Canadians from Vancouver Island. Walter, Shelly and their daughter Tamara along with Steven and family visited us for a bit over a week and helped out in a number of capacities. Walter on the IT side of the equation was able to spend some time in the classroom and also to fix our DVD drive on our laptop, Tamara and Shelly visited the local nursery school and contributed some much needed tensor bandages to the Wellness Centre and Stephen contributed his knowledge of electricity to fix the pannini maker in the JTTI kitchen. In addition, they were some of our best customers in the restaurant so their support on that level was also very much appreciated. We hope they will return again one day to possibly teach in the school. Thanks so much guys for the great energy and support. We are grateful!!

On Saturday, we will be welcoming Ms Sarah Christie who will be with us until the end of May volunteering her skills as a teacher in the JTTI. Sarah will be taking on some of the responsibilities previously undertaken by Barry and Claire Prong so she will be pretty busy at times. We look forward to spending more time with her in the very near future.

So I guess that’s about it for now. As I said, just as soon as I have some pictures from the Operation Africa team I’ll post them ASAP. So until then, be well and much love to you from the entire HABS team here in the “Jam”.