Day 2

Grinding the coffee

I am not going to look back on what I wrote from yesterday, knowing quite well that it was written in complete delirium and brain fogginess.  Today I woke up feeling absolutely amazing. I had no idea what time it was because my phone is currently reading 7:00pm, my computer 10:00am and I know we are well into the 11:00pm hour here, and of course I still don’t own a watch that works. So… I rose when I thought the sun was about as high as it was when we got ready for breakfast yesterday and it turned out to give me just enough time to enjoy a fresh, I mean FRESH cup of coffee. 

Passing out toothbrushes on our way to school

Bennet, our Jack of all trades, showed me how they pick, roast and grind all of the coffee beans for the most delicious cup of coffee (better than my French vanilla macadamia nut kona coffee!) ever. After another delicious breakfast with homemade peanut butter, honey from the bees and a fried egg from the chickens, we headed down the hill to the Mbahe and N'garnoi schools.

5 boys, one bench

Butterfly success

My first order of business was to drop off the letters from all of the children at TCS. I had 71 letters, 100 sheets of paper and a pack of pencils for the children to respond with. Anita, the English teacher for the school was completely overwhelmed and I felt terrible! When she noticed that there were 71 letters she looked at them all, shook her head and said “Oh, so many letters.” I wasn’t exactly sure on how to respond because I made a promise to my students that the letters would be responded too, and I wanted to keep my word. At the same time I am now battling with what a HUGE inconvenience this is to the Standard V and Standard VI classes. I left Anita letting her know that any response would be great. What I also learned about Tanzania is that Swahili is the primary language taught to the students, whereas in Kenya the students were able to speak Swahili, but they were taught in English. Yes, the letter writing task was not the smartest move on my part.

The boys and their flowers

After dropping the letters, we rotated through the classrooms doing various lessons/activities with the students until around 3:00pm, at which time we headed back up the hill to the farm. Today I fell more in love with Tanzania, the children, teachers and staff are so happy and welcoming of us. I had a wonderful conversation with one of the women on the trip with us about the contentment of the children here. The same feelings I had when I left Kenya last year have once again resurfaced and I am so  thankful for that. These children have one pencil and one uniform (both of which they use every day) to last the entire year.

One pencil for one year..

They use bottle caps as counters and often sit 4 to a desk that is four feet long and one foot wide. To say color is lacking in these classrooms would be an understatement, to say that they learn by doing would be unheard of, and to say they have the ability to explore on their own would be absurd. But, these children are SO happy!

Math made simple

After eating their serving of porridge and beans they play together in and out of classrooms, they run around unsupervised on the field just off campus and they sit on the steps outside of the buildings. Whenever we walk by we are greeted with “Jambo!” or “Hello, how are you?!” (with the most adorable accent ever). I am not saying that these children have the best life ever, but they sure are appreciative of what they have.