My Dear Nursery School

This teacher was so grateful for the oh so very basic Alphabet and Color chart I made. Unbelievable to think how easy it is to get educational art for kids in the US yet here a basic hand drawn alphabet is like gold to them. When the other teacher came in she said oh my please, you must do one for me too, please. Teacher you're so kind, you love my kids, you will be such a good mom. And another guy outside said you're the one with the computer, the kids will miss you. Gulp, teary eyed :(








Made more posters for the other teacher, glad I got help from some other volunteers. Created a fruit, clothes, numbers 1-30 and animal one too.

Orphanage and Beginning English

Today was a visit to the local orphanage. There were about 10 nursery school aged kids in a classroom learning their numbers. To qualify as an orphan in Tanzania you need to have only one parent so many of the kids have a single mom who use the orphanage like a nanny service which is good and bad. My afternoon consisted of teaching Beginning English to students age 10-35. I created a family tree and map diagram for the students to learn family member names and learn now to give directions to a school, park, market, hospital etc. The Swahili translator was an advanced English student from yesterday. I enjoyed teaching the beginning class more than advanced because teaching advanced is hard! I don't know where to start and forgot how to explain grammar... definitely gives a new appreciation to those who teach!!! Lots of patience and creativity involved.

Bless this kids heart (group photo, center child with bag of lollipops). Lollipops aren't common here (who knew?!) and a volunteer passed them out as treats and he almost choked because he didn't know how to eat it and the candy got lodged in his throat during class!! Luckily the other two volunteers are nurses and took him outside and gave him the heimlich, poor kid :(

And for today's random fact - Khadafy's hotel where he lived is a 10 minute walk from where my work location is in Bahari Beach. Luxury hotel that looks like a palace at $175/night next to people who don't even have running water.

Walk home from the orphanage

So good to meet you...

Nice afternoon assisting a young British teacher teach adult English. Students so eager and grateful to learn, really made me feel good. What made me laugh was going around class saying "Have you..." Students said been to the sun, on a boat, seen a lion, to America and the one Masai student said drank blood? Lol, everyone laughed. Masai tradition. After class a student said I feel so good to meet you can I have your email and write you in America, I hope to go someday.

Zanzibar

Peek at my 4-Day weekend in Zanzibar. Stonestown, Kendwa Beach and Prison Island.

Happy Day

 

Sanaa Sana Band

                                  

This is so surreal - sitting in the founders office upstairs in his home barefoot (no shoes allowed) with Al Jazeera news on TV, my laptop in hand on couch designing the bands cd and tshirt, dog beside me, 4 local employees (young men) working at computers and reading, Finnish founder at his desk behind 3 giant MAC screens, toddler on his iPad on the floor playing games and housekeeping wandering in and out. I even got to meet the singer Toto pictured below. He had to make a last minute Swahili text change on my laptop,ha. They're flying to Finland Friday to perform and he asked if I would  there to watch, sweet. Due to a power outage throughout the town, Bahari Beach, I'm working here today since he has a generator in his office. Taking it all in. Feel right at home after an unsettling first 24 hours. I've yet to see the beach here but apparently a 10 minute walk away. This is pretty damn cool and a little crazy ;)

  

Mikumi Safari

Full day safari in Mikumi National Park, a 5 hour drive from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We left Sunday morning, spent the night and spent Monday at the park. Beautiful and peaceful. Wild elephants, zebras, giraffes, baboons, impalas, and more. Mikumi is near Morogoro, Tanzania. The park, established in 1964, is the fourth largest in the country.

First Impressions...

I won't lie... I freaked out upon arrival for the first 24 hours and all I could think about was flying the hell home ASAP. Just couldn't do it, no way, no how. Malaria, little running water for showers, washing my hair if I was lucky twice a week, no wi-fi (no client contact?! and I'll die without Facebook ;)), bunk beds, kids 19-21 years old, awful pluming aka toilet flushing minimal, iPhone locked, ants, mud, poverty, traffic, mosquito nets, yet isolated on this so called campus feeling as if I was at summer camp in Europe but on the other side of the planet, power outages, apartments being robbed and passports being stolen, no exercise, crap food, danger warnings about leaving the "compound", rain and did I mention being the old lady here?! So after a few meltdowns I had a good Skype call with a friend in South Africa. Plan B I can just leave this sh*t hole and stay with her. I felt so much better. Ok, in the meantime I'll go on safari to Mikumi Sunday - Monday. Thankfully that knocked some sense into my head and I regained some sanity. I still continue to have moments of pure frustration but I'm beginning to become a lot more patient and remind myself its not about me here, snap out of it!, you're here to help the kids. Your time here is nothing in the grand scheme of things.