We woke up a bit sad today, knowing that it was our last full day in Tanzania. We spent a couple of hours at the art market, buying a large number of paintings, sculptures, and jewelry from our artist friends before breaking for lunch. After lunch, we met up with our SES students at a nearby soccer field and played another exciting game with them. We said our goodbyes to the students and sadly travelled back to Green Park Lodge to begin packing. There we enjoyed one last dinn

While Ashley and Mshindo were visiting Mnindi, the "kids" once again spent the morning working with the SES students in the ASFE office. During the session, Tuma discreetly organized a surprise birthday party for Val. Ben, Sam, Val, Maura, and Caitlin spent the afternoon shopping before going to the roof of New Millennium to relax and enjoy the view of the fish market and the Indian Ocean below. We walked back to Green Park Lodge at 5 and were surprised by a large group of

After another morning of working with the SES students and a delicious lunch at Poa Poa, we traveled to Baobab Home, founded and run by Terry Place, a friend of ASFE. After visiting with the children in her orphanage, we walked a short distance to the school she had also founded to deliver supplies and meet the teachers. We then traveled to “Genius Free World” a small pre-school that ASFE is now planning on working with and funding. There we spoke with the founder about his g

We have been together with the students from America for two weeks. On the first day that we met with them we learned many things such as how to type, use the computers and how to improve our writing skills and sentence structure. On Thursday, 19 June, we spent much of the time with the students from America playing football, chasing and catching a chicken and doing egg races. On Friday we learned how to use past, future and present tense. I feel very happy with all my heart

We woke up early in the morning with grog in our eyes and fog in the skies and shared a delicious breakfast at the Rhino Lodge before leaving for a safari. None of us were fully prepared for the cold mountain weather, so after buying Maasai blankets, we headed off to see some wildlife. We ventured into Ngorongoro Crater and saw many wildebeest, zebras, and birds. We even got to see several male and female lions sleeping in the grass. After a long day of riding around the cr

We woke up early this morning excited for the adventure we were about to have, but weary of the long day of traveling ahead of us. We drove to Dar Es Salaam and boarded a one-hour flight to Kilimanjaro which was pleasantly short compared to our original twelve-hour flight to Dubai. After arriving, we met our safari guides, Abbas and Mwita, at the airport, who then drove us to Tuma’s childhood home to meet his family. Tuma’s aunt Donista had prepared a delicious meal consistin

This morning we all woke up excited for the hippo safari we had planned for the day ahead. We left Green Park Village bright and early and met up with our safari guide Alan after a long and bumpy drive. We gathered into a boat and slowly motored down the river, encountering many groups of hippos submerged in the water and even passed by a few who were standing on the shore. We stopped on a small beach around noon and ate a delicious lunch of samosas and avocados provided by A

Today was an exciting day. We continued our work with the SES students. Half the students wrote funny stories on the computers, then had them edited. The other half of the students went over English grammar rules, including pronouns and indirect and direct objects. In the afternoon, we went to see a traditional African dance performance with volunteers from Cross Cultural Solutions. A family of talented artists in Bagamoyo study traditional art and dance giving performances

Today was our first full day working with the Student Empowering Students program. A group of 14 students from Dunda and Hassanali Damji Secondary Schools met us at the ASFE office at 10 am. While six students worked on the computers in the office correcting their personal letters and improving their computer skills the rest of the students worked in the back space with Ben, Maura and Val using grammar books to improve their English. Once the students left we grabbed a quick

Today was a pretty relaxing day. In the morning we painted traditional African paintings. Our instructor liked Sam’s picture of a hippo the best. After our painting we visited a farm. Did you know you can make wine out of flowers and fruit other than grapes? We were treated to local Bagamoyo wine made from the hibiscus flower.