Another Crazy Day
July 7th
(Written evening of July 7th)
(Edited and Continued July 20th)
It was hard for all of us to get out of bed in the morning. It was peaceful but chilly and we were all very slow getting to the breakfast table. We had more fresh banana bread, and like everyday it was amazing. This day was dedicated to meetings with Tina to discuss collaboration between Kiretono and Simon's Promise. So it was Tina, Cindi, Brad, Jill, Jude, Summer, Adam and me all talking about Tina's plans for new buildings what these last seven years have looked like for her. From flaky workers (in the past) to successes with the girls and beading mamas, Tina told us about all her bumps and triumphs. We asked questions and did a lot of listening. After several hours of talking we stopped for lunch and took a quick trip to the playground. All the bits and pieces were still there, and they'd put the cement posts up :D
Then it was back to Tina's for another meeting. Nwaso and Maura were very disappointed we had more meetings and couldn't play with them. Sephra, a peace corps volunteer who will work with KRO for a year come September, arrived after lunch. We started talking about employability for Tanzanians and the education system. Sephra has been teaching in a school outside of Moshi for two years, so she was telling us stories. Our group was very confused about the structure of the school system, but between Tina and Sephra going through every grade level and the requirements we understood. The curriculum is based on memorization, so when it comes to asking the question, "Why are you learning this?" there's a gap in understanding. It was a lot of information about Tanzanian education in a very short period of time, but it was so helpful in looking to future needs. We talked about what skill sets would be useful to learn and how Simon's Promise Service Chapters can help Tanzanian kids. So many ideas bouncing around an awesome group of people!
This meeting went on for several hours, and when we'd concluded for the evening Nwaso and Maura lead the group of Mzungus to the Sabasaba market. It's this huge sort of farmer's market that travels all over Tanzania, and when it's in the area the schools get the day off. It was Jude, Summer, Adam, Jill, Brad, Cindi and me being lead by the girls. Nwaso wanted me to walk with her, so I had my arm over the shoulders the whole night. She's an exceptional young lady.
At the Sabasaba was the first time I'd ever really felt like the minority. This market was huge, and we were the only white people. We'd been warned about pickpockets, but the only incident was Jill's reading glasses were gone. Everyone was so nice and showing us around and trying to sell us lots of jewelry. I did get some interesting looks because I was had Nwaso under my arm and when things got very busy I was holding Maura's hand. The people were just looking out for the girls, making sure they weren't uncomfortable being with me. There were two instances where their comments were very direct, but Nwaso remained unphased so everything was fine. On the walk back from the market we stopped by the dorm and played some games with the girls. They were happy to see us and we all had a great time. We stayed there for a bit longer than we'd planned (as Tanzania goes) but the walk back was a bit uncomfortable. It was the latest we'd walked around, but but we made it back before the sun went down and everything was fine.
I had dinner at what felt like the kids table (it was just Summer, Adam, Sephra and me. The youngsters of the group). I got to pick Sephra's brain about the peace corps; what it is, what she's done so far, what it has offered her, and what life can look like after. I'm very excited for the time in my life when I'll get to do some sort of long-term volunteering. After that we went back to our house, I got my butt kicked at rummy again, and we all headed off to bed.
I don't have a lot of pictures for the day because the meetings weren't really picture worthy, and none of us took pictures at the market. We were just too busy doing work all day to be taking pictures. ;)
Much love,
Kami
(Edited and Continued July 20th)
It was hard for all of us to get out of bed in the morning. It was peaceful but chilly and we were all very slow getting to the breakfast table. We had more fresh banana bread, and like everyday it was amazing. This day was dedicated to meetings with Tina to discuss collaboration between Kiretono and Simon's Promise. So it was Tina, Cindi, Brad, Jill, Jude, Summer, Adam and me all talking about Tina's plans for new buildings what these last seven years have looked like for her. From flaky workers (in the past) to successes with the girls and beading mamas, Tina told us about all her bumps and triumphs. We asked questions and did a lot of listening. After several hours of talking we stopped for lunch and took a quick trip to the playground. All the bits and pieces were still there, and they'd put the cement posts up :D
This meeting went on for several hours, and when we'd concluded for the evening Nwaso and Maura lead the group of Mzungus to the Sabasaba market. It's this huge sort of farmer's market that travels all over Tanzania, and when it's in the area the schools get the day off. It was Jude, Summer, Adam, Jill, Brad, Cindi and me being lead by the girls. Nwaso wanted me to walk with her, so I had my arm over the shoulders the whole night. She's an exceptional young lady.
At the Sabasaba was the first time I'd ever really felt like the minority. This market was huge, and we were the only white people. We'd been warned about pickpockets, but the only incident was Jill's reading glasses were gone. Everyone was so nice and showing us around and trying to sell us lots of jewelry. I did get some interesting looks because I was had Nwaso under my arm and when things got very busy I was holding Maura's hand. The people were just looking out for the girls, making sure they weren't uncomfortable being with me. There were two instances where their comments were very direct, but Nwaso remained unphased so everything was fine. On the walk back from the market we stopped by the dorm and played some games with the girls. They were happy to see us and we all had a great time. We stayed there for a bit longer than we'd planned (as Tanzania goes) but the walk back was a bit uncomfortable. It was the latest we'd walked around, but but we made it back before the sun went down and everything was fine.
I had dinner at what felt like the kids table (it was just Summer, Adam, Sephra and me. The youngsters of the group). I got to pick Sephra's brain about the peace corps; what it is, what she's done so far, what it has offered her, and what life can look like after. I'm very excited for the time in my life when I'll get to do some sort of long-term volunteering. After that we went back to our house, I got my butt kicked at rummy again, and we all headed off to bed.
I don't have a lot of pictures for the day because the meetings weren't really picture worthy, and none of us took pictures at the market. We were just too busy doing work all day to be taking pictures. ;)
Much love,
Kami
