Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Greeting from Monduli
The students and faculty are absolutely amazing, we had a great day painting and refurbishing a local primary school and continuing to interact with the students of Orkeeswa Secondary School. The relationships that are evolving and will be ingrained in the memories of the students the rest of their lives. Both Orkeeswa and Groton students performed songs and drama and danced to both local and western music. An incredible start to an unbelievable journey. - Peter Luis - IEFTZ
Gordon--- After two days of R&R the team is ready to rock and roll and start getting work done at the school up in Monduli. Good tidings from Sub Saharan Africa.
Talia- Hi everyone! Happy July 4th!!! Today we will make our hour long trip to Monduli where we will be re-painting and re-plastering a primary school in the village. We will be staying in Monduli for the majority of the trip, so we finally get to unpack our HUGE bags! Our short flight from Kenya to Tanzania was unforgettable. Flying past Mt. Kilimanjaro was just spectacular. The peak right above the clouds and the sunset in the background was truly amazing! Hope everything is great at home!
Eric – Although we haven’t seen the village or the guest house yet, it already reminds me of Belize. Everybody has been so friendly and welcoming – and our conversational Swahili is coming along. Today or tomorrow we should be able to unload some of our shoes – very exciting!! Happy 4th of July!! Miss everyone!!
Jillian – HAPPY 4th of JULY, the elusive holiday! Everything so far has been wonderful and different. The airport and travel to the hotel reminded me a little of the Dominican and Jamaica. We’re leaving for the village really soon, which is even more exciting – we actually start work today. We met two school children (finishing form 2) and teachers yesterday. They introduced themselves and gave a history of the Masai people. I don’t know when we’ll play baseball, but the two children said they played! Have Fun!
Gerrit—Greeting from Tanzania! The country here is very varied and beautiful but the style of the buildings and yellow and blue all-purpose shops everywhere is really similar to Peru and I’m feeling nostalgic already. After 2 days of watching the World Cup and getting our bearings straight it’s time to get to work. The kids from the school that we met yesterday were really friendly and had very impressive English and I’m excited to begin work on their school. PS: Go Orange!
Loulie – Happy Birthday America! Yes Mom and Dad I am alive I just didn’t write in the first blog. I am so happy to be here. Talking to the children and people alone is absolutely mind blowing, but doing the manual labor is a very fun part for me. I now know my calling in the world, a cementer! I was taught very well by Elliefarahah and I can now plaster a wall and basically make it perfect. They called me over just to do it, and then at the end of the da4y they asked me to help shovel etc. One man called me “not lazy” which I guess is a compliment. I miss all the Bunzels, I love you all!
Maddy – Happy fourth of July everyone! Today was our first day working at the school and it was such an incredible experience. When we first arrived at the worksite, all the students were lined up outside our bus, waiting to shake our hands and welcome us to their school. What made this experience particularly memorable was the awesome Tanzanian handshake. It’s tough to explain in words, but it begins as a standard handshake then transitions into holding hands, then finally back to the normal handshake again. In short, it was just so cool! Miss all you back home.
Gordon--- After two days of R&R the team is ready to rock and roll and start getting work done at the school up in Monduli. Good tidings from Sub Saharan Africa.
Talia- Hi everyone! Happy July 4th!!! Today we will make our hour long trip to Monduli where we will be re-painting and re-plastering a primary school in the village. We will be staying in Monduli for the majority of the trip, so we finally get to unpack our HUGE bags! Our short flight from Kenya to Tanzania was unforgettable. Flying past Mt. Kilimanjaro was just spectacular. The peak right above the clouds and the sunset in the background was truly amazing! Hope everything is great at home!
Eric – Although we haven’t seen the village or the guest house yet, it already reminds me of Belize. Everybody has been so friendly and welcoming – and our conversational Swahili is coming along. Today or tomorrow we should be able to unload some of our shoes – very exciting!! Happy 4th of July!! Miss everyone!!
Jillian – HAPPY 4th of JULY, the elusive holiday! Everything so far has been wonderful and different. The airport and travel to the hotel reminded me a little of the Dominican and Jamaica. We’re leaving for the village really soon, which is even more exciting – we actually start work today. We met two school children (finishing form 2) and teachers yesterday. They introduced themselves and gave a history of the Masai people. I don’t know when we’ll play baseball, but the two children said they played! Have Fun!
Gerrit—Greeting from Tanzania! The country here is very varied and beautiful but the style of the buildings and yellow and blue all-purpose shops everywhere is really similar to Peru and I’m feeling nostalgic already. After 2 days of watching the World Cup and getting our bearings straight it’s time to get to work. The kids from the school that we met yesterday were really friendly and had very impressive English and I’m excited to begin work on their school. PS: Go Orange!
Loulie – Happy Birthday America! Yes Mom and Dad I am alive I just didn’t write in the first blog. I am so happy to be here. Talking to the children and people alone is absolutely mind blowing, but doing the manual labor is a very fun part for me. I now know my calling in the world, a cementer! I was taught very well by Elliefarahah and I can now plaster a wall and basically make it perfect. They called me over just to do it, and then at the end of the da4y they asked me to help shovel etc. One man called me “not lazy” which I guess is a compliment. I miss all the Bunzels, I love you all!
Maddy – Happy fourth of July everyone! Today was our first day working at the school and it was such an incredible experience. When we first arrived at the worksite, all the students were lined up outside our bus, waiting to shake our hands and welcome us to their school. What made this experience particularly memorable was the awesome Tanzanian handshake. It’s tough to explain in words, but it begins as a standard handshake then transitions into holding hands, then finally back to the normal handshake again. In short, it was just so cool! Miss all you back home.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
First Blog from Students in Tanzania
First Blog – First Impressions
Habari gani (what’s the news / hello how’s it going)? That’s one of the first Swahili phrases that we learned today, with the help of Ginny, Eduard, Thomas and Sangorie, teachers and students who visited us from the IEFT Orkeeswa School in Monduli, where we will be working for the rest of the trip. After some difficult time changes and two full days of traveling, we awoke today to a delicious cultural brunch and began the day as Team Tanzania! We met outside and observed our first day together in Africa, observing the eclectic smells so different from the States – we all remarked on how clean the air felt, and how the night before we could see so many more stars that back home.
Although we are appreciative that our hotel is so nice and comfortable, we were struck by the view from the balcony: immediately adjoining the wall surrounding our hotel are the rural and ramshackle houses of the surrounding population. We’re very excited to go to Monduli tomorrow, though, and are prepared for the experiences to come!
Evan: the country is both beautiful and nerve-wracking. We haven’t yet seen much of Tanzania but the people we have met have been really welcoming and have greeted us with big smiles. It’s pretty awesome here.
Haley: Flying right by Mount Kilimanjaro was one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. The first thing I noticed how tiny the ice cap was in comparison to the pictures that I had seen taken years ago. Scary. I love it here though, Kaly’s excitement is rubbing off on me.
Tilly: HI. I MISS EVERYONE. LOVE YOU Tanzania is so, so beautiful. From our balcony we can see a few houses and groups of Tanzanian children always wave to us and call out, “Welcome!” It’s sort of frustrating because our conversational skills are pretty limited, but it was really wonderful to be greeted with that kind of excitement.
Kaly: Hi from Tanzania!!! My excitement grew more and more as the plane rides got shorter and shorter and finally on the flight from Kenya to Kilimanjaro I could not wait to get my journey started! I can’t seem to put my camera down and am glad I brought two memory cards. The people here are so friendly and I am so excited to meet the Masai people in Monduli. Have a good 4th of July!
Susanna: One of the only apprehensions that I had before the trip was being able to watch and religiously follow the World Cup… turns out that my nervousness was unnecessary. As I watched the Uruguay vs. Ghana game last night, I could hear chers and cries outside my window, a testament to the worldwide reach of sport, especially football.
Chloe: I don’t think I realized that it was finally time for TEAM TANZANIA (pow pow!) to come together until we got off the plane into the Kilimanjaro airport and saw our first look at the planes of Tanzania. Since then, the excitement has continued to grow towards our first work day tomorrow. The welcome here was already wonderful…and became amazing as I received the most energetic and musical selection of birthday celebration songs of all time from the staff and our group at the charity hotel (thank you to all-I’ve never smiled more in one moment on my birthday). Love to home!
Julia: Although I’d technically arrived in Africa for the first time when we left the plane in Arusha, this afternoon, in calling to native children from our hotel balcony, I felt my first connection to these children forming. They called out Welcome! Welcome!, and told us their names in English – we yelled ours back in Swahili, and I felt full of happiness and expectation for the trip to come. I can’t wait until tomorrow, when we’re off to the work site! Love and miss you all!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Students are in Tanzania!
Hello parents and friends!
After a long and uneventful flight to Arusha, Tanzania the students have safely arrived. They are spending the night and resting at the Charity Hotel - http://www.charityhoteltz.com/. They are hoping to start blogging tomorrow. If you have any questions - don't hesitate to call the office at 303.679.3412. Enjoy your weekend.
Erin Lasky
Program Director
After a long and uneventful flight to Arusha, Tanzania the students have safely arrived. They are spending the night and resting at the Charity Hotel - http://www.charityhoteltz.com/. They are hoping to start blogging tomorrow. If you have any questions - don't hesitate to call the office at 303.679.3412. Enjoy your weekend.
Erin Lasky
Program Director
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