Time Capsule Letter – October 2016
Mambo!!!!!
I cannot believe that I am back in the United States after spending an AMAZING summer in Tanzania with Global Leadership Adventures! I am now into the routine of work and school here and I hope that all of you are fully immersed and enjoying your next adventure whether that be another year of high school or your first year in college.
Looking back, the first session of GLA Tanzania was incredible- our group of six was small but mighty.
Every day I was amazed at how well you bonded with each other and fully immersed yourselves into the program. I will not forgot the times spent doing service, debating during discussions, relaxing at the home base, and adventuring on safari.
I want to take this opportunity to once again express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for everyone who worked at and participated in the GLA Tanzania Moshi program this summer. All of you took an incredibly brave step by traveling halfway around the world to a foreign country to experience a different culture with strangers who turned into friends and you all succeeded in fully immersing yourselves into the GLA experience. Most importantly, all of the hard work that you did for the students at Himo and Korona has had a positive impact on their lives. I hope the GLA experience has been life changing for you as well and that your experiences in Tanzania continues to positively impact your life as you continue to grow both as individuals and future leaders.
Summer Blog Posts
Day 1 – Jambo – Greetings from Tanzania!
Today was a great first day with all of our students. Our day started with a full breakfast of juice, eggs, toast, and fruit. After breakfast we played name games and icebreakers to get know each other better. After the games orientation started. The students learned some basic Swahili and about the overall structure of the program for the next two weeks. After orientation the students got to meet and have lunch with their host families and practice some of their Swahili. After lunch the host families took the students to their homes and for a tour around the village. All of the students had a great time and learned a lot. The night ended with a workshop on service learning and discussion of the goals for our trip.
Great start to our GLA adventure!
Friday, June 17th
Today we woke up to an amazing wake up call consisting of ringing the dinner bell. After waking everybody up, we ate a delicious breakfast of eggs, toast, and other Tanzanian breakfast staples. Mama Simba then came and talked to us about cultures and customs. Soon after at nine, we took a thirty minute bus ride to go and visit the two schools we would be teaching at: Himo and Korona. While at the school, we visited all the students and introduced ourselves to where we would be doing most of our service work. After that we walked around and played with the school kids in a field near the school. We then left and returned back home where we are our lunch.
~Melisa Dindoruk
After lunch we had a teacher in Tanzania come talk to us about the education system and history of the country. We learned about the grade levels and subjects in Tanzania as well as how the country was formed from Tanganika and Zanzibar. After that Mama Simba told us about her life and challenges. Then we ate meat and rice and fruit for dinner. After dinner we talked about orphanage tourism and the issues Southeast Asia has with it. Then we finished the day
with our highs and lows and went to bed.
~Shan Duffy
Today was a very special day! We woke up at exactly 7:30 AM. After waking up to lovely noises, it was time to eat. For breakfast we had eggs, French Toast, and a magical juice. Once finished eating we got in the van and went to exchange some money. Being safe like always we headed to some shops after getting some money. We went to a local market and bought some fabric. After buying some fabric we headed to a supermarket. The supermarket was great, and after leaving the store we went to an Internet cafe. We bought some internet and some food. For lunch we had pizza and milkshakes!
-John Mack
After coming home from Moshi town and the Internet cafe, lunch was served for those who had not eaten yet. Lunch was very yummy in on our tummys (as always). After eating, a tailor came in to take our measurements to make clothes using the fabric we bought earlier that day. We were allowed to choose from hats, bags, pants, shirts, dresses and much more. We had a shot break where we played some competitive games of Uno. After this, we got ready to go to the orphanage. We walked, as it was a short distance and in the same town we were staying in. We brought gifts of rice to present to the head lady running the orphanage. The orphanage had around 100 very happy kids of all ages. We all had so much fun talking and playing with the kids. Later, we ate dinner and had our daily session with Ashley where she blows are minds with cool information!!! Until tomorrow!
-Caylie Milazzo
Sunday, June 19th
We drove to the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro early in the morning and we started hiking with a guide. We went to a waterfall and we had to cross the river, but it was very slippery, so most people fell in the water. Allison, the international director, fell and hurt her leg, so she had to go back to the bus. We had to hike uphill for a couple hours until we reached a natural swimming pool, where we ate lunch that were packed for us. John was the only one of us to swim in the pool because it was very cold. We spent an hour there hopping on rocks in the water and sitting. We had a lot of fun! Then we kept hiking and passed by Novelia’s house. We met her youngest daughter and took a quick break outside her house. We then proceeded hiking until finally we reached the official national park and base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, where hikers start. We saw a model of the mountain and the guide explained to us the journey it takes to climb. He also told us about the environment, plants, animals, and history of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We learned that the record time it took to climb up and down was only 6 hours! Usually it takes 6 days!
When we got home, we had dinner and then had a lesson planning workshop. We learned that actions and hands on activities help students understand and learn better. We also learned to speak slowly and clearly and that repetition is important. We were also divide into pairs. Each pair would teach a different class. After the workshop we started the lesson plans for the next day. We used text books and what we learned in the workshop to make our plans, which had to be approved by Allison and Ashley.
Then we had Ashely time,where we discussed the harm in a single story. We looked at two songs. One was about Christmas and about how while people are celebrating in America, people in west Africa are dying. We discussed what was wrong with this. This song says that Africans don’t know what Christmas is, when in reality, many are Christian. This song also implies that all of west Africa is dying of Ebola and that there is no joy. We then watched a series of videos that talked about the stereotypes of Africa and made fun of them. We also saw some examples of good videos that represent a more realistic version of Africa. We also learned about an organization that gives prizes to the best and the worst aid videos. This organization gives golden and rusty radiator awards depending on whether a video is bad and stereotypical or whether it gives a god representation of the place that it is talking about and promotes good types of aid.
-Cassie and Ilana
Monday, June 20
Today we woke up to go to our first day of service at Himo Kirona Primary School. All of us were paired up to teach English in either Form 3 or Form 5/6. In Melisa’s and my class we had the kids make name tags and then we had them read aloud a story to the class. After that we asked them questions about the story to see how much they understood. Finally we wrote vocab words on the board and had the kids copy them into their notebooks. We had 1/2 an hour to play games with the kids and we played 7 up and taught them 4 corners. After that we all met up in a classroom and sanded the walls for an hour. When we were leaving the kids asked us all for stickers which made us realize they see white people as gift givers. When we got back to base we ate lunch and then started making batik. Batik is an art form where you draw on a cloth, cover it in wax, and paint it. After that we walked to a shop nearby to buy sodas. We ate dinner and then we watched a movie called Girl Rising and talked about female development. We also did lesson planning for school the next day and then we went to bed.
~ Shan Duffy
June 21, 2016
Moshi, Tanzania
It was raining again when we woke up today. Wakeup time was at seven and breakfast was at seven thirty as usual. After eating breakfast we all loaded into the bus, and made our way to school. We taught the kids for about one hour, till we began our job of painting the classroom. We had to prime the walls and put plaster around the windows in the class. It was a tiring and messy job, but we managed to have fun. After school we made our way back home and ate lunch. At two, we made our way to a local coffee plantation about fifteen minutes from base. We learned about the coffee industry in Tanzania, and even got to make our own coffee. It was really interesting seeing how it was made, and even more fun getting to drink it. There were local chagga people there who taught us how to dance their tribal dances, and even dress a little bit like them. After that we went back to the local supermarket in Moshi, and bought some more snacks that we were craving. We all decided to eat dinner at the Internet Cafe and spent about an hour there catching up with our friends and family. We returned back home after and had some much needed free time that consisted of some wild card games. During our evening workshop we played a game that taught us about what kind of leaders we are. We had some more free time after that and some people sat in cat poop at that time. At ten we had lights lug and were more than happy to get to sleep again.
-Melisa
June 22, 2016
Today we woke up to a yummy breakfast as usual. We woke up at 7 and were on the bus to school. Our driver, Isaac, did a fantastic job driving us through the muddy, uneven roads after the storms from the night before. We almost got stuck, but we got through the muddy road. We went to school where we all taught for an hour. After this we were allowed some time to play with the kids. For the first time of the week, we were allowed to play with the kids outside. For the earlier part of the week, the field had been too wet to play. Being outside with all the kids and all the GLA kids was so much fun. After having some play time, we began painting the first coat of color paint over the primer. The fumes were very strong, but we had masks to help. We finished this first layer and then we were done painting for the day. In the afternoon, a dance group called the Kili Wizards came to our home base to show us their show. They danced for us, played instruments and sang. After dancing we were allowed to join to them. This was a really great experience as this type of dance was nothing I had ever experienced before. Following this, we ate dinner and then walked to the local orphanage in the same town as home base. This was so fun playing with them, but also so sad to leave these kids for the final time. As the day was coming to a close, we were allowed some free time to play cards and hang out with each other.
-Caylie Milazzo
Friday, June 24
We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast of toast, eggs, and fruit. Then we went to school and worked with the kids for about an hour. After that we played with them for about half an hour. It was really fun playing with the kids because we got to spend time with kids from other classes. After playing with them, we started painting the classroom that we’ve been working on. All of us got paint on us, but it was fine because we had fun. When we finished we made our way back to the home base. We ate lunch when we arrived and after that we showered because we were getting our hear braided. While our hair was being braided by some wonderful ladies, I gave my LOD presentation/activity and Ashley talked to us about health and hygiene (poop). To prepare for safari, we went to the nakumatt (supermarket) and we bought snacks. Then we went back to the home base and had a delicious dinner. After dinner we had a super helpful feedback session with Ashley and Allison. To continue safari prep, we had a safari/Masai talk with Allison, which was very interesting. To end the day, we packed for safari and finally went to bed.
IlianaSaturday & Sunday, June 25 & 26
Safari weekend. Saturday we drove to Tangerine national park, spent the night at a hostel, and woke up early to go to Ngorongoro crater conservation area. We had fun. We saw cheetahs, elephants, a rhino and many other wild beasts. We were very close to the lions. It was very cool. We took a lot of pictures. We had some quality sandwiches for lunch. Melisa asked our lovely tour guide to do some homework before the second day and she was ignored. Raymond, our tour guide, was a very special Savannah boi. He was very skilled and could smell the wildlife miles away from us. He made us laugh and will be missed very dearly. John farted on our way back to Arusha and it smelled so bad it woke up both Melisa, Caylie and our HQ guest, Veronica, I mean Valerie. Actually her name is Vanessa. After John farted in the van and woke up everyone we realized the Savannah boi was actually the one who farted:/ that’s when things got awkward. We drove up the caldera and stood up with the window down. It was really fun seeing the floor of the caldera disappear into the distance. Caylie also farted liquid eggs in the bus, and almost killed us all. Bring a gas mask. On our way back to Arusha, most of us slept. I (Melissa) got to have the entire backseat to myself and it was awesome. Caylie got a little jealous but it’s alright. I offered to let her sleep there after me, but she declined and jammed with John instead. She’s still a little salty about it. Me (Caylie) and John jammed to MGMT and no one else understood the love for Electric Feel. Imbeciles. We went to the Maasai market in Arusha. God bless Tanzania and good day!!
-Entire GLA 2016 6/15 student group