Touching the (African) Future: Adventures of a redhead in Africa : Another Weekend, Another Waterfall

Hi there!

Here’s a rundown of what’s been going on since the safari. It’s sort of chronological but not exactly.

School - I’ve continued working with the head math/chemistry teacher, mostly in his Form 4

Pinel, the head math teacher, and
I with the new books.

(~grade 11) class. It’s been nice to see how he teaches, as his style is similar to mine. It’s also been fun participating in some chemistry classes seeing as it’s been so long since I’ve been in one! It will certainly be helpful next year seeing as The Martian, the book we are starting our ChangeMakers program with, contains a fair amount of chemistry. I even think I’ve figured out a way to work balancing chemical equations into a lesson on equivalent algebraic expressions. Additionally, I was able to purchase 12 textbooks for some of the math classes that didn’t have any! The teachers and students were very grateful and it felt good to be able to do something that will have a somewhat lasting impact at the school.

The Girls Foundation - When there was some uncertainty about my placement when I first got here, I went on Google Maps looking for secondary schools I might be able to go to. While searching, I found something called The Girls Foundation Tanzania, an NGO founded by an

The Girl’s Center common area

American volunteer (who lives in Maine!) and I had reached out to them to see if they had any volunteering opportunities available. When the responded the next day, my original placement had been straightened out, but I asked the director if I could come in to see what they’re about because it looked like a great program. So last Wednesday, I walked to The Girls Center to meet with Estahappy, the director of the foundation on the Tanzanian side. The foundation sponsors 3 girls each year who are in the top of their 7th grade equivalent class and come from severely impoverished backgrounds. They pay for them to attend 6 years at a really good private secondary boarding school (as long as they maintain their top grades) and then pay for them to attend university for up to 4 years if they get in. When the girls are on break from school, they live at The Girls Center, a house in town. There they teach them essential skills like reproductive health, writing skills, job hunting skills, computer skills, leadership skills, etc. They have one on one tutors for them (often foreign volunteers who come stay for a week) and they set them up on internship and volunteer opportunities during the months between some of the school levels. It’s an amazing organization and I am hoping to somehow set up a partnership between them and our ChangeMaker’s program at Waltham. We’ll see how it goes!

Hot Springs Trip - On Friday a big group of volunteers went on a trip to some hot springs that are about two hours away. Because we had such a big group (12) the hostel was able to arrange a private bus to take us. It certainly beat the overcrowded dala dalas! (A dala dalas are the minibuses that are the public transportation around Arusha. While they are very cheap and convenient, they are always incredibly overcrowded and a bit of a stressful experience) We were driving on sand roads essentially in the middle of a desert (well, not exactly a desert of the Sahara type, but similar to the landscape in my village in Namibia) and suddenly we see a small area with quite a few trees and other greens. We pulled in and saw this pristine lagoon of incredibly clear

water surrounded by these big trees and ferns. There was even a rope swing! While the water wasn’t hot by any means, it could barely even classify as warm, it was nonetheless a very pleasant temperature for swimming. It also had those little fish that eat your dead skin and if you stopped moving, they would come and feast on you! (They don’t really hurt, only tickle a little). We had an awesome time swimming around, lounging, and playing on the rope swing. We were even able to get one of our favorite local meals, chipsimayai, for lunch. Chipsimayai is essentially a cheese-less omelette with French fries in it. It’s delicious. When our arms and legs were thoroughly exhausted, we piled back on the bus and slept the whole way home.

Moshi - When we were on safari, the rest of the volunteers did one of the hostel trips to the city of Moshi, near Kilimanjaro (and the hot springs). We wanted to see Moshi too, so Jamie, Dajon, Liselot and I decided to just do our own Moshi trip, hoping to save a bit of money by doing it ourselves. We didn’t have too much a plan and were just ready for a fun adventure. We woke up and made our way to the bottom of Mianzini corner where we could catch a public bus that would take us to Moshi. (Mianzini is the neighborhood the hostel is in but we’re about a 15 minute walk up the hill from the main corner.) The bus is the size of a short greyhound bus but only costs 3000 shillings, about $1.50. We were hooping it wouldn’t get as crowded as the dala dalas but we were wrong. Luckily we managed to grab the 4 seats in the back and hoped that they wouldn’t try to squeeze anyone else back their with us. This worked for most of the trip but towards the end we
had to switch busses for some reason and lost our good seats. Oh well. When we arrived in Moshi, we found a taxi that would take us up to a waterfall hike. The hike in was about an hour and a fairly easy hike. We reached the waterfall, which was extremely tall and powerful. The spray

Safari Squad takes Moshi

was incredibly strong and we all got absolutely soaked, but it was worth it! We hiked back out and took the taxi back to town where we went to a nice restaurant for lunch. We loaded up on some American favorites (pizza and mac ‘n cheese) and took advantage of their free WiFi. After lunch we walked to a bookstore to get the aforementioned math textbooks. We were struck by how much quieter and cleaner Moshi was compared to Arusha and we enjoyed not being called ‘mzungu’ every ten seconds. We made our way back to the bus station and got on a bus headed to Arusha. As usual, drivers were yelling at us trying to convince us to get on their bus, but we just got on the one that had the four back seats empty. We started to back out of the station when, despite everyone yelling at the driver, we backed right into another bus! Luckily no one was hurt as we were going slowly, but the other bus had a minor dent and we were not feeling so great about driving the rest of the way with this driver. Another driver got on the bus and told everyone to get off and come with him, so we compiled! Hey, we wanted adventure, right? We made it home without any further incidents.

Aside from those adventures, I’ve just been enjoying hanging out with the other hostel guests and volunteers around the hostel and around town. We’ve had some delicious lunches, gone to a local

The luxurious spa!

club for some dancing and karaoke, made several trips to the Maasai craft market to bargain for some souvenirs, went back to the cinema, and even got a massage and pedicure at the spa for less than $30! It’s hard to believe that I only have a few days left here, but we have a few things planned for these next few days so I’ll go out with a bang. I’m also super excited to go to Zanzibar and see Rachel get married!

Till next time,

Jamie

Here are some extra assorted pictures for you to enjoy!