Ben Returns to Bagamoyo

After landing at the Julius Nyerere International Airport on Tuesday night, I was glad to be greeted by Jack and Tuma, who drove me through the busy streets of Dar es Salaam to our home base in Bagamoyo. I look forward to spending the next few months working alongside members of the ASFE staff in our quest to offer additional education opportunities to members of the SES (Students Empowering Students) program.

All smiles from the SES teachers after Tuesday's class

Jack, Tuma, and I spent Wednesday afternoon tutoring members of the SES program; specifically, we focused on computer skills and reading. I haven’t spent time with the SES students since last June, and therefore it was great to catch up with the students who arrived to the tutoring session. As I am always reminded when returning to Bagamoyo, the SES students are incredibly eager and passionate about learning, and they are willing to put in extra time to further their education regardless of their busy lives and time spent in school. As a college student who spent many of his teenaged years taking education for granted, their perseverance continues to inspire me, and it has greatly impacted the outlook I have of my own education opportunities.

We look forward to putting together a more structured plan for working with the SES students over the next few months, as well as spending time with the students at the AMAP School.

Meanwhile, the ASFE staff members have been working on their own computer and organization skills. In the past week, we have completely restructured the office and scheduling to allow for more effective time management and improved communication with our counterparts in the United States.

This reorganization also includes better expense tracking software and procedures. These improvements will allow our staff members at ASFE to complete projects and manage expenses a lot quicker and easier.

We are very early into our trip and have made many significant improvements. We are looking forward to what the next two months has in store for ourselves and Asante Sana For Education.