Blogs from Mwanza, North, Tanzania, Africa - page 3

Today we made the journey to Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania. The flight was an hour and 15 minutes on Precision Airways. The seats were so narrow that I could barely fit my ass in them, and although I’ve gained a little weight recently, my ass certainly is not that big! I was stuck between 2 men. One was dressed in a mismatched suit and reading an English book on succeeding at job interviews. He kept asking me questions about what I was doing in Mwanza, where I was going within the region, etc. The guy on the other side of me didn’t say much, but he drank 3 Kilimanjaro Lagers during the short flight—which was at 10:15 am! When we landed, they set up a staircase for us to disembark. Not unusual. But ... read more

The rest of last week was actually quite jam packed. Teaching has kept me quite busy. I finished up units with my students and tested them all on Friday. For my beginners I had them take a test on the Alphabet. They all did perfectly, which is a nice pat on the back for myself. If my students succeed, then I succeed. My intermediates had a Spelling Bee on the calendar months. Three girls stood out and won right away (they could spell all of the months). Though the other students wanted a few more tries. After an hour, Anna, a tall beautiful young lady, finally won. The prizes were quite the motivation, bracelets and earrings that one of my former co-volunteers left behind. The girls definitely wanted to win. My advanced students took their test ... read more

On Tuesday my fellow volunteers and I visited the Kitongo Public Primary School which is about a 10 minute walk from JBFC. The school is made up of crumbling buildings that serve over 500 students. As we roamed around looking for the head master we gathered an entourage of Tanzanian children, holding our hands and examining our arm hair. When we finally found him we introduced ourselves and asked if we could observe some of the classes. In broken English he insisted on taking us on a tour of the school. My eyes grew wider in each classroom due to the poor structures and pungent smells of sweat, dirt and urine. There were broken desks in each classroom and make-shift blackboards decorated with holes and gouges. When we returned to the main office we again asked ... read more

Things are starting to fall into place here at JBFC. On Monday we went into Mwanza, which is a small town of about 1.5 million people. The bustling streets reminded me of my experience in Ghana last year, though spiced with Indian undertones and Middle Eastern flavor. Although Tanzania is a bit more conservative in general than most West African countries, the people always greet me with smiles and the cultures is rich. After picking up some groceries and other odds and ends, we all (me, Chris, and two other volunteers) went to a hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria. The hotel had a cute restaurant equipped with a bar and may ex-pats. We were greeted by English speaking Tanzanian staff members and a raggedy looking white guy. This guy was relatively young, maybe late ... read more

Hello All, Thank you for tuning into my latest blog. I finally made it to Tanzania!! Though my trip was quite the soap opera. After a bit of a tearful goodbye with my family and some unexpected baggage issues at O’Hare, I was finally on my way. My dreams were becoming realized as I found my gate and began to survey everyone who would be on my flight from Chicago to New York. There were some interesting characters: a nice married couple, a couple with their first child (always fun to watch), and the usual businessmen and leisurely travelers. But my favorite were two people who seemed to be arguing in some form of Russian or Eastern European language. The young man appeared to know who the older woman was, perhaps a mother or a relative ... read more