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Sunday August 5, 2018
We woke up today to a very tasty breakfast to prepare us for the fun day ahead. A guest speaker by the name of Jerome came to home base to teach us about the Tanzanian education system. After realizing how drastically different the system is compared to the American education system and others around the world, we asked an agglomeration of intellectual and important questions, further sparking other conversation and questions. After the guest speaker, the students proceeded to their second Swahili lesson of their session, learning words and phrases such as “where are you from?” and “my name is” that they also used later in the day.
While the Swahili lesson was taking place, we were called one by one to be measured for clothing or an accessory of their choice with the gorgeous and unique fabrics we chose from the day before at the local market. Host families were assigned to groups of three and were invited to lunch to introduce themselves to us. After lunch and a brief introduction, we ventured with each host family to their homes where they met the rest of the family. There we asked more questions, delving a bit deeper since we were more comfortable with the family and vice versa. We learned so much about the daily life in Tanzania and the differences in culture and society compared to theirs. We were even inspired, as the conversations sparked ideas of how to leave our mark in Tanzania and onward long after this session. The visit ended with a series of dances, songs, lots of laughter, and a mini adventure to a lake.
-Maya Fawaz, Milo Canul
Monday August 6, 2018
Day 3: Intro to teaching!
Ding* Ding* 8:00 breakfast is ready! Breakfast was good today we had eggs, toast, deep fried yummyness and fruit. After breakfast we hit the road. We arrived at the school as kids greeted us with a song, so cute! Once we were split into our classrooms we jumped right into games and dancing. The kids were so warm and welcoming, grabbing our hands and hugging us. Today was mostly just getting to know the kids and getting a feel for the next week to come. After an hour and a half of getting to know them we started our service. We split up into two groups. One group sanding down the walls and another group pic axing concrete. The work was hard but rewarding.
Back to home for lunch and off we went to batik art shortly after! After tracing, painting, waxing and touch ups we each had our own hand made painting. Later after dinner we split into our teaching groups and had our first session of lesson planning. It was much more challenging than we had anticipated, but we are feeling optimistic about tomorrow!
-Ruby Ravvin and Audrey Young
Tuesday August 7, 2018
Today was another great day in Tanzania. This morning, our chef Mama D made us some eggs, toast, and a fruit salad. We then had time to continue our lesson planning from the previous night to prepare for teaching English to the Tanzanian students. We took a bumpy ride on our bus to the school and split into our assigned classrooms. This first day of teaching was quite difficult, especially with the language barrier, but we were able to get our content across. The students were very engaged and enthusiastic about learning, which made teaching very enjoyable. After a fun-filled recess, we split into two groups for service. Half of us sanded walls, while the others pick axed cement floors. We returned to home base and had a leadership activity regarding stereotypes and how to dismantle them. We then learned from our local staff how to prepare our dinner. We made guacamole, tostadas, and prepared lots of fruit. Some students chose to try a hot pepper, and a few seconds later deeply regretted it. The trip continues to get better each day, and we’re really lookin forward to the next.
Selim Khattab
Max Wilson
Wednesday August 8, 2018
Today we had a really full day! We started off with the usual breakfast and teaching and service, then had beans and rice for lunch. We then listened to a guest speaker from NAFGEM, which fights against female genital mutilation. We learned about the different types of mutilation and the importance of saving girls from going through this. The guest speaker also brought several girls who live at his shelter and they spoke about how they had to run away from their families and the experiences they went through. After this, we got to buy some bags and pouches they made and the funds went to the girls so that they could start their own life.
We then went to a coffee plantation and got to pick coffee beans and roast them. Then we crushed it and danced and sang songs with the village people. Drinking the coffee we made was so good and it was so interesting to see the whole process behind coffee before it gets shipped out. When we got home, we had an AMAZING dinner with some food from back home: fries, chicken wings, and coke! The coke was a huge treat because we’ve only been drinking water and the chicken wings were the best chicken wings we’ve ever had.
Overall, we had a great day and can’t wait to go to the orphanage tomorrow!
– Megan Dixon and Zoe Ferris
Thursday August 9, 2018
We started the day with an amazing breakfast of french toast! On the way to school, the students enjoyed an awesome jam sesh featuring One Direction and Pitbull. In the classroom the GLA students taught about days of the week, indirect and direct sentences, the family tree, and adjectives. During service work we split up into two groups focusing on making cement and plastering the walls.
The students joked around and ended up covered in plaster while singing 99 bottles of milk on the wall; which we finished to 0 bottles of milk on the wall! We then returned to home base to watch the documentary Girl Rising an inspiring story about empowering girls all over the world. After the movie, we visited the Tuleeni Orphanage and enjoyed some songs sang by GLA students, staff and the orphans. After a nice filling dinner Mama “Uweza” Simba told her inspiring life story and we were all very moved. We are super excited for whatever is in store for tomorrow!
-by Delaney Welty & Sara Ahmed
Friday August 10, 2018
Today was another eventful day here in Moshi-town! On the bus to school this morning we performed a lovely rendition of “Royals” by Lorde among other sub par pop songs. Every group made successful advancements in teaching English to their students through games, songs and writing assignments. After a tiring recess – the kids love to chase us around! – we were divided into our mentor groups to lay cement and continue painting the classrooms. At this point in the trip we are quite confident with our service skills and are excited to see the final product!
Later on in the day we went to buy souvenirs from a local market, so keep an eye out for some trinkets when we return home! In the afternoon we observed a local dance troupe called the Kill Wizard Dancers that went above and beyond our expectations. Selim was actually brought up to the stage and performed with fire, don’t worry parents, he’s still alive and doing well! The night ended with anticipation about our upcoming safari. We’re all very excited for this once in a lifetime experience and can’t wait to see some giraffes!
– Izzy Lapidus & Emily Yourman
Saturday August 11, 2018
The first day began bright and early when we left for our safari weekend on Saturday morning. The car ride was long, but it was filled with games, music and laughter which made the four hours seem like nothing. Our first stop was Tarangire National Park. We were in safari jeeps with the roofs propped up, so that we could stay in the car while watching all the animals and taking pictures. We saw numerous elephants, giraffes, impalas, zebras, wildebeests, and many different species of birds.
After the safari, we stayed at the Twiga Lodge. There we were served a delicious dinner of fish, goat, and veggie curry. After a long day of driving we went to our rooms and got some well needed rest.
Our second day of safari, started early 5:00am. We were again served a amazing breakfast, including crepes, toast, and eggs. We then got in our jeeps and headed to Ngorongoro National Park. When we first arrived we were greeted by a family of baboons that were playing and jumping all over the jeeps and gates. We then ventured into the park and the view was amazing! You could see the whole caldera, along with the surrounding mountains. We eventually made it down to the bottom of the caldera where there were many swamps filled with flamingos, cranes, and water buffalo. After that we came across a drier area that had elephants, warthogs, hyenas, zebras, wildebeests, jackal, gazelles, and lions. At lunchtime, we stopped for lunch at hippo pond. There we got to get out of our jeeps, and eat our lunch next to a pond full of hippos.
We got back in our jeeps and slowly headed home where we were greeted with a delicious dinner cooked by Mama D. Overall, it was a weekend to be remembered.
Haley Ireland & Helen Kenderov
Today, sadly the second to last day of school, was a great teaching experience for all the GLA and school students. Although some of us were held back by being a bit sick everyone had such a positive teaching experience no matter what grade they were teaching. For service half of the students had a hard working cement session while the other half had a satisfying painting experience and both made great leaps in progress of the refurbishment of the classrooms. After school and lunch we all had the bittersweet goodbyes with our host families, spending the last time with them and wishing them a farewell. To say good bye we gave large gifts to their host families and many students received small gifts from their host families. Although I may never see my own host family again they have widened my personal view of the culture of Tanzania and its people.
Later, we had an incredibly interesting discussion with around 20 hiv/aids victims living here in tanzania. We learned about how their lives have been affected by the disease, some of the struggles they have had to endure, and some of the things that we can do to help. They told us that in tanzania about one person in each household will be infected with hiv/aids. one of the biggest reasons this disease continues to spread so rampantly is lack of education, which is why these people volunteer their time to come and share their stories with us and raise awareness for a disease that has been treated as a taboo in tanzania for so long. the work they have been doing has been a huge aid in combatting the widespread ignorance of this disease and it was so wonderful to hear from them. Until tomorrow!
Sydney Losikoff-Carey and Anna Heeter
Tuesday August 14, 2018
Today we woke up at 7:30 am to a breakfast of eggs, toast, pineapple, papaya, and a cake bread sort of thing. Then we finished up our last day of service at the school. Everyone was sad to leave the kids. We finished up concrete and painting and said out final goodbyes to the school. Then we came back to home base and had lunch. Then we competed in the S.P.A.C.E. J.A.M. competition where we had to compete in games in 3 teams which were the bopping whales, the spicy mongoose, and the happy dictators.
It was a great series of events that consisted of teamwork and fun. After that we had the opportunity to get our hair braided and get back out fabric pieces that got created into various things such as hoodies, shorts, bags and shirts. After that we had a delicious dinner and finished off the day with mentor groups. All is well here in Tanzania.
