RIDETZ IS HERE!!

In the next 3 days 17 RideTZ riders will be arriving in Tanzania to kick off our amazing Kili to the Coast- Ride For A Cause! I can't believe it's finally here. Our riders have spent countless months, days, and hours training on bikes and in the gym as well as fundraising. To date, this dedicated crew has raised more than 100K collectively for The Foundation For Tomorrow's scholarship kids and programs. Talk about an amazing group of people!

Excitement for our RideTZ Riders!

Here on the ground in TZ, we've been busy deciding everything from campsites along the route to how to transport enough water for 20+ riders over a 10 day period. We've had some great reccie trips (check out Anne's blog), fun rides out to school and a lot of laughs through this experience!

On Friday afternoon, our Summits Africa guides Ema and Jacob, and their crew of 15 will be taking the reigns, meeting our riders and getting us all psyched for our adventure! On Saturday, after a send off from all of TFFT's students at Usa River Academy, we'll hit the dirt.

Ema...our guide and teacher??

Jacob in his riding shoes...

Keep checking in to find out where we are and how we're doing! Also be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter.

Ride TZ Reccie

Last month the guys at Summits packed up and headed off to do the last of the Ride TZ Reccies. The guides rode the entire route and I was lucky enough to join them for the first 3 days of riding.


We headed off with two of the Summits guides. This is Jacob, he recently returned from a six month bike adventure throughout the whole of East Africa.


This is Ema, he runs up and down Kilimanjaro for a living and has sumitted over 80 times. He is such a motivator and makes riding fun and his smile never fails to cheer you up. While riding up a sandy hill he has even been known to break into song singing "From a Distance," which made even the most exhausted rider (ME) happy to climb on.


The summits crew will be trailing us the whole time to ensure our safety.


The views are so stunning that even the guides have to take a moment to soak it all up.


Our first night we camp at Maji Moto, a fresh water pool.


A dip in this pool will definitely be the perfect end to the first day of riding.


Our trail can best be described as mixed- use. Sometimes we will break for dik dik other times we can encounter caravans of donkeys.


Many Maasai deserve thanks in helping to determine the best route when riding through the bush.



Things in TZ change quickly and often. The need for the multiple reccie's becomes apparent as fully functional bridges and routes that existed 2 months prior are no longer.


All is well though, as Ema always improvises with a smile.


Our lunch spot on day 2 takes us to Nyumba ya Mungu "House of God" lake.


Spinning tires through this sand is definitely a challenge, but luckily it wont be for too long.


The views of the lake are stunning.


You have to love the safi outfits you see in the remote villages.


Jacob attracts a crowd anywhere he goes.


With his energy you can see why everyone adores Jacob.


Hydration is key for a ride this long and hot!


Sunset on day 2 over the far side of Nyumba ya Munga.


View of the Pangani river from our camp on night 2.


Pangani River


I would love to see see hardcore mountain bikers cross this!


See those mountains in the distance. By the afternoon we reach and cross them and head down to Mkomazi national park for the night.


A Maasai man trying out the bike during a lunch break.


Late in the afternoon on the third day I parted ways with the Summits team. They continued on to Pangani. This Friday we will all meet up again and head off for Ride TZ. For the riders we have a great and challenging adventure ahead of us. If you are unable to participate in the ride stay tuned for dispatches from the field!



Get the AddThis Social Bookmarking Button widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!

Hop a Long

So…later this week, I’ll post an update on the RideTZ course along with details of the recent Reccie trip that Ema and Jacob (our fearless guides) of Summits Africa took, accompanied by TFFT staffer and RideTZ rider Anne Palmer.

However, first let me share the little hiccup that has hit the RideTZ team (by team I mean me, Emily) here in Tanzania. It seems that adding rugby training to my exercise plan wasn’t the greatest idea! Apparently young boys can tackle, and after an afternoon of playing, I walked off the field with a fractured fibula to my right ankle bone area.

After a week of ace bandaging and waiting for the swelling to come down, I was fitted with a safi new cast in Nairobi. Writing names on the cast isn’t really big over here (and probably hasn’t been anywhere since the 80’s), but that didn’t stop me. I brought a plethora of colors with me on my first day back at school, and once the novelty of the cast wore off, and the kids realized how hard it really was…the drawing began!

The girls taking full advantage of my one good leg!

When the cast was colorful enough, the crutches or “crunches” as some call them became the focus of the afternoon. It was really fun to watch the kids try to hobble around, until I stood up and they decided to test the legitimacy of my break. It took me a few minutes to clue in to their small bodies moving further and further away from me as I stood there standing crutchless. However, when they started saying “now come here” and “walk to me” I realized I could be in trouble. Luckily enough I was able to demonstrate my inability to walk pretty quickly and was offered a few kiddie shoulders to lean on while they finished up crunching around.

Apaifura trying to balance with one leg up and crutches that are entirely too tall!

Aminieli just chillin'

Ndera got a little sick of hopping

Gladness had great form! Look at that lifted foot!

Everyone please send good thoughts that this “casti” comes off on Friday and I have two good feet (though one much tinier now) for the ride!

MALARIA FREE!!

Dear readers,

Back again to give you some updates on what is happening on the ground. Getting items and distributing them before school opening date for every single kid wasn’t an easy task as it has always be but went perfect. Sending them all back to school was well organized but tiresome. Finally, all TFFT Scholarship kiddos are back to school, settled and busy with their 2010 2nd term as they should.

After trying for like more than a month when kids were on break, and Fratern (our MD) having to call every single day to see how is it going with the application he put in before to get some mosquito nets donated by PSI, We ended up deciding to purchase mosquito nets for our kids on our own. However, keeping in mind that we are a non profit, trying to reach out and help as many kids as we could, I had to check out with two big textile industries based in Arusha for two reasons; one trying to get some discount since we are an non-profit working for orphans and abandoned children and two hopping that it will be more cheap cost wise getting them directly from the industry as compared to buying them from stores in town.

Finally the number one reason couldn’t work but number two is what we ended up opting. How excited the kiddos were when I was rolling into school with two big boxes full of squared and rounded new mosquito nets in the car trunk!! Emily and Anne were there before me that day and they already told kids that Josh will be coming with mosquito nets for you!!!

Pole Anne for disrupting your Full Circle After School Program as there was no way you could run it while all kids wanted to hear or do nothing else but getting mosquito nets and make sure they are doing away with malaria especially because of rain season and grasses which provides good breeding sites for mosquitoes.

Our Scholarship Children are all happy and malaria free!!

Avocado Tree Grafting

Two months ago we permanently planted some parachichi trees in the garden at Usa River Academy. A month ago we experimented with grafting. This was a very special event because it was not only the culmination of many prior lessons but it also marked Full Circle's first attempt at a collaboration with an Usa River Academy teacher. Mr. Benjamin, the Biology teacher, was very excited to participate in the activity and planned a biology lesson to accompany the gardening component.

Mr. Benjamin with the students

We had an amazing turnout. I told Mr. Benjamin to choose about 20 non- TFFT secondary students who were interested to join us and was quite surprised when he showed up with over 100! When I asked him about the huge group he stated simply that they were all interested to learn and how could he deny them that chance. Touché!

Even the headmaster Mr. Kamuru stopped by to check out the project. Here he stands between Mr. Benjamin and Josh and looks on with the students.

Desi and Kasanga were on hand once more to serve as our expert gardeners.

Lou generously offered up some cuttings from her delicious Hass avocado trees to be grafted with the local variety.

Kasanga, with support from a student's hands, begins the delicate work of the graft.

Students eagerly look on.

The final result.
In the end everything came together and the project was a great success. We collaborated with volunteer extraordinaire Lou, Usa River staff and students to have a fun and educational afternoon that will ultimately result is tasty Hass avocados for eating!