Transforming trip to Tanzania

The aim was to build a girl's dormitory at a school in Kilolo - but they came away with enough memories of rewarding experience to last a lifetime.

Mike, 69, of Green Lane, has worked for aid agencies including the Tearfund for more than seven years.

His area of expertise is health and safety and in that capacity he travelled around the world to areas of distress and crisis. He has been to Darfour, on the edge of Sudan, and areas affected by Tsunami, such as Banda Ache and Sri Lanka.

He had just returned home to wife Lynn and was recovering from illness when the idea for the Tearfund Transform trip came up.

"So many people said to me they wished they had the chance to do something themselves - so I thought of the Transform trip. It is exactly what is says - a trip which transforms lives, and it transforms other peoples' lives too.

"The team had to support themselves financially and had to raise 1,500 to carry out the trip."

He took seven people out to Kilolo which is in a mountainous region in the centre of Tanzania and therefore turned out to be "very cold".

The aim of the trip was to build a girls' hostel so that St Michael's school could accommodate twice the number of girls already there.

"This is a massive project. So far they have built a church and a school and now they are working on a men's dormitory - but the girls' we have finished which I am very pleased about.

"When we left we weren't really sure what we had to do - we just knew it was a girls' dormitory. We raised 3,000 towards the build, and when we came back there was almost half the money still available. So they have enough money now to finish the whole project which I am so pleased about. That really is thrilling for us. This was a big unknown for us - what we were going to do, and how we would achieve it. But we did achieve our aims. There were lots of things for which I was very proud."

Mike was concerned when he saw workers on the building site carrying water in buckets on their heads, and also heavy loads of mixed concrete.

"We put 25 of our own money together to buy a hose. I told someone to go to town and come back with a good hose - at least 40 metres long. And then they didn't have to walk off for the water anymore, and they could mix the cement nearer to where we were working. That was good for them - certainly good for their health because it isn't healthy to be carrying half a ton of water on your head. And that also improved the speed of the work going on and our morale too - because we had done something really good.

"That 25 hose was one of the best investments I have ever made."

He describes the experience as "satisfying and rewarding", with each member of the small team allotted their own job from photography to preparing food to writing the daily blog, as well as working on the build itself.

A party was held for them on the last day and started later than Mike expected.

"So many people wanted to come to this party they had to cook extra food - that is why there was a big delay. They gave us gifts, even the people on the building site, so that was very humbling because they earn just one pound a day, and they went and bought gifts for us. I know from the tears that we had at our farewell party that we transformed them as well - it was not just on our side but their side as well. All our team left their sleeping bags, their boots, their clothes and their jewellery, left it all behind with them.

"This was a fantastic trip for all those that were involved in the project."