User talk:Kidunguli

Foot2Afrika
Hi there,

I carried out a teaching placement in moshi, Tanzania for 6 weeks starting in march last year. The placement itself was extremely new in being set up and as with most things in Africa took a while to get organised which caused alot of annoyance for people who were only out there for a limited time. Personally, my experience was very worthwhile and rewarding, but the only downside was the huge monetary cost involved to be able to go and give your effort and time to help others. I paid over Â£1000 for my peirod teaching, and saw very little if nothing going back into the project i was helping at. I was under no illusions when booking the project that i-to-i is a profit making organisation, and saw the cost as sort of paying for the secuirty of knowing where i am going to sleep when i arrive and having something pre arranged for when i get there. I did investigate just turning up and trying to organise something when i was there, as i was fully aware that most schools would be more than willing to have a volunteer help out for a few weeks, but didnt think it was a good idea being only 19 and never having been to africa before.

In my whole 6 weeks i was there, i never once met the in country co-ordinator and several other volunteers had very bad experiences with him when they did need his help. i also found out the meagre wages that the staff that were working in our house were earning which was absolutley disgraceful considering there were 8 volunteers in the house all who had paid over Â£1000 for the experience. I seem to remember that the cooks wage was less than Â£20 a month, which in my opinion is shocking. the overall cost of my stay in tanzania cant have been more than Â£250 and that is being extremely generous.

Since i have left, one of the volunteers co ordinator i was with in moshi has set up a separate volunteer organisation, offering everything that i-to-i claim to offer and probably alot more for a fraction of the price due to the fact that she has no ones wages to pay back in England! He is using the same projects, offering an airport pick-up, and accomodation in a very comfortable looking hostel. the only thing she isnt offering is probably an information pack before you leave but i can assure you that that was of zero assistance anyway. i belive they are going to be an true assistance to independent volunteers and backpakers as they are enough experiences in coordinating and adventures, He works with westerner lady and hope its good to have the westerner  there who knows the culture and locals will also be of great assistance and something i-to-i is unable to offer u.

The best way for anyone interested to find out more is to check the website

www.foot2afrika.com

Here you will find all the information you need about the placements, and accomodation, 10 times more than you can find out from the i-to-i website!

I hope this is of some use to people, and let me know if anyone has volunteered in moshi and has similar experiences