Talia-- Hi everyone! Today we had an unforgettable day! We almost finished the Lashine Primary School in the morning, and then we headed up to Orkeeswa Secondary School. We got a chance to meet all of the Orkeeswa students that we didn’t get to meet in Lashine. When we got to Orkeeswa we were given a tour by the students all around their beautiful school. After the tour we preformed three songs for the students, the first verse of the Groton School Hymn, Lean On Me by Bill Withers, This Land is Your Land This Land is My Land, and Wavin’
Flag (which is the student’s favorite song)! After we sang our songs the Orkeeswa students preformed a play about taking the test and getting in to Orkeeswa. We had time to dance, sing, play soccer and talk to all of the students. Tomorrow we will continue working on their already started science labs. Everything is great here in Africa! We’ll keep you posted!!!


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

What an extraordinary experience we are having in Tanzania. I keep thinking, as a parent, how incredibly proud all of you moms and dads would be of your children. As some of the other blog postings have indicated, this has definitely been a work trip; our group members and dozens of Orkeeswa students have been laboring side by side for four days now doing all kinds of fairly intense construction work at two different schools – a primary school closer to Monduli town (where our guest house, the New Flamingo (!), is located) and the remarkable Orkeeswa Secondary School which is located in the beautiful hills outside of Monduli, a 20-minute drive from town. Painting, sanding, shoveling, plastering, cement-mixing, hauling, hammering – all of our students have been working with amazing energy, determination, and focus at these jobs. Of course, the best moments are when a Groton student and an Orkeeswa student work together on the same project – and this happens all the time in so many different places. As I type this entry the students have all stopped working for the afternoon and are now playing soccer and baseball on the dirt fields near the Orkeeswa buildings. I wish you all could see the setting here.
Orkeeswa is constructed on something of a plateau looking out, in one direction, on small fields of maize and wheat with small traditional huts (bomas) visible in the distance; green hills not unlike ones you might see in southern New Hampshire stretch out in another direction; and in another direction you can look for tens of miles into flat savannah-like land. We are told that elephants routinely roam the Orkeeswa grounds at night; their footprints and droppings are, in fact, easy to find. And the antelope keep jumping the fence and eating the school garden’s vegetables. Also happening right now at the other end of the wooden table where I am writing: Cindy Beams, who has already taken hundreds of gorgeous photographs, is showing the school’s three female chefs a slideshow of pictures she took today – and the women’s faces are all smiles as they look at their own beautiful images on the Apple screen. Lunch today, by the way, was ugali (an African potato purée) served with vegetables and broth.
Nourishing and actually pretty tasty. Speaking of food, the meals thus far really have been quite good – and plentiful. We typically eat breakfast and dinner at a simple café in Monduli. Breakfast is usually fried bread, samosas, hard-boiled eggs. Dinner is rice, spaghetti (sometimes), a meat stew, peas, and usually some kind of chopped, cooked greens. Honestly, I have not heard one complaint from any of the students about the food. Their attitude about everything has been just tremendous; they are curious, outgoing, and warm with
everyone they meet. I spent most of this morning helping a crew of
students (including Gordon, Kaly, Talia and several Orkeeswa students) sift (with shovels and a large framed screen) a huge pile of sand and then transport it via wheelbarrow about 75 meters away. I was then instructed by our Tanzanian friend Michael (the school’s indispensable
jack-of-all-trades) to build a scaffolding table with scraps of lumber. Kaly, Tilly, and Chloe were wonderful co-workers on this project, along with three Orkeeswa boys who helped us hammer, saw, and reclaim long, rusty nails. And now it’s nearly four o’clock and things are winding down. Some of us are still playing sports, some are washing hands, filling waterbottles, preparing to head back down to the village. The students (especially Susanna) are quite excited about watching the Spain-Germany game tonight. Believe it or not, there is a small color television set mounted high on the wall in the small “lobby” of our simple guest house on which we can watch World Cup games. There is also another lodge in town (with bigger screens) where we might go this evening. I do feel like I am in real Africa here in Monduli. This is no tourist town. No postcards for sale here. Our guest house is right in the middle of a real Tanzanian community. People walking all about. Chickens scampering all over the place. Deeply rutted dirt roads. The constant smell of something smoldering. More work for the next few days. Perhaps a trip to Arusha at some point this week to see what that much bigger town is like. It’s a real privilege to be here – and an incredibly enriching and eye-opening experience in so many ways. What great companions your children are! --Peter Fry