Category: Immersion Experience Opportunity

Wiki Nne: Meet the Newest Bajaji Drivers

Mambo vipi! Over the past week, the Tanzamaniacs had a mixture of good-byes and hellos.

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The week started off well with a trip to the Chemka hot springs. Our favorite bajaji driver (and our favorite person in general), George, drove us part of the way to the springs. Halfway to the springs, on some very sketchy roads, George pulled over and asked Andrew if he wanted to drive. Andrew half jokingly-half nervously said yes, which then prompted George to get out of the vehicle and switch seats with Andrew. After four or five jump starts, and the direct quote from George: “I value my life, mon,” Andrew was finally able to get the bajaji going. After driving for about 5 minutes, George asked if anyone else wanted to drive, which prompted Ian to excitedly yell, “Ummmm YES!” (since his dream is now to become a Bijaji driver). So then Ian drove the bajaji (much better than Andrew did), followed by Lauren (who was as bad as Andrew, if not worse), then Jennifer (who drove the best out of the group). Also, it might be noteworthy to mention that the bajaji was a manual transmission, so all group members can now say that they drove a stick-shift bajaji before they ever drove a stick-shift car. The hot springs turned out to be more like lukewarm springs, but the group did not mind since it was the first warm water they had felt in three weeks (since bucket showers apparently only comes in the cold setting).  Upon entering the springs, the group was swarmed by hordes of flesh-eating fish, making them very uncomfortable (except for Jennifer who seemed to enjoy the madness and insists on calling them merely “kiss nibbles” (we’re not sure how she hasn’t been voted off the island yet)). Ian almost died jumping off a 30 ft tree, while Andrew nearly broke his leg after attempting a double backflip off of the rope swing.  Lauren and Jennifer exercised basic common sense and didn’t come close to dying (in reality, no one actually almost died and the team enjoyed the day swimming in the springs, relaxing, and jumping off of trees).

The work week began much like the ones before, with Lauren and Andrew traveling to Orkolili Secondary School and Ian and Jennifer attempting to travel to Nkwamakuu Primary School. On Monday, Lauren and Andrew taught English to the Form 2 and 3 classes. Due to a minor accident (check out Jennifer’s bloopers), Ian and Jennifer did not make it to Nkwamakuu on Monday, meaning they had to finish up some teaching on Tuesday.
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Tuesday was a crazy day for both set of school teams. The day started with Ian and Jennifer teaching Standard 7 at Nkwamakuu. They led the class in multi-subject Jeopardy (covering the subjects of English, Swahili, Math, and Science) and followed that game up with a round of Math Bingo. They said their goodbyes at Nkwamakuu at the end of this class, which ran late, and hurried off to their next destination that day, Orkolili. There, they were meeting up with Andrew and Lauren to help teach a final lesson of English to Form 1 students followed by leading an HCD workshop with Form 4. Lauren and Jennifer led the workshop for the Form 4 girls and Ian and Andrew led the workshop for the Form 4 boys. Each group tackled different problems as they worked through the 5 Phases of HCD. After the classes, the team said their goodbyes at Orkolili.

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Wednesday was the start of a new adventure for the Tanzamaniacs as they left their home of 3 weeks (Boma Ng’ombe) to go to their new home (Old Moshi Hostel) for their remaining 2 weeks in Moshi. Surprisingly, none of them lost their luggage during the travel and they were even able to fit (barely) all their luggage in one car. It was a good thing that three of the team members are fun-sized (Thanks for the leg-room, Ian). They were all excited to have a day of rest on Wednesday, arriving around 10:30 am. Eva welcomed them to her Hostel and they were instructed to tell Gideon (who also works at the hostel) when they were ready for a tour of the town. They left around 1:30 pm to walk to downtown Moshi, about a half hour walk from the Hostel. Gideon showed them the way to downtown and pointed out a couple of the restaurants that they might enjoy, but there was only one thing that the entire team was looking for… Pizza. It had been 3 weeks since anyone had gotten to eat any cheese and the team had started googling the nearest pizza place during week 2. Lauren asked Gideon if he knew of any good places and he led the way to a restaurant by the name of Indo-Italiano. To say the the team was  excited when they saw that the menu listed about 26 different pizzas would be an understatement. They ended up settling for a four-cheese pizza and cheesy bread (and swearing to come back for more). After pizza, Gideon showed the team where the market place was and then where to go to catch a bus back to the Hostel. Once on the bus, it was the team’s responsibility to make sure that the bus stopped where they needed it to (Gideon had a laugh at the team’s confusion. Very funny, Gideon). This may or may not have caused some flashbacks to being abandoned on day two by their professor. (Very funny, Mary). The team also learned that just like the busses in Boma, people were crammed together like sardines. Good to see some things never change.

After the restful day of Wednesday, the Tanzamaniacs were thrown back into work on Thursday. They started their day traveling to a local Technical College, where they met the principal and introduced themselves. Upon hearing that three out of the four students were studying engineering, the principal proceeded to ask them which classes they would be teaching. Feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure how to say no, they felt as though their plates got loaded with things to do. Initially, they were going to be lecturing two classes a day (we weren’t sure when we had been granted the honor of being a professor but we all agreed we probably were deserving of a pay raise). Lauren and Ian landed on only teaching Technical Drawing for Level 2 on Friday and then discussed with the principal that it would be better to only have them teach two classes the next week. Their second location for the day was at Amani Children’s Home, a refuge for street children found in the area. They got a tour of the facility and a run down of what the home does before enjoying lunch with the students. After lunch, they sat down with Rebecca, Communication Manager, for Amani, and discussed the projects that Amani’s hoped the team could complete while here. One project was to work on creating a welcome display board for the front entrance. They wanted the board to show a slideshow, on a automatic loop, that gave statistics, photos, and videos of things happening at the home. Some of the features they wanted was for it to be automatically updated when they updated their own database. Amani’s hope is to have it up by October 2018, but the team was unsure if this was doable in the short amount of time they are spending there. They expressed that they could get Amani’s a prototype to test and then take back the information to get help from some students at Michigan Tech. After the meeting, everyone got to go meet the children currently at the home. Andrew wowed a group of kids by doing flips in the yard, Ian and Lauren joined in on a small football match, and Jennifer sat to watch, allowing kids to come to her to talk.

On Friday, Lauren and Ian set off to teach Technical Drawing for Level 2 at the Technical College in the morning and Andrew and Jennifer set off to start working on the project at Amani’s. Teaching at the college was definitely the most challenging teaching assignment the team had encountered, especially since they were teaching technical drawing, a topic they had not thought about in two or three years. The lesson went just as well as you would expect a college-level class taught by two (barely) college-age students to go (so much for that pay raise).  By the end of the lecture, the only thing more incomplete than the students notebooks was their understanding of the topic. By the time Ian and Lauren joined Andrew and Jennifer, Andrew had discovered how to PowerPoint to update whenever he updated a spreadsheet on Excel. By the end of the day, the team had figured out how to start up the Raspberry Pi and had created a very simple prototype of a looping PowerPoint presentation with database compatibility.


Saturday was a day of adventure for everyone. Upon asking Eva, she set up a trip to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro that involved visiting the entrance to the Kilimanjaro National Park, a waterfall, a Chagga (tribal) cave, and learning how to make coffee. Their first stop was the starting point for hiking up Kilimanjaro, where they got to learn some history about the mountain and take photos. Since they did not have permits, they were not allowed to go on any of the trails. From there, they headed to Kilasiya waterfalls, where they got a guided tour down to the falls. After climbing down into a ravine, they reached a river where they could view the waterfall from a distance. Thinking this was the end of the hike, they took pictures and got ready to head back up. However, instead of the hike being over, it was really just beginning. They all took off their shoes and were lead one by one across the river with the guide as an anchor (in the US it would be breaking probably at least about 100 safety rules). After making it across the river, they climbed barefoot over boulders to reach the bottom of the waterfall, which pictures just don’t do justice.
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After the waterfalls, the group was taken to a Chagga cave, where they also learned how to make coffee from raw coffee beans. The cave was a guided tour, starting with a brief history of why the caves were created. Since Mount Kilimanjaro produces an atmosphere great for growing many crops, many nomadic tribes tried to claim the area. The Chagga Tribe and Masai Tribe often competed for the land, so the Chagga Tribe created caves to protect themselves from the Masai. The caves had three main parts: the opening, where the Chagga would defend themselves against the Masai, the mortuary, where they would discard of the Masai’s bodies, and the living quarters, where the families would go when the Masai came. The cave was a series of tunnels, dug out using rocks, wood, and mammal bones. The entrance went down into the earth and led to a small indent where the Chagga guard would wait for the Masai to enter. The Masai would usually enter in two groups, the first group would be large and often would hit their heads on the low ceilings of the tunnel and the second group would be small and often crawled through the tunnel. The Chagga, using a weapon appropriately called the skull crusher, would hit the invading Masai over the head. Those bodies would then be taken to the mortuary, where the Chagga would dismember the bodies at nights, throwing the pieces into the river below to be washed away in the darkness so civilians wouldn’t see (we’re not sure why after explaining this they handed us the weapons they used to use to perform these actions). When it was a small group invading, the Chagga would use another weapon to capture the Masai and would keep the group as slaves. Our guide led us through the tunnels, explaining what would happen in each area before leading us back up. Once out of the tunnels, the guide took the tour group to a Chagga hut and explained how it was set up, with the husband having his own bed and the wife sleeping next to the children. Half of the hut had a place for goats or other livestock to stay and they also built overhead storage areas, much like an loft in a barn. After finishing with the history of the Chagga, the tour guided led a lesson in the process of coffee making, starting with how the beans were de-shelled, roasted, pounded into powder, and boiled. The team got to taste some of the coffee in the end.

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Week 4 (Nne, not Quatro, Lauren) Bloopers

Andrew

-At the hot springs, Andrew, a water resource engineering student, asked where the water came from.

-Couldn’t tell the difference between coffee and chocolate, and ingested way more caffeine than he had intended (as if Andrew needs even more energy).

Lauren

-Wanted to impress our bajaji driver by driving no-handed (she was actually stressed by the whole stick shift thing).  He was not impressed.

-Apparently thinks dogs and pigs are the same animals

-Forgot the first rule of Tanzania and contaminated her toothbrush (in her defense there was running water that day, an exciting moment for all)

Jennifer

-Sunday: While getting her bajaji driving lesson, thought running over some goats would give her a speed boost (she missed, so I guess we will never know)

-Monday morning: Deciding that the week hadn’t been difficult enough already (yet) proceeded to impale her knee on a fence post. Scaring Ian by almost passing out several times (*pole sana*).

Ian

-At the Chagga cave tour on Saturday, the tour guide asked where bananas came from, which Ian gave a very proud of answers “trees!”… not exactly the answer they were looking for.

Group

– Got hungry so they went to a pub.  There wasn’t any food there so they tried a restaurant.  Apparently restaurants in Tanzania only serve beer. Next week they’ll try a hotel. Stay tuned to find out if they will be able to successfully order a meal at a restaurant in the coming week.

Sustainability and Safari

Our focus for this past week was on ensuring the sustainability of the projects that we are introducing and continuing. In short, we wanted to make sure that the projects that we are working on could be continued without our direct presence. This was also the week that we went to Mole National Park (pronounced like the end of guacamole) for a safari.

The main project that we wanted to look at the sustainability of is the women’s health project that has been run for the last several years. The project teaches girls how to create reusable sanitary pads out of fabric so they don’t need to resort to makeshift alternatives like parts of old mattresses. Typically, the girls have been supplied with kits containing enough material to create three reusable pads with the hope that they would be able to create more as needed. Ideally, the girls would also be teaching their friends and family how to create the pads so that the knowledge can be spread to people that we can’t reach during our time here. In order to make sure that this is possible we needed to make sure that the fabric that we provide, fleece and flannel, is able to be found in the markets in Ghana. If they are not, we wanted to try and find alternatives that the girls would be able to get ahold of and use.

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One edge of the Central Market in Sunyani

To find out what materials were available to the girls, we went to the markets in Sunyani. It was not the first time that we had been to the market but we had not really looked for these sort of fabrics before so we were not entirely sure what we would find. The group started at the Wednesday Market, which true to its name is a market that only gets together on Wednesdays. We had been there only once before, during our first week, so it was fairly easy for us to get turned around and lost outside of the Wednesday Market on the streets of Sunyani. It was during this time that we got a bit of a lucky break. In a roadside stall not far from the market we found fleece blankets that could be used as material for the kits. We bought a few to supplement the fabric that we had brought and figured that if we could find them at a random stall outside of the market, then someone who knew the area better could probably find some as well. As we continued to try and find our way back to a familiar area, we saw several more stalls selling fleece so we felt confident in this choice of fabric.

Our wanderings eventually lead us to a part of Sunyani that we were much more familiar with, the area outside of Sunyani’s Central Market. The Central Market is in full force everyday, so we go there fairly often to get food and other necessities. We managed to find a few more stalls selling fleece and visited a fabric store that Nana had shown us earlier in the week when we went shopping for African fabrics we are getting tailored into clothes for us. We were unable to find flannel, but Lianne felt confident that by layering cotton, which is by far the most common fabric we found, that the same effect could be reached.

Of course, we also worked towards sustainability in other projects. We found local technology shops that we are planning on checking out to see what future groups may be able to buy over here instead of bringing from the US. Charles and Josh met with a contact at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) who was able to put us in touch with more people who should be able to help with the folklore project. While this was going on, Sonja and Lianne were meeting with Dr. Emmanuel Opuni-Frimpong, our main contact and the Pro-Vice Chancellor of UENR, to look into bringing a Summer Youth Program to UENR, similar to the one at Michigan Tech.

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Savanna Lodge in Larabanga where we spent the night

By far, the highlight of this week was the trip up to Mole National Park for a safari. We went up on Friday with a driver that Emmanuel knew and stayed the night at the Savanna Lodge in the village of Larabanga. The Lodge was great and it was as close to the park was we could stay without staying at one of the hotels inside the park (which were all full). The next morning we got up bright and early for a 7AM safari. The safari lasted about two hours and gave us the opportunity to see lots of animals in their natural habitat. Among the animals we saw were elephants, warthog, kob (a type of antelope), and monkeys along with a wide variety of insects, lizards, and birds. I could spend pages writing about everything we saw, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

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The first elephant we saw

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A small family of warthogs

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A baboon

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Some kobs hiding in the trees

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This elephant was blocking the road

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A beautiful view of Mole

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Jeep selfie

We had a fantastic time this week, and we look forward to what our final couple of weeks in Ghana have in store for us.

Wiki Tatu: Switching things up

Poa! We have just finished our third week here in Tanzania, which has been full of adventures, challenges, and fun experiences. We now feel well adjusted to our daily life in Boma Ng’ombe and our work in the two schools. Also, we have an amazing view of Mount Kilimanjaro from Boma!

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Andrew and Lauren’s Week 3 Adventures:

On Monday, Andrew and Lauren had their last full project day at Nkwamakuu. The morning started with a new record number of people on the bus, with 25 stuffed into a van made for 14 (we’re always impressed by how many people they can pack). After arriving at the school, we worked some more on the handwashing stations and taught the headmaster of the school how to play the math games we had been playing with the students the previous week. We also taught him and our translator, Sadick, how to play Go Fish and learned a Tanzanian card game called Last Card, which is very similar to Uno. After playing some card games and Simon Says with the students, we had the chance to talk to the headmaster about potential projects for next year’s team. We discussed the challenges that the school faces and ways that our program can collaborate with the school to help work through some of those challenges.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we switched schools with Ian and Jennifer and headed to Orkalili Secondary School. After arriving at 7:30 and doing some introductions with the students and receiving our nicknames (Lauren is Hayika and Andrew is Masawi), we jumped right into action and taught one of the Form 4 (12th grade) classes Organic Chemistry. This proved to be a challenging lecture, as Lauren had not done organic chemistry in three years (and only for one week in University Chemistry 2) and Andrew never had to learn organic chemistry (at least until now). Overall, it didn’t go too bad, the students are very bright and caught on quickly. Some even seemed to have already taught themselves the material on their own! After the chemistry lecture, we were given about a half hour to prepare to teach Form 1 (9th grade) math. They wanted us to play a math game with the students, so we decided to play Jeopardy. The activity went well, except it was a little difficult due to the class size at Orkolili. The Form 1 class had about 50 students in it. After teaching the two lectures, we thought our day was over and that we were going to spend the rest of the day preparing for the next day. However, shortly after finishing our lecture, we were surprised to learn that wasn’t the case, and that we would actually be traveling with some students to the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology. The university is about an hour from the town we are staying in and probably has the best campus lawn maintenance in all of Africa. At the university, the students were led through a short tech workshop with some college students visiting from South Korea. We helped the students come up with problems in their community that could be solved with different types of sensors, which was the primary technology that the South Koreans were presenting on. After the workshop, we discussed what we would be teaching the following day (Wednesday). The teachers told us that we could teach chemistry (as if we didn’t teach enough chemistry already) to the Form 2 class and if we could lead Form 3 through an activity that involved “balancing equations.” We assumed that this would be solving simple algebraic equations, but on Wednesday, we realized that they meant balancing chemical equations (yay, more chemistry). Despite this misunderstanding and our shared dread of teaching chemistry, both classes actually went really well. We were able to lead the students through several example problems, which the students were able to understand a lot better, especially after we walked around talking with them one on one. The experience felt very rewarding after seeing the students understand the material a lot more, especially after they thanked us several times.

Lauren teaching evil chem

Ian and Jennifer’s Week 3 Adventures:

Ian and I had our “last day” at Orkolili on Monday, and the day was moderately uneventful. We missed our bus heading to Orkolili and had to take a Bijaji all the way out, which wasn’t all that bad. We got to the school just in time for the Monday morning activities. On Mondays, the students lined up by class and gender to sing national songs, honor the rising of the Tanzanian flag, and have the teachers give various announcements for the week. Mama Mcha gave us a chance to address the students also, we both thanked the students for being patient and kind to us as we taught them and wished them the best on their future studies. Once announcements were completed, the students went off to do another Monday morning activity, exams. During this time, Ian and I discussed the plans for the day and prepared our lessons. We taught a Human Centered Design crash course to Form 3, which, for as quickly put together and not having a whole lot of teaching time, it seemed to go very well. The students had plenty of problems they would like to address and even more ideas on how to address some of those problems. We asked them to choose an issue and work through defining the problem and brainstorming ideas on how they could fix it. Ian and I talked them through how they would then prototype and test their ideas. After finishing up with Form 3, we got the chance to teach Form 1 English. Since it we were teaching present tense, it went a little better than our attempt to teach Form 2 how to properly answer a phone call. The students were great as we worked through different examples, making our last teaching experience at Orkolili a good one.

Tuesday was the start of new adventures for Ian and I, instead of waking up at 6 am to catch a 7:10 am bus to Orkolili, we got to wake up at 7 am to meet up with Sadick at the bus stop at 8 am to head to Nkwamakuu.  Lucky for us, Lauren and Andrew had prepared the day’s activities for us, so all we had to do was implement them. We were given the task of teaching Standard 7, students who are similar in age to United States’ 7th graders. We first led a Jeopardy game reviewing different Science topics (First Aid, Excretion System, Hormone Systems, HIV/Aids, and Matter). Though the students struggled with a few of the questions, the majority were very easy for them to answer. After Jeopardy and Chai Break, Ian and I introduced a math game to Standard 7, the same one with the cards that Lauren and Andrew had introduced to many of the other grade levels the week before. We ran through addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. After going through many rounds of each, which the students breezed through easily, we used the cards to practice learning English numbers. The goal was to see how many cards a student could get through in a minute, the goal was at least 30. As Ian walked around from group of students to group of students, I just kneeled in front of the first row desk and started going from student to student. At first, the students went individually, getting to about 28 cards each time, but then they started working together and as a group got to about 30 cards. We were having a lot of fun, one student successfully naming 30 cards on his own. It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday, Ian and I worked with Standard 7 again. Over the course of Tuesday night, I created a Jeopardy game that would help with learning English words, categories was Kalena (Calendar), Michezo (sports), Safari mnyama (Safari Animals), Shamba mnyama (Farm Animals), and Namba (numbers). We named it Unasemeja…? (How do you say…?) and ran it by asking the students how they would say specific words in English or Swahili, for example we would either ask “unasemeja mbuze kwa kiigereza?” and they would answer “goat” or “how do you say rhinoceros in Swahili?” and they would answer “kifaroo”. After finishing our game of Jeopardy, Ian and I decided to burn time until lunch by playing Pictionary with the students, which slowly turned into the students asking us to draw specific animals (like monkeys) and then rating who drew it better. Jennifer won most of the time. After lunch, Ian taught the students how to play kickball. We split the students into two teams, trying our best to make it equal boys and girls. Though we only spent about 30-40 minutes playing, the students seemed to be having a lot of fun after the initial confusion, even though the rules still were not completely clear to them. It was a good way to end our day on Wednesday.

The Whole Gang Together Again

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On Thursday and Friday, all four of us got to spend our days going to the schools together. On Thursday, we all went to Nkwamakuu because the headmaster wanted us to have a chance to say our goodbyes as a group. We also finished the hand-washing stations after much testing and observation in the past week. We built some wooden ledges for bars of soap to be placed and made some adjustments to the ropes. Then, we taught the children how to wash their hands with the stations, how to refill the water jugs, and how to adjust the rope if needed. We also told them that they could always make improvements to the stations or build more in the future. After finishing up this work with the hand-washing stations, we were able to meet with all the teachers at the school to show them the games we had been teaching the students, get feedback on how the past two weeks had gone, and discuss future projects. The meeting went well, especially since the teachers seemed to be really interested in the games and gave us some good ideas for future teams. They then gave us some traditional Maasai cloths and showed us how to wear them, which we were all very thankful for.

Women at work

(Finished hand-washing station and Lauren and Jennifer proving that women can work)

On Friday, we all first went to Orkolili and then traveled to the Nelson Mandela University (the same one Lauren and Andrew had gone to earlier in the week) for a science fair. Orkolili had three student teams participating and we went to just see all the projects and the university (or at least that’s what we were supposed to have done). Within 10 minutes of our arrival at the science fair, a random man came up to us and asked if we were university students studying science.  We confirmed this and he proceeded to ask us what major we were pursuing.  Upon telling him he said something along the lines of “Perfect. We need judges.” and began handing us stacks of paper.  While we were still in a state of shock and confusion, he began going over the rubric for judging and which projects we were assigned to.  Each of us (besides Jennifer because she opted out on the condition of being a psych major) were assigned five projects to judge by looking, listening, and asking questions.  The fair lasted about two hours followed by a couple talks by university students and a brief lunch of rice, vegetables, and chopped up cow (think if someone skinned a cow, cut off the head and tail, and put the rest in a blender).  After lunch, the winners of the competition were announced, with the first place spot going to students who found a way to manufacture fertilizers and concrete strengtheners using hair waste from salons (which Ian, being a materials engineer, completely geeked out over).

Jennifer super tall

 

Week 3 Bloopers:

Ian and Jennifer: After Jennifer spent a long time sawing the wood for the soap holders, Ian saw an opportunity to make the job easier by stomping on a section of the wood to break it off. While still unaware that this section was the vital piece we needed to be attached, he felt very proud of his successful stomp…for about 2 seconds until he realized his mistake, which is when he started screaming and running away with his arms flailing. Jennifer then joked, “leave it to a man to ruin a woman’s hard work.”

(The poor, innocent piece of wood that Ian killed)
(The poor, innocent piece of wood that Ian killed)

Andrew: Andrew’s army knife broke slightly while building the wooden structures (yes, this simple little project proved difficult for all of us). The next day, Andrew decided that he should try fixing it by pressing down on the sharp side, which could only result in one outcome: accidentally cutting his finger (Don’t worry Mom, it’s not a bad cut).

Lauren: Lauren finally spent a whole week without speaking any Spanish. We are all very proud.

(Ian "blue-steeling" it up while Jennifer actually works...before the incident)
(Ian “blue-steeling” it up while Jennifer actually works…before the incident)

 

Again, thank you for reading our blog! This upcoming Wednesday, we will leave Boma Ng’ombe and spend our final week and a half in Moshi, so please check again next week to find out which one of us loses our luggage during the travel!

“Broni Coco Machi!”

By Sonja Welch

“Broni Coco Machi!” means “Good Morning, White Person!” in Twi. During our time in Babianeha this week, children were constantly singing this to us. Everywhere we went, kids were singing and waving at us. I felt like a huge celebrity everywhere we went! I never thought our mere presence could make them so happy. I had so much fun waving back at them and shaking their hands. I just wish I knew more Twi, so I could interact with them more. This was the case in Sunyani too, but they liked practicing their English with us more than their Twi. Whenever we visited the school there, they would also stand up and say, “Good Morning. I am fine. How are you?” in unison. And so many of them wanted to shake our hands and take selfies. It was really cool!

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[Children Singing “Broni Coco Machi!” in Babianeha]

Besides being paraded around the town and waving at children, we did get to do some actual project work this past week. On Monday and Tuesday, we visited Ridge Experimental School B in Sunyani, where we conducted a hand washing demonstration, a women’s health workshop, and a STEM education demonstration. During the hand washing demonstration, we taught the children in all grades the importance of hand washing and how easily germs can spread. Lianne did this by squirting some liquid soap in a few kids’ hands and having them shake hands with their fellow classmates. They all laughed as they had to interact with each other and make everyone’s hands sticky. Fletcher, the ICT coordinator at the school, walked around with us and asked the kids questions to make sure they were paying attention. Whenever he asked what they learned and only one person would answer, he commonly said, “Who is coming?! They have not said all. You’re being selfish with your knowledge!” We laughed about his word choices later because we were so shocked by them, but we were still extremely grateful for Fletcher’s presence. Although through unusual methods, he still made sure the kids were listening and engaged in the demonstration.

During the women’s health workshops, Lianne and I helped about 50 girls learn how to make reusable sanitary pads with some kits she made. They also liked to laugh a lot and work together. Two of the female teachers even helped us out with instructing them. One teacher would repeat what we were saying to the kids in Twi, and the other teach made sure to take selfies with us while we were instructing! I thought it was hilarious, but she did end up helping girls make their kits too. 

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[Sonja and Lianne with some of the Kids at Ridge Experimental Schools]

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[Some of the JHS students at Ridge Experimental Schools]

Josh worked with the kids on STEM demonstrations both in Sunyani and Babianeha. He had the kids work on their creative and designing skills by building small boats with aluminum foil and having them test them in a couple basins of water. The boats were supposed to be designed to hold a large load without sinking. This was tested by adding nails to the boats. Some sank with one nail, and others couldn’t be sunk by even 25 nails! All of the kids had a blast doing it. They’d egg each other on about their boat designs and boast to each other if their boats held more nails. The teachers in Babianeha were especially enthusiastic about the project since it related directly to what they were teaching at the time. They helped us out even further by tying it to their lessons on buoyancy and upward and downward forces. I just wish we had more time in the schools and more demonstrations to do. The way all of their eyes lit up made you really feel like you were making a positive impact in their lives.

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[STEM Demonstration in Babianeha]

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[Team Ghana with the JHS students in Babianeha]

During our time in Babianeha, we also had time to talk to the directors of the community center, which is basically a computer lab for the students. It was fun getting to know the uses of the community center and learning about their needs. It was crazy to realize how much we take for granted something as simple as a printer in the United States. My goal is to find a sustainable way to make sure they can access the resources they need in order to give the kids at the school a great education.

After visiting the community center, we met with the headmaster of the primary school. We discussed the needs of the school, and it was great to learn that he would also like us to do STEM demonstrations with the primary school students. At this time, I also noticed all of the kids were outside with machetes chopping the grass! I thought it was so unusual, but the headmaster explained that because of the uneven layout of the land, they can’t use lawnmowers to keep the grass cut. I guess if it works, it’s fine, right?!

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[Children Cutting Grass with Machetes in Babianeha]

Later that day, we spent some time working on Charles’ project. We headed out to the monkey sanctuary close by. His goal was to gather some stories about the place and the monkeys themselves. When we arrived, the place was much different that I had expected. I pictured a tourist town, but it was actually a small village. When we arrived, we met with an old man who agreed to take us out to the forest to see the monkeys. And boy did they not disappoint! There were monkeys everywhere! There were many times where we got so close that we could touch them. We brought bananas with us, and the man had some dried corn in a jar he could shake around to attract the monkeys. He let us feed them the bananas and corn, and it was so cool! We even saw baby monkeys clinging to their mothers!

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[Tour Guide Attracting Monkeys at the Monkey Sanctuary]

This man also only spoke Twi, but we luckily had Evans and Solomon there to translate for us. He explained to us how monkeys were very sacred to their community. In fact, they were given the same respect as humans. If anyone killed a monkey, they would also die for their crime, and the monkey would be given human burial rites. We even passed by one of the graves on our way through the forest. We also learned about how the town came to be, but that’s a story for another time. Charles plans to post a collection of the stories we learned later on.

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[The gang at the Monkey Sanctuary

Back: Josh, Solomon, Sonja (Me)

Front: Evans, Charles, Lianne]

The next day, we went to the Chief’s Council Meeting. Unfortunately, the Chief couldn’t be there since he was away in Accra at the time. But meeting with the Council was still a really cool experience. Charles asked them for stories about how the town came to be and other folklore they may have stored away. I asked them about any needs they had within the community and if there were any projects they’d be interested in partnering with Michigan Tech on in future years. They talked for a little bit in Twi and Monaa, and they decided that they’ll give us a document with the information we seek in two weeks. It wasn’t how we expected it to go, but I think it still worked out well! We were all really nervous coming to the meeting since we didn’t realize how many people would be there or all of the formalities we would have to go through. It definitely made me more nervous about it since I didn’t want to accidentally offend anyone, especially in this context. We were in the presence of some of the most respected elders in the community! I can’t even imagine how much of a disaster accidentally disrespecting them would be.

Overall, our week spent at Ridge Experimental Schools and in Babianeha were very eye opening and successful. We would especially like to thank the Opuni family for hosting us. They gave us a place to stay and cooked meals for us every day! My favorite meal was always breakfast since Evans’ mom would make us a breakfast sandwich and milo (basically hot chocolate). We would also really like to thank Evans for carting us around everywhere and putting us in contact with people. We would have been so lost without him!

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[Typical Breakfast at the Opuni’s in Babianeha]

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[The Gang Getting Ready to do some STEM Demonstrations at the JHS school in Babianeha

Left to Right: Evans, Josh, Sonja (Me), Charles, Lianne]

Medase! Thank you for following our journey. We’ll have more updates next week!

Wiki Mbili: New Kids In School

Mambo! We had a very eventful second week. The Monday after the workshop concluded, we met up with our professor, Mary Raber, and Ewald Tesha of Asante Africa. Together, we drove around the Kilimanjaro area to visit all of the schools we would be attending later in the week.  Unfortunately we still couldn’t cut a break from being jammed together as Tesha’s car only had enough seats for five people, so Tesha and Mary got to sit very comfortably in the front while the four of us where packed into the rear like sardines. Tesha first took us to the district offices, where we had to get approval from the higher-ups in the education system to work in the schools. Upon receiving that we visited the first school: Nkwamakuu Primary School. Nkwamakuu has Standard 1-7 students, which is about equivalent to 1st through 7th grade in the American education system. We met with the headmaster, had Chai (a sort of breakfast), and toured the school. Before we left, the teachers gathered all of the students in the yard and then sang welcome songs and introduced themselves.  After we introduced ourselves to them (which included Andrew doing a backflip) we packed back into the car and left for Orkolili Secondary School.  At Orkolili we were given a brief tour of the school by Mama Mcha, the founder of the school. The school is unique because it not only teaches academics but also vocational skills such as culinary, electronics, and auto repair skills. This allows students to be well prepared for life after secondary school, whether they get a job or go to university. After a short visit at Orkolili, we all went to Moshi, which is the second town we will staying at in about two weeks. We were able to meet with the organizations we will be working with while we are there. We first stopped at Amani’s Children Home, which houses homeless children and tries to reunite the children with their family members, if possible. After a short visit there, we visited the Old Moshi Hotel, which is the hostel we will be staying at while in Moshi. They will also be organizing the work we will be doing there. After returning back to Boma, we decided how we would be splitting up for the week, since we had planned to send two team members to Nkwamakuu Primary School and two team members to Orkolili Secondary School.  We decided that splitting up would allow us to spend more quality time at both of the schools.

 

Nkwamakuu Primary School

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Andrew and Lauren spent Tuesday through Friday at Nkwamakuu. On Monday we had discussed with the teachers that they would like us to teach some math, science, and English classes at the school. We agreed that on Tuesday, we would observe some classes to get an idea of what the students were learning and what the teaching style was at the school. However, we soon realized that the school had something else in mind (we would also quickly learn that this would become a common theme throughout the week). As soon as we arrived on Tuesday, the teachers asked us which classes we were teaching. We responded by asking if we could observe the class first, and they agreed. But, we are pretty sure that they did not entirely understand because they still proceeded to set up the Standard 3 (3rd grade) class for us to teach. Luckily, this is something we had kind of prepared for. Prior to traveling, one of the projects that we had identified was a way to make math classes more fun for the students, since many Tanzanian classes are heavily lecture based. We decided that one way we could do this is by playing some math games with cards. We brought several decks of cards over to Tanzania and were able to introduce the game that morning. With the Standard 3 students, we worked on basic subtraction and addition skills. The game is kind of like war, where games are played with two students and one deck of cards. Each student flips over a card and then the students add or subtract the numbers on the cards. Both the students and teachers responded very positively to the game. The students said that they had fun playing the game, while the teachers said it helped the students learn math skills quickly. We ended up showing the math game to Standard 4 and Standard 5 students also, but instead of addition and subtraction we did multiplication and fractions. Along with math, we also taught some science classes. In science, we played Jeopardy with the students. Although none of the students had heard of the game before, they overall seemed to really enjoy a new teaching method (and also really liked the candy we gave to them for participating).

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Additionally, on Tuesday, we asked the headmaster if there were any water, sanitation, or hygiene related problems at the school. The headmaster then walked us over to one of the hand washing stations, which consisted of a bucket with a twist nozzle. He explained that these current stations were unsanitary because the students have to touch the dirty nozzle to close it after they wash their hands. We then agreed that we could work on a project together to create a more sanitary system. After some research and discussion with the headmaster and teachers, we designed a Tippy Tap system that was modified to meet the school’s needs. As shown in the video below, the design allows the children to wash their hands by simply stepping on a wooden lever, so they do not have to touch anything after they wash their hands. It took a couple days to buy the materials, including some metal bars that the hardware store employee cut with just a simple handsaw, which still baffles us. On Friday, we were able to build the three stations and test them with the children. In this upcoming week, we still need to test the stations more and gather feedback to ensure that they will be used effectively by the children, and then we will adjust accordingly.

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One of the biggest challenges at Nkwamakuu is the language barrier. Most of the students (and teachers) only speak Swahili. Luckily, we had a translator with us, however, we struggled sometimes to communicate with the students. Although the language barrier has been difficult, it has been a good way for us to learn a lot of new words in Swahili (especially lots of new math words!). Also, in our free time at the school, we had lots of fun playing Simon says and soccer with the kids, as well as pretending to be lions eating each other (which the kids found oddly entertaining).

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Orkolili Secondary School

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Jennifer and Ian spent their first week (Tuesday through Friday) at Orkolili Secondary School. The structure of the school is very similar to a typical high school in the United States, with four main class groups, called Forms. Going into Tuesday, Jennifer and Ian were unsure of what the week at Orkolili would entail but they were looking forward to the possibilities that laid before them. Upon arriving on Tuesday, they met up with their main contact, a teacher by the name of Joe, who proceeded to explain a little bit about what they would be doing before taking them around to each of the classes to introduce themselves (stating their names, ages, and what they are studying at Michigan Tech). Each classroom has about 37-58 students since each classroom houses one form, except for Form 4f, which is housed in two classrooms, making each class size about 37-38. In the Form 3 class, Joe asked the students to assign Jennifer and Ian Swahili names. Ian was named Mushi (Moo-she) and Jennifer was named Manka (Mah-n-kah). Throughout the week, they switched between their U.S. names and their new names, many students and teachers just called them Mushi and Manka. they quickly grew accustomed to responding when their new names were called.

Throughout the week, Jennifer and Ian taught a few classes. their teaching, though slightly unconventional, seemed to work. they started out their teaching adventure with English to Form 2, with the topic of “How to Properly Answer a Telephone Call”. At first, they thought this would be simple, but it proved to actually be quiet challenging, since Jennifer and Ian soon realized that they did not usually make phone calls and, when they did, usually did not use proper answering techniques. They did their best and Ian taught the class to say “WASSUP” when answering a close friend’s phone call. Tuesday afternoon was spent presenting their areas of study to each Form 4 class. Ian discussed Engineering in General along with his specialty of Material Engineering, trying to build up enthusiasm within the students. Jennifer discussed Psychology and the jobs that are available. The first Form 4 class seemed to be interested in knowing about Jennifer and Ian, whereas the second Form 4 class spend their entire time asking questions about science and engineering, allowing Ian to excitedly explain many concepts to them. Since Jennifer did not get a chance to present on Psychology, she got an entire class period to present on Thursday. On Wednesday, they observed a Form 4 math lesson and Ian taught Trigonometric Functions to Form 3. The students responded very well and enjoyed Ian’s lesson so much, that he was asked to teach again on Thursday. He decided to continue onto Trigonometric Inverse Functions on Thursday and, again, the students seemed to enjoy his lesson. Thursday afternoon, Ian taught Chemistry to a Form 4 class and, again, the students enjoyed it so much that he was asked to teach the introduction to Organic Chemistry on Friday morning, which was also a very good lesson. Though Jennifer did not do much teaching, she got to watch the lessons and how Ian’s excitement of the subjects was passed on to the students.

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On Fridays, Orkolili ends classes around 12 pm and has various activities in the afternoon. At 12, the students break off into different classrooms, according to their religious background, to have a worship service. Jennifer and Ian were asked to join/observe one of these groups and they both obliged. The students sang songs of praise, said prayers, and were lead in devotion by a pastor (probably) or leader. The lesson they got to hear, and slightly understand thanks to a helpful student, was on Ruth 1:1-18. It was a really cool experience, hearing all the different groups in the classrooms singing and watching the group they were sitting in singing songs of praise. The religious services were followed by a short break, and then the students broke into different clubs until lunchtime. After lunch, all the students gather at the sports fields near campus to participate in different sports. They have basketball, football (soccer), and song and dance circle. While Ian ran off to play football on the Form 1-3’s team against Form 4, Jennifer walked around with a few of the girls and took pictures of some of the activities. Though Ian got exhausted and cut up from playing, he had some fun playing with the kids. Jennifer got a chance to talk to the girls about the sports that they liked and learn some more Swahili. It was nice to get to know some of the students.
Jennifer and Ian had a few struggles to overcome during their week at Orkolili, the biggest being the language barrier. Even though Orkolili pushes the students to speak English, they still had to make sure they spoke slowly and emphasized certain words to ensure that they were understood. The smaller struggles were being asked to prepare for a class within an hour and then teaching, since they both have limited experience in teaching, they both picked it up quickly though and Ian’s enthusiasm spilled into the classroom igniting the students interest in their studies.

 

Weekly Blooper Reel

Andrew: After being dropped off by the bus when returning from Nkwamakuu, Andrew and Lauren were berated by dozens of bajaji drivers trying to give them rides. While Andrew was turning around to tell them “Hapana Asante” (No thank you), he was nearly hit by a bus, which wasn’t following the traffic laws (but then again, neither does any vehicle here…at all).

Lauren: After apparently not learning from her mistake from last week (responding with “Si”), Lauren responded to a student on Wednesday by saying, “Bien.” Again Lauren, that is SPANISH, not Swahili.

Jennifer: On the very first day of teaching at Orkolili, Jennifer had already received a marriage proposal, which wasn’t asked in the way you would expect either. She was specifically asked how many cows would be enough to have her hand in marriage (Ian was secretly jealous, and also wondering the same thing).

Ian: After an already exhausting day of teaching on Friday, Ian was asked to play a 90 minute game of soccer. Yeah, that did not go well. He obtained several cuts and bruises, which he mistakenly thought could be cleaned with Lysol wipes (you know, the wipes you use to completely disinfect kitchen counter tops…and that have a big warning label saying “Do not put on skin”).

All: While waiting in downtown Boma for our Bajaji driver George (who is our hero) to pick us up, we witnessed probably the funniest thing we have experienced this trip. A bus was pulling into the parking lot when it suddenly stopped, causing the motorcycle behind it to suddenly stop as well. The motorcyclist became frustrated, and although he didn’t have a horn, that didn’t stop him from releasing his anger out onto the bus driver by yelling, “BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP” with the funniest angry face. We (especially Andrew) cannot stop mimicking it and laughing constantly.

 

Asante Sana (thank you very much) for reading our blog! Check it again sometime next week when we have wifi to upload our week 3 post!

Our Arrival and Getting Settled in Ghana

By Lianne Novak

We left the USA on July 1 flying out of Detroit with a layover in New York (JFK).  We got into Accra on Monday morning at about 8am.  The plane deplaned from both the front door and back door in Accra. Customs was a breeze, and Andrew met us once we got our bags and were through customs.

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[Team Ghana Before Getting on the Plane in Detroit]

Accra is a beautiful city and is the capital of Ghana.  We stayed at the Airport View hotel which was about a five minute ride from the airport. Andrew took us to the Accra Mall, which is just like any mall in the States.  We got cheap Ghanaian cell phones (think a basic phone from around 2003), exchanged money, and had lunch at a local “chain” fast-food type restaurant.  They serve various chicken meals, some of them come with rice, and bottled soda.  The hotel is beautiful, and the staff was wonderful.  We were able to meet with one of Sonja’s contacts, Akwesi, in the afternoon.  He is actually moving to the States in August, but he was able to connect us with some other people at KNUST who could talk to her more about biomedical engineering projects that future Pavlis students could work on.  We all watched one of the World Cup games and had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant buffet.  The hotel also had a breakfast buffet which had rice and little sausages at it, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables.

We took one of the hotel’s vans to the VIP bus station where we were able to catch a bus to Sunyani.  The seats were huge, and some reclined (others no longer worked); it was like “the old” First Class. The traffic in Kumasi is very heavy.  It’s like getting around Chicago, but on surface roads; there are no interstates.  We went through Kumasi, stopping at a gas station that was attached to a KFC (yes, I mean Kentucky Fried Chicken is sold in Kumasi!).  Every town and village has speed bumps as a way of controlling the speed limit. Some of these bumps are massive, while other villages have 3 bumps in a row.  Each town/village has multiple speed bump locations.  I think we all thought that the bus ride was bumpy, but our view of “bumpy” would change the next day.

Nana (Emmanuel’s wife) met us at the bus station in Sunyani and helped us move into our hostel room.  We’re on the 4th floor, and have 2 rooms with a shared bathroom at the back of the hallway.  We went to the Eusbett hotel, where Andrew is staying to have dinner with him and Nana; Emmanuel was out of town that night, so we weren’t able to meet him.  Our group got a Hawaiian pizza, and most of the group tried some Ghanaian beer.  Drinking age is 18 here, and it amazes me that nobody that orders beer is asked for some ID.

The next day we ate breakfast at the Eusbett hotel, met Emmanuel’s nephew (also named Emmanuel), and then took a taxi to the Wednesday Market (it’s insanely busy!) to catch a tro-tro going to Dorma, a little town (or village?) about 20 minutes away from Babianeha.  The tro-tro is an old 15 passenger van, and they stuff as many people in one row as possible (this can mean 14-18 people).  Since the van is old, and has now been a tro-tro for a while, it has virtually no suspension, so you feel every pothole, and speed bump.  The visit in Babianeha itself was very nice.  We were able to meet Emmanuel’s extended family, and some of them showed us around the village, and helped us (legally) cross in to Cote d’Ivoire.  The town Gronnokron is a little town that straddles the border with Ghana.  You can visit the town without having to go through Cote d’Ivoire customs.  We also met some of the teachers at the school.  The school kids got very excited to see “Obrunis” (aka not Ghanaians).

We ended up getting snacks on the way out of town since we missed lunch, and then caught a bus to Dorma, and tro-tro back to Sunyani. After we washed up, we returned to the Eusbett for dinner, and got to meet Emmanuel (Nana’s husband).  It was the 4th of July (American Independence Day).

Thursday, we stayed in Sunyani.  We were able to meet up with Emmanuel (Nana’s husband), and he took us to the Ridge Experimental School (one of the schools that Josh will be doing a workshop at).  We also went to the Central Market to purchase some items that we needed for the hostel.  We got some bottled water, toilet paper, rice, onions, garlic, soap, and clothes pins.

We went to Kumasi on Friday, where we said goodbye to Andrew, and met with Josephine, Isaac and Solomon, and Dr. Ahmed at KNUST. Akwesi knew Josephine and connected Sonja with her.  Sonja and Andrew were able to talk to them about the possibility of future Pavlis students collaborating with KNUST for biomedical engineering projects, and what this would mean for both Tech and KNUST.  After we were done with our meeting, we said goodbye to Andrew and he departed for the VIP bus station to catch a bus back to Accra.  The students took us around campus, showing us different buildings, and the ventilator that Akwesi and previous Pavlis students worked on.  They took us to a little café on campus called Icy Cup and treated us to yogurt smoothies.  Once we wrapped up at KNUST, Emmanuel’s driver drove us back home.  Traffic was insane in Kumasi (of course), and I’ve noticed that checking your blind spots or mirrors is a foreign idea in Ghana.  When we got home Charles and Josh made us dinner from the bell peppers, onions and rice that we bought at the market.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to Melcom, a Walmart like store in the middle of Sunyani.  We purchased some packaged food (like Pringles) and also got some household items that we couldn’t find (or forgot to get) at the market.  We all kind of expected to walk into a Walmart, so I think we were all a little surprised when we found out that the store is 3 or 4 levels high, and doesn’t have a very big floorplan. In the evening, Emmanuel came over and taught us how to make fried yam.  He brought some fish and tomato sauce that we could use with the fried yam, which were thick and crunchy.  He also boiled some of the yam, too, which was kind of like eating a baked potato.

Next week we are hoping to do a few Women’s Health and STEM workshops at the Ridge Experimental School here in Sunyani, as well as travel to Babianeha for a few days where we will also do a few workshops and stay with Emmanuel’s extended family.

Thank you for following our journey so far!

Wiki Moja: New Experiences and New Friends

Very First Experiences

Four days in and our experience has already been incredible.  We arrived in Boma on the fourth (after a full 24 hours of travel) and have been crazy busy since the second we stepped off the plane.  After being held up at the airport for three hours, we met our host, John, who took us back to house for the night.  There we were treated to dinner and had our first experience with the culture.  John’s home is very nice and John has taken great care to help our adjustment as much as possible.  We woke the next morning and had our first Chai, a meal that acts as breakfast here in Tanzania.  We took a bajaji (see below) to a local hotel to meet our second contact, Joel, who works for the Asante Africa Foundation. We will be working with them for our first 3 weeks here.

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Joel led us on a bus ride to the nearby town of Arusha where the Asante offices were based. After receiving an orientation from the staff, Joel took us to a local market. At the market we were able to buy local cloths and art. It was all a bit overwhelming at first, especially since we know very little of the language (Swahili) and were attempting to barter in the local currency (Shillings). After the market, Joel helped us get our Tanzanian phone set up and then sent us back on the bus to Boma.

 

Tarangire Safari

The next day we met up with our professor who is here for a couple days and went on a safari. It was an amazing experience! We had to wake up at 5 am, which was not the most enjoyable, but it was definitely worth it. We drove three hours to the Tarangire National Park and spent most of the day there, driving around with our guide. We saw tons of animals, including elephants, lions, impalas, zebras, warthogs, vervet monkeys, baboons, wildebeests, ostriches, a hippo, and others. We also saw some cheetahs, at first from a safe distance with the rest of the safari vehicles. Then, our tour guide asked us if we would like to get closer to the cheetahs. We responded that it was okay, we were comfortable where we were. However, he may have misinterpreted, as he drove us within 5 feet of the cheetahs, where no other vehicles dared to go. After a short visit with them and some pictures, we went on our way. We took all sorts of pictures and then headed back to our homestay.

One struggle of many this week was navigating our driver back to our homestay in the dark. We had only been driven there one time in the daylight, so we were very unsure of how to direct the driver. We managed to get two of the turns correct, and then lost our confidence in where to go. Luckily, our driver was very resourceful and was able to talk to a random person in a nearby shop and call John, so he could direct our driver to get us home. We’ve learned to be adaptable, flexible, and how to navigate through challenges as they come. As each day goes by, we become more confident and independent and know we will be comfortable here soon.

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Workshop With Asante Africa

This weekend, we worked with a leadership team from Asante Africa, a foundation that empowers youth in Tanzania with educational opportunities and leadership skills. We met with Erna Grasz (the founder of Asante), Ewald Tesha (the local program manager), and twelve youth leaders, all of whom were extremely friendly and welcoming. Along with our professor, we assisted in conducting a workshop that focused on teaching the youth the process of Human Centered Design (HCD). HCD is a tool that focuses on solving problems effectively, by working in teams to research, brainstorm, and prototype new solutions. We split up into four groups, each working through the stages of HCD on a real problem in their community. The solutions that we came up with involved sharing leadership skills with local entrepreneurs and persuading secondary students to pursue STEM and teaching careers. By the end of the workshop, we had all learned a lot more about how to solve community problems with design thinking. We especially learned that it might take a few iterations of the process to narrow a solution down to a workable plan of action. Additionally, we learned A LOT more Swahili from the new friends we made!

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End of Week Reflection

Even though we are very sleep deprived and a little dehydrated (we found a place that sells water now, so don’t worry), we have very much enjoyed our first week. We are learning more and more about the cultural norms, the language, and daily life in Tanzania. We have also reflected more on the projects that we will be working on in the schools, which we will start in this upcoming week. So please check this blog again next week to learn about our progress!

 

Funny (and maybe embarrassing) moments of the week:

Andrew: Our Bajaji driver explained that even though he was the same age as Andrew, Andrew was much bigger than he was. He then attributed this to the fact that Andrew “probably ate a lot more than he did,” basically calling him fat (in a jokingly way…we hope).

Lauren: When we went to the local shop to get water, the vendor (who did not speak any English) asked us if we wanted bottled water. Lauren initially responded with “Yes.” When this was met with confusion, she realized that she was speaking English, so she then responded with “Si” (Yes in Spanish, not Swahili).

Ian: When we were going through the market in Arusha, the vendors were very, very, very adamant that we buy something from their shops. Like VERY adamant. And Ian ended up paying a lot more than he should have after the first ten minutes of “looking around.” He got a pretty nice elephant shirt.

Jennifer: Jennifer has been absolutely ruthless in her funny backhanded compliments to the rest of the group (Just kidding Jennifer…maybe).

A Long-expected Journey

This post was a team effort!  We each wrote our own biography, and Charles wrote the first part of the post.  Lianne wrote the second part about our team activities.  We all look forward to contributing to the blog while we are in Ghana next month.

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Me kyea mo [I greet you] and welcome to the first travel blog of Team Ghana. Seeing as we are still a ways away from officially beginning our journey in country, we’ll start with a brief crash-course in Ghanaian history, as well the backgrounds of the team members and what projects they will be heading up in the future.

Map of Ghana
Map of Ghana

The modern state of Ghana has its roots in the 9th century, as a local trade powerhouse and continued to hold a place of power within the region until the advent of european colonization in the 1500’s. After the end of the second world war, the political landscape was in constant upheaval, transitioning from a constitutional republic to military junta and back again until the turn of the 21st century. Today Ghana is one of the fastest growing economies on the continent, with an 8.7% GDP growth and one of Africa’s largest stock exchanges. Additionally the country boasts a multicultural populace, with a mix of ethnic groups such as the Guan, Akan and Ashanti residing within the borders of the country. The region in which we’ll be operating out of will be in the Brong-Ahafo Region, which is mainly populated by the Akan people who speak the Twi [Ch-wi] language.

Lianne Novak
Lianne Novak

My name is Lianne Novak, and I’m going into my fourth year at Michigan Tech (fall 2018), and am a general mathematics major, looking to complete minors in statistics and Leadership (through the Pavlis Honors College). Outside of academics, I’m involved with the Huskies Pep Band and am a tour guide through the Admission’s Office.  I enjoy watching Huskies volleyball and hockey, snowshoeing (in the winter) and enjoying coffee at Biggby, or Pannakaku at Suomi’s with friends.

 

I’m organizing and planning the Women’s Health project.  It’s centered around teaching girls in some of the communities to make reusable sanipads.  Girls in past years have had to miss school every month, simply because they don’t have access to any sanitary products.  We use materials that the girls can get in country, and will be giving them a kit for the workshop, but they can keep the extra materials (sewing needles, scissors, and possibly extra fabric if I can purchase enough for two pads/ girl).  Also, in the past the girls have learned how handwashing and sanitation is important.  I am going to try and expand this portion of the workshop this year. Thinking about going to graduate school in Biostatistics, I took an introduction to Epidemiology class this spring.  My instructor, Dr. Kelly Kamm in the Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology department here at Tech, did her PhD dissertation on hand washing and the prevention of disease in young children. She talked to us about the importance of hand washing, especially around young kids who are at higher risk for diarrhea and pneumonia.  These are two leading causes of death in children under 5.  Most of the girls I work with in Ghana will be mothers one day, and so it will be important for them to know about what keeping their hands clean can mean for their young children.

Sonja Welch
Sonja Welch

My name is Sonja Welch, and I’m going into my fourth year of Biomedical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. I’m from Baraga, MI, and I love reading, being in the outdoors, spending time with friends, staying active, and watching movies. I’m a member of the Undergraduate Student Advisory Board within the Pavlis Honor’s College, the Vice President of Philanthropy for Delta Zeta, and the Fundraising Officer for Medlife. In addition to that, I also work in the Math Learning Center and the Engineered Biomaterials Lab. This summer, I’m going to be in charge of finding new projects in Ghana for future Pavlis cohorts. I plan to do this by facilitating Design Thinking Workshops, setting up meetings, and interviewing people in country. I will also be checking up on past projects, including the medical van, and working on finding new ways to make these facilities useful for the Ghanaian community.

Charles Fugate
Charles Fugate

Hi, my name is Charles Fugate and I’ll be going into my third year at Michigan Tech this coming Fall. I’m currently majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Anthropology, with a minor in leadership. I enjoy exploring the Keweenaw, playing games with my friends, and listening to podcasts like 99% Invisible and Lore. I currently work as a Student Manager at the Memorial Union Building on campus, and will be a Multi-literacy Center Coach in the Fall. During our trip to Ghana during the summer I will be doing research into the folklore of the Akan people which will hopefully go into a repository that both Ghanaian’s and people on the internet can access, and that future cohorts can add to. I look forward to setting up a project that I can really sink my teeth into, and that allows me to get an in-depth look at the cultural values and tradition of Ghanaians. Additionally, I hope this will open up new avenues for future social science based projects for future cohorts.

Josh Undlin
Josh Undlin

I’m Josh Undlin, a 3rd year Mechanical Engineering Major with minors in Aerospace Engineering and Global Leadership. I’m from Canton, Michigan and plan on working in the aerospace industry after I graduate. When I’m not doing school work, I enjoy hanging out with friends, reading, and spending time in the outdoors. I’m a member of Michigan Tech’s Aerospace Enterprise and work as an Assistant Desk Coordinator at the reception desks on campus. Additionally, I’m a member of Mind Trekkers, an organization that travels around the country in an effort to get kids of all ages interested in careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. I plan on using my Mind Trekkers experience in Ghana with my main project being working with schools in the city of Sunyani and the village of Babianaha to promote STEM education and encourage creativity in the classroom. I’m also leading the team in getting resources for the community center in Babianaha and identifying possible projects at this site for future cohorts.

 

We Earlier this month we spent a weekend at McLain State Park with the Tanzania travel group, as well.  We made some s’mores our second night, spent some time on the beach, and rediscovering our childhood at the playground.  We also had a traditional Ghanaian dinner with our teaching assistant, Edzordzi.  A photo of the four of us with our sparkling juice and dinner is below.  The food is called “Banku ne nkrumakuan.”  It has a tomato based soup with okra.  Edzordzi said that in Ghana the okra would be fresh, but he used blended canned okra in the soup.  He made some salmon filets, and used Semolina to make the “bread like dough” that was representing Banku.  You eat it with your hand (your right or “clean” hand), by pinching off some Banku and then scooping up some soup.

Edzordzi-1

Edzordzi-2

Travelling with the Tanzamaniacs

Hujambo (Hello)! We are the 2018 Global Leadership team that is travelling to Tanzania to work on projects relating to education, water, health, and safety. We will embark on this exciting adventure on July 3rd and will spend three weeks in Boma Ng’ombe followed by two weeks in Moshi, both of which are cities near Mount Kilimanjaro. To give you an idea of how interesting (or uninteresting) we are, here is some general information about us:

 

8dd98740ec5f4ccdb22132e8d6c96d31 (2)

Ian Johnson

idjohnso@mtu.edu

Ian is a third year Materials Science & Engineering student at Michigan Tech. He hails from Bloomington, Indiana, a mid-sized college town in southern Indiana. He has two younger sisters with whom he’s spent countless adventures with and an odd ecclection of pets. Growing up, Ian always had a love for science and the outdoors, which eventually drove him to Michigan Tech to pursue a career in engineering. He is involved in the Materials United professional society as well as the Advanced Metalworks Enterprise in order to further his education. Outside of his studies, Ian enjoys hiking with the Outdoor Venture Crew and participating in recreational college sports such as broomball and soccer.

 

Jennifer (2)

Jennifer McDonald

jrmcdona@mtu.edu

Jennifer just finished her third year as a psychology student at Michigan Tech. She is from Cannon Falls, Minnesota, a small country town that sits in Southeastern Minnesota. She is the youngest of two children, one older brother, and a proud aunt to one nephew. On campus, she participates in two organizations: Huskies Pep Band and Ducks Unlimited, a organization that supports the conservation and restoration of Wetlands in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Off campus, she is involved in Lutheran Collegians Campus Ministry and attends Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church. Jennifer enjoys hiking, broomball, soccer, snowmobiling, skiing, and hunting with her father and brother. When not outside or in school, Jennifer enjoys reading, writing, and playing the piano and trumpet. She is looking forward to the new adventures that are ahead of her with her travels to Tanzania.

 

Andrew

Andrew Miscimarra

ajmiscim@mtu.edu

Andrew just finished his second year as a civil engineering student. He is from Hinsdale, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and he has two younger brothers. On campus, he is involved in Outdoor Venture Crew, Engineers Without Borders, and St. Al’s Catholic Church. For the past two summers, he has enjoyed working as a day-camp counselor to a group of thirty elementary school children. Additionally, he loves hiking, skiing, sledding, and has been a gymnast for 13 years. After graduating, he plans on serving in the U.S. Peace Corps and becoming a water and sanitation specialist. He is very excited to work with his astonishing teammates in Tanzania this summer!

 

Lauren (3)

Lauren Sandy

lasandy@mtu.edu

Lauren just finished her third year studying biomedical engineering. She is from a small town called Somerset, WI and has one younger brother. At Michigan Tech Lauren is involved in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the Michigan Tech Women’s Soccer Club, along with the Pavlis Honors College. She enjoys volunteering, especially doing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) outreach and has been an assistant youth soccer coach for the past few summers. In her free time, Lauren enjoys snowboarding, exploring the outdoors, playing broomball, and traveling. After going to graduate school, Lauren hopes to go into the medical device industry working as an engineer.

 

 

Where We Are Traveling

map 2

thicc map 2

Tanzania is a country on the eastern side of Africa that is famous for Mount Kilimanjaro, which, according to the 1980’s rock band Toto, “rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.” We will actually be working in two towns that are right next to Kilimanjaro, so we will have a great view to share with you all! For the first three weeks, we will be working with three schools in the town, Boma Ng’ombe. Our last two weeks will be spent working with a children’s home and school in the town, Moshi.

 

What We Will Be Doing

In Boma, we will be working with the three schools on various projects relating to education, mental health, and hygiene. We will all be working on each project together, with one team member taking the lead. Lauren and Ian will lead the educational projects, which will include teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) lessons and piloting a math competition program for the students. Jennifer will lead the mental health project, which will include presenting information on testing anxiety, career choices, and the importance of education. Andrew will lead the hygiene project, which will include filtering the water at one of the schools, as well as teaching the children proper hygiene techniques.

 

We are very excited (and a little nervous) about our trip, and we look forward to sharing our adventures with you all on this weekly blog!

Tutaonana Baadaye (See you later)!

The Adventure Concludes

Hello everybody!

We have departed Tanzania after 5 weeks of incredible cultural immersion and sustainable project development. The experience of traveling to a foreign country and working with the people is something that we will never forget.  We learned so much from all of the Tanzanians we met along the way and we hope that you got to learn something from us.

Asante Africa, Tesha, Joe, Mama Mcha, Mama Faraha, Mama Cecilia, thank you for welcoming us into your homes and schools in Boma. We enjoyed the time we spent working, playing and dancing with your students.

Eva and the Foot2Afrika foundation, thank you for hosting us for our time in Moshi, and for providing us the opportunity to work with the administration and youth of Tumona Secondary School and KITAYOSCE. (As a side note, the food at the hostel was amazing!)

We are so tired, and happy to be going back to our families, but at the same time sad to be leaving the places we’ve called home in Africa for the last 5 weeks.

Asante sana, thanks for going on this adventure with us through our blog posts, and we hope you all had great summers (or winters, if you’re in Tanzania!)

Team Tanzania, signing off

On the Rocks
On the rocks
Waterfall
Waterfall
Climbing Kili
Climbing Kili
Footbal!!!
Football!!!

Elephants!

A pride of 15 lions
A pride of 15 lions
Baby Hippo with Mama
Baby hippo with Mama
Mt. Kilimanjaro
Mt. Kilimanjaro
Class 6 after science, and talking about the US
Primary school Class 6 after science and talking about the US