Hujambo from Tanzania! This week, the Tanzania Tree Huggers finished up our work Orkolili secondary school. During our final days in Tanzania, we continued to teach English at Orkolili and observe more classes. Friday was an exam day for them so we were told not to come in. We took up having a long weekend as the chance to head back to Moshi and visit the project sites we had been working at previously. We spent Friday and much of Saturday at both Margaret’s and Msamaria brainstorming project ideas for next year’s team to work on.
On Sunday, we went on an excursion with some of the other people staying at Eva’s to the base of Kilimanjaro, a local Chagga museum, a coffee plantation, Chagga caves, and a big waterfall. It was a great last big trip to do in Tanzania that allowed us to learn more about the local tribes.
Monday was still exams at Orkolili so we took the morning slow before eventually going into school. Once there, we were finally able to meet with Tom, Mama M’cha’s son who helps manage the school. He helped explain to us how their water system works and the plans for the rainwater storage system that they are currently building. Emily was able to provide some input into the water system since that is her specialty and Tom set us up a trip to the local water filtration plant to tour the facilities and ask some questions that might help Orkolili establish the safety of the water that they use. After our talk with Tom, we met another volunteer visiting from England who was starting out her four week stay here teaching sports. She had set up a ping pong table so we watched a few rounds before heading home for the day.
We headed to Orkolili bright and early on Tuesday to finish up working on PowerPoint we were creating on engaging teaching techniques before heading off to learn more about Boma’s water system. It was a great experience to get to learn about where their water comes from and how it is treated.
For our final day, we headed to Snowview Hotel to work on finishing up some homework and to relax! Our flight did not leave until 9 PM so we enjoyed the last moments of our trip before heading off to go home. It was such a great experience and we were really sad to leave Tanzania and all of the amazing people we met along the way!
