Africa Experience - Tanzania - Day 6

July 1, 2014

Oldonyosambu Secondary School

Paolo (a young boy that lives on the
compound with his family) visited us
everyday to play!

presenting Mr. Nassari with gifts

The 'city' councilman, Mr. Nassari met us after breakfast.   He walked us at least 2 miles (45 minutes) to the secondary school.  We walked outside of the compound, across the main road, down a dirt path, through cornfields, and arrived at the Oldonyosambu Secondary School.

on our walk to the secondary school.....

These plants are stripped down
to make rope

On our 'walk', a small pickup truck drove near us, down this dirt path.  It was loaded with elders, men and women.  They were all dressed up in their shukas and jewelry.  We were told by Mr. Nassari that they were coming back from a circumcision celebration.  [Teenage boys are circumcised without any medication or sedation.  They are then sent to live away from their family for 3 to 6 months. When they return, they no longer live in the same hut as their mother and siblings.  They share a hut with other boys their age.  Their faces are also painted black and white, to show they are not yet ready to enter into relations.....more about family life in a future blog.]

We came upon a small medical clinic.

Mr. Nassari with the head nurse.

You can see the world cup on the TV!

 

We met the director of the school.   He knew we would be interested in the World Cup soccer games that were going on at the time, so he had a TV set up and was streaming the game live for us to see.  The boys were pretty excited. 

The secondary school grounds....the bottom right picture
is the chemistry room.
 

The students were on break also.  We presented the director with gifts and he gave us a tour of the school.  Like many of the schools in Tanzania, students have to often travel miles to and from school each day.  Teachers do not pick which school they will teach at.  The school is assigned to them after they receive their teaching degree.  Teachers are given a place to live, either a dorm, living with a nearby family, or several teachers living in one home together - mostly at or very close to the school.   We saw where the teachers live, chemistry class, computer class, regular classrooms, etc.  The classrooms themselves seem primitive to us (cement, dirty/dusty floors, poor/no lights, broken windows), but they were actually very nice for their standards.  The chemistry lab had limited supplies, but was still sufficient for their teaching needs.  Don't get me wrong, there is still need for improvements and donations to up keep school buildings and make sure there are adequate supplies.  

Our students understood much more
when we wrote on the board. 

We walked 45 minutes back to the compound to grab a few things and headed off to the primary school.  We divided into our same groups and worked with the students for about an hour.  We were able to get the students to talk a little bit more! 

Our students

 

Fried chicken and French fries....yum!

Lunch was really good!!!  The women made us a ‘western’ lunch of fried chicken and French fries and treated us to sodas!  We had time after lunch to relax and do whatever we wanted.  Some of us walked to the duka to get soda and some candy.  I also sat on the porch in the sun.  The local boys were supposed to have a soccer game that afternoon, but the other team didn’t show up.  Our boys were asked to play again.  Everyone had a good time running up and down the field in the dust. 

a spectator - "Girls Rule"

This man and his donkeys actually walked
right through the field......only in Tanzania!

 

 

 

Even though there was a language barrier, soccer is still the same game!

 

 

After dinner, (rice/meat sauce, salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, papaya and pepper) we gathered in the Schuster’s room for a quick recap.  Everyone was tired from a very busy day.   ***On a side note, I wore my fitbit the entire trip.  Because I couldn’t sync it very often, I wrote down the information in my journal….we walked 16200 steps and 6.57 miles today!

Beautiful sunset in Tanzania!