On the 4th of February I embarked on an adventure that was truly one of the best experiences of my life. I was chosen, along with 5 other Deakin students to volunteer in Tanzania, alongside a Canadian volunteer company ABCD. (Art Building Children’s Dreams)
Day 1- I arrived in Moshi after a 30hour plane journey. It was a relief to finally be there! I exited the airport and meet another Aussie volunteer who had already been waiting out the front of the airport for 2 hours for our hosts to collect him. We looked at each other and said, ‘Welcome to Africa!’
The whole experience was so much better than I had ever imagined it to be. Our first 3 days involved running a conference for 23 students, educating them about the work industry and how to start up their own business when they leave school. Employment in Tanzania is a hard thing to come by, there isn’t a lot of employment opportunities for them, so it is important for them to understand the fundamentals of how to run their own business because it is really their only chance of working and earning an income. The first day all the kids were so shy, compared to an Australia school of teenagers it was the complete opposite. No one would speak, they just sat there and waited for us to talk. This was a bit of a shock as we were expecting a bunch of loud, active teenagers. By day 3 they had come out of their shells a bit, and were getting involved in all the activities. We spilt the kids up into groups, determined on their desired ‘dream job’ and went through a mind map of how they could achieve it. I had a group of 10 hopeful doctors. It was inspiring listening to the kids, saying why they want to be a doctor, and their determination to achieve it. The conference finished on a real high, and we all felt very satisfied with how much the kids had put into the sessions, and how intelligent they were. Their determination, knowledge and hope for their futures was truly inspiring. It was a full on 3 days, but by the end we didn’t want to say goodbye to the kids.
Next we travelled out into the rural country of Africa and up into the mountains to Marangu. (the national park entry to Mt Kilimanjaro) Here we stayed in a very secure resort, as it was unsafe to leave the premises at night. We met the Canadian volunteer and were split into groups to tackle the next task, painting a library. Our group called ourselves ‘The Mountain Goats,’ as every morning we had to hike up an altitude of 1000ft to reach our school. The first day it took us almost an hour to get there, but by day 3 we had achieved the hike in 35mins! The schools only had basic facilities, and the buildings were well worn out, there was no electricity or proper toilets. Each day, a chef cooks breakfast & lunch for all the children, in an old stick shack. Their main meal was banana stew, an interesting taste, but actually not too bad. It took us the full week to paint the libaray. The head teacher would come in every day and help us paint, not worrying about her nice teacher clothes getting paint on them. Every recess the kids were run out, and sit out the front and just watch us. As soon as you turned and looked at them, they would run away, shy. By the end of the week, the kids had come around to us, and weren’t as shy anymore. The teacher got them to sing us their school song, which sounded amazing. All African music is beautiful. It was sad to leave, knowing we may never come back to this school, but hopefully they take full advantage of their new library. ABCD funded them with furniture and books for the library.
Every day after our painting session, we would finish up and be back at our hotel by 3ish, to clean ourselves up, before heading up the hill to the after school session on the soccer field. The first day was very full on! There were hundreds of kids, running around. We had to try and keep these kids entertained with activities. Like anywhere you had rougher kids then others, so trying to get control was sometimes hard, especially as we didn’t speak Swahilli (their native language). On Wednesday, one of the schools in the area had a sports day which we were invited to. They let us girls play netball against their team, which was so much fun. It was on a dirt/grass court, with only indented dirt marks for the court lines. Their rules were a little bit different to ours, there was a lot of stepping, but we played along anyways. By the end of the week we were all so exhausted, but luckily not as many kids were turning up. It had been a full on week, but a very fulfilling one. On the Saturday, we had a big ‘Art Day.’ This was funded by ABCD for all the sponsored children, to give them books and equipment for school, and also personal items like clothing and soaps etc. This day was something truly amazing. The kids bought their families along and were each given a family or 2 to look after for the day. We had entertainment from the local drama group, and then the mamas of the kids did a thankyou performance and dance for us. They are so thankful for everything, it’s sad to see how much they really do struggle, but how a little bit of hope can make such a difference. This was our last day in Marangu, so we knew this would be the last day we would see them all, not knowing what will happen to them in the future. Hopefully they can achieve their dreams and one day I will go back and see them being successful.
After all our hard work we were treated with the most amazing 4 day safari I could have ever imagined! We saw every animal except for the cheetah, and we saw them all up close! My favourite was the herd of 18 elephants strolling through the Serengeti, only an arms length away. All the animals were so unfaithed that we were even there watching them. We had an elephant walk through our camp site, we slept in tents in the middle of the Serengeti, experienced a migration of 2million wildabeast, zebras & gazelles. It was an experience you could not even imagine, and so much better than it sounds.
We arrived back from safari like it had all been a dream, and now it was time to say goodbye to majority of our group as we all spilt to either go home, or travel on. I continued travelling on with 2 others. We hiked up half of Mt Kilimanjaro to an altitude of 3000m. Made our own coffee from scratch, flew to Zanzibar (an island off the coast of Tanzania) where we found the most beautiful beaches, and stayed in ‘Stone Town,’ the port from old slave days where the famous carved doors are well known. The island was completely different to main land. There was a lot more tourists, especially in the resorts on the beach. Everyone treats you like royalty, because without tourism from the western world, they would have nothing. You go 2 streets back from the touristy spots and you get to discover the real side of poverty in Africa. I had an amazing time travelling around Tanzania, and will defiantly be going back to Africa. There is so much culture and inspiring people over there, it really makes you appreciate the simple things in life.
