On August 20, 2015, our Mission Possible team of volunteers and staff left the UK on the start of a ...

On August 20, 2015, our Mission Possible team of volunteers and staff left the UK on the start of a 10-day deployment to Tanzania. This blog is by volunteer Ian Yunus Daley describing his experiences of the first day.

“The time has come to leave England and venture to the motherland Africa!

I wasn’t nervous, I was more excited and anxious as to what I would see. I didn’t know what to expect but I guess I had pre-conceptions as to what I would see.

The trip to Dubai and then from Dubai to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania was so long and tiring that all you had were your thoughts and imagination, thinking what is this experience going to be like, am I going to love it? Hate it? Regret it? At the moment I don’t know. All I do know is I will definitely grow and learn from it.

So I woke up in Tanzania today, rain pouring, dogs barking, no electricity. And I couldn’t be happier. This country is beautifully sad, the moment we landed in Pangani the smiles from the children humbled my heart.

You come here expecting sadness and that you are here to rescue the people of Tanzania. What I got was the complete opposite; the people here are so content and happy, they work with what they have and are grateful for it, any aid they get is a bonus. I believe the aid we will be giving will benefit the people and Insha’Allah keep those children smiling.

Today was the most physically demanding experience of my life and it was also the most fun and emotional, it was a complete rollercoaster of emotion. The 5km water trek was hard on the way there but on the way back, Subhan’Allah that’s when the real test began.

Now, we were carrying 40 litres of water on our push bikes up impossibly steep muddy paths. The locals were with us and they had nothing but smiles on their faces and laughing the entire way. After 3-4 hours of trekking we finally arrived back at the village where we were met by the whole village, everybody dancing (including myself). It was by far the most humbling experience of my life.

After talking with the locals about trials they face every day, it was clear that there are two major issues the villagers face - malaria and trying to get clean water that isn’t 5km away!”

Ian Yunus Daley

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