Congratulations! You have found yourself in the very hub of this intraweb library, from whence you can find all manner of secret treasures and miniature fountains of knowledge. Did you know, for instance, that 2005 is officially The Year of the Volunteer? No? Shame on you.
Hello, I'm Phil Hatchard. You might remember me from when I gave you the address to this site. Alternatively, your being here might be pure happenstance, in which case, hello!, pleased to meet you. Pull up a chair by the fire; tea and biscuits are on their way.
Sorry if it's a bit of a mess in here, as I've only just moved in (about nine months ago). I believe that I have now resolved all of the "links leading nowhere" issues, but you may find that some of the pages do not look quite as complete as they might.
Hopefully though I'll have all that resolved before you can say, "cwhtyikmo." This is terribly rude of me: I haven't given you the slightest hint of what this website is about. Wherever are my manners?
If you take a look at the banner at the top of the site, that might offer a clue. See? Bwana Bomba. That's me. Or, at least, that was my nickname by the time I left Ihalimba village. It means Mr Bombastic in Swahili. Approximately. I used to say "bomba" considerably more than the average person. It also means Mr Pump, but that's got nothing to do with me, I promise.
And that's me, there, on the left. You see, I spent seven months of 2004 in Tanzania, spending most of my time there volunteering with an development charity called SPW.
Apart from cooking dinner on a charcoal stove while the local children looked on, we were mostly raising awareness about sexual and reproductive health (particularly HIV/AIDS). This was carried out through both teaching in the local primary school and working in the village community.
Now, this SPW are a bit like a gap year organisation, only more worthwhile. That sounds a bit dismissive of other gap year organisations, I know, but with SPW it's as much about the work as it is about the volunteer.
SPW give their volunteers a full month's in-country training first, before going on placement. At least half of the volunteers on every programme in every country are from that country. In some cases, all of them are local. SPW are a real charity, and make real positive changes to the communities in which they work. But don't let that put you off; it is a wonderful thing to be part of.
But, I shall cease waffling on about how wonderful they are now. It could go on for days. Instead, I'll give you the freedom to browse at your leisure. When it's finished, there'll be plenty to see, both serious and amusing (intentionally, as well as unintentionally, hopefully).
In Short
This is the quick version of what I was doing and why I did it. Saves you the trouble of trawling through all my photos and mindless warbling.
In Pictures
An aimless wander through the photos I took when I was out in Tanzania, probably with some rather excessively verbose and exaggerated tales told alongside them. All of the photos are now up but the description bits may not be finished, nor even exist.
In Other Words
Stuff that doesn't really fit comfortably in the other sections, basically - mostly random stories and tidbits with which to bore you rigid.
In Swahili
"Mambo mdomo moto!" I feel it's important when going to a foreign country to brush up on my chat-up lines first. That one means, "Hey there, Hot Lips!" You'll find all sorts of similarly-useful Swahili phrases in this section.
Bomba News
This is the blog that I started in Tanzania after the programme had finished. I've finally finished posting to it and killed it off now. I've added all my emails home retrospectively too so now archives all the way back to February 2004.
Links
I wonder if you can guess what this page does?
And lastly, if you have anything you want to send to me - death threats, computer viruses, cheap Viagra and the like - you can email philhatchuk@yahoo.co.uk.
You will find that most things on here focus on my own experience, and often the work itself may be overlooked. This is because this website is about my own experiences, and if you want to learn purely about the work, there are much better places to look. Such as the SPW website, which you can find by clicking on the link in the sidebar.
And that's me, there, on the left. You see, I spent seven months of 2004 in Tanzania, spending most of my time there volunteering with an development charity called SPW.
Apart from cooking dinner on a charcoal stove while the local children looked on, we were mostly raising awareness about sexual and reproductive health (particularly HIV/AIDS). This was carried out through both teaching in the local primary school and working in the village community.
Now, this SPW are a bit like a gap year organisation, only more worthwhile. That sounds a bit dismissive of other gap year organisations, I know, but with SPW it's as much about the work as it is about the volunteer.
SPW give their volunteers a full month's in-country training first, before going on placement. At least half of the volunteers on every programme in every country are from that country. In some cases, all of them are local. SPW are a real charity, and make real positive changes to the communities in which they work. But don't let that put you off; it is a wonderful thing to be part of.
But, I shall cease waffling on about how wonderful they are now. It could go on for days. Instead, I'll give you the freedom to browse at your leisure. When it's finished, there'll be plenty to see, both serious and amusing (intentionally, as well as unintentionally, hopefully).
In Short
This is the quick version of what I was doing and why I did it. Saves you the trouble of trawling through all my photos and mindless warbling.
In Pictures
An aimless wander through the photos I took when I was out in Tanzania, probably with some rather excessively verbose and exaggerated tales told alongside them. All of the photos are now up but the description bits may not be finished, nor even exist.
In Other Words
Stuff that doesn't really fit comfortably in the other sections, basically - mostly random stories and tidbits with which to bore you rigid.
In Swahili
"Mambo mdomo moto!" I feel it's important when going to a foreign country to brush up on my chat-up lines first. That one means, "Hey there, Hot Lips!" You'll find all sorts of similarly-useful Swahili phrases in this section.
Bomba News
This is the blog that I started in Tanzania after the programme had finished. I've finally finished posting to it and killed it off now. I've added all my emails home retrospectively too so now archives all the way back to February 2004.
Links
I wonder if you can guess what this page does?
And lastly, if you have anything you want to send to me - death threats, computer viruses, cheap Viagra and the like - you can email philhatchuk@yahoo.co.uk.
You will find that most things on here focus on my own experience, and often the work itself may be overlooked. This is because this website is about my own experiences, and if you want to learn purely about the work, there are much better places to look. Such as the SPW website, which you can find by clicking on the link in the sidebar.