Swahili time - Moshi
Swahili time - oh yes, they have their own way of telling the time. The day officially starts at 7am - which is 1am for them (saa moja asubuhi).It continues on until 7pm - the start of the evening/night for them, thus called 1pm Swahili time. It is amazing and hilarious when I was told they start classes at 2am - i was like What??? - then I saw their clocks!
Swahili music is blasting along the streets, so much drum beats, so much happiness.. Everwhere we go, people stare but still greet us with a warm Jambo! Life here is so basic but yet happy and fulfilling. People are laidback, they go at a pace slow enough to sit back chill and enjoy life. You can hear people saying 'Be free, my friend.' everywhere.
We took the daladalas (mini vans) to Moshi town, right next to our village of Bomang'ombe. As usual, we were squashed in the tiny van n just enjoyed having lil chats or just smiling to local pple. It is always an experience for us. Staring out at the green fields, at the proud-standing Mt. Kilimanjaro, locals walking the streets in their colourful tanzanian suits and cows and goats moving freely, amidst the cars and people.
It's been absolutely amazing. We were brought to the school to take a look and see how we could help. The teachers and chairman gave us such a warm welcome. Africans are just friendly and sincere by nature. One of the teachers, Naomi has been so helpful, talking to me about the school, about tanzanian customs, and even invited us to visit her house someday.
The school's state was beyong description. It basically consisted of 2 basic classrooms, made of bricks cemented together, built on earth and fortunately, chairs and tables for the children. The Education office did not have enough funds to complete the construction, so the kids are left to study in the open. Toilets were basic hole-in-the-ground, with no doors or flush. BUT The students were the happiest children I've ever seen. Having classes with them made me realise how eager they were to learn, how happy they were to be meeting foreigners like us and how much they appreciated everything.
Alberto and I decided to do as much as we could during this short period we will be there for. We bought the window grills, glass for the windows, wood for the doors, cement, and Alberto has been working hard since to help do up the school. I've been teaching English classes to the kids, and most of them have a pretty good knowledge of the language. I am pleasantly surprised to see how good the curriculum and the teachers are, and how well they are learning the language. They definitely know the importance of the language and are working hard to progress. In comparison, Spanish kids dislike learning English, dont see the importance of it and thus have a much lower level. I saw that the kids were really learning, and the teachers were great - but they barely had enough pencils to go around, and not a single textbook for them. So we decided to buy some textbooks, and stationery for them to improve their classes - they were jumping with joy.
Yesterday, Naomi brought us to the market, and it was incredible - the colours, the sights and the sounds- so many peole selling all sorts of things - colourful fruits, beautiful batik dresses, you could find anything in the sprawling market.
I wanted to take some pics of the Maasai tribal people - with big colourful self-made accessories, typical red-blue clothing - made-famous by movies. But they wanted money for any picture taken, not just coins, but notes - the smallest note in Tanzanian currency is 1,000 Tsh (Tanzanian shillings)! We were told later that they believe that anyone who wants a picture of them, wants to sell them abroad since they've seen many pictures and postcards of themselves and know that others are making money outta them.
It's been only 2 days in school, but I've fallen in love with the children. I play with them during the breaks, we bought football and played all day with them, I try talking to them with basic words and just getting to know them. I love it here, and this feeling's like nothing I've ever felt before. Everything back to basic.
Swahili music is blasting along the streets, so much drum beats, so much happiness.. Everwhere we go, people stare but still greet us with a warm Jambo! Life here is so basic but yet happy and fulfilling. People are laidback, they go at a pace slow enough to sit back chill and enjoy life. You can hear people saying 'Be free, my friend.' everywhere.
We took the daladalas (mini vans) to Moshi town, right next to our village of Bomang'ombe. As usual, we were squashed in the tiny van n just enjoyed having lil chats or just smiling to local pple. It is always an experience for us. Staring out at the green fields, at the proud-standing Mt. Kilimanjaro, locals walking the streets in their colourful tanzanian suits and cows and goats moving freely, amidst the cars and people.
It's been absolutely amazing. We were brought to the school to take a look and see how we could help. The teachers and chairman gave us such a warm welcome. Africans are just friendly and sincere by nature. One of the teachers, Naomi has been so helpful, talking to me about the school, about tanzanian customs, and even invited us to visit her house someday.
The school's state was beyong description. It basically consisted of 2 basic classrooms, made of bricks cemented together, built on earth and fortunately, chairs and tables for the children. The Education office did not have enough funds to complete the construction, so the kids are left to study in the open. Toilets were basic hole-in-the-ground, with no doors or flush. BUT The students were the happiest children I've ever seen. Having classes with them made me realise how eager they were to learn, how happy they were to be meeting foreigners like us and how much they appreciated everything.
Alberto and I decided to do as much as we could during this short period we will be there for. We bought the window grills, glass for the windows, wood for the doors, cement, and Alberto has been working hard since to help do up the school. I've been teaching English classes to the kids, and most of them have a pretty good knowledge of the language. I am pleasantly surprised to see how good the curriculum and the teachers are, and how well they are learning the language. They definitely know the importance of the language and are working hard to progress. In comparison, Spanish kids dislike learning English, dont see the importance of it and thus have a much lower level. I saw that the kids were really learning, and the teachers were great - but they barely had enough pencils to go around, and not a single textbook for them. So we decided to buy some textbooks, and stationery for them to improve their classes - they were jumping with joy.
Yesterday, Naomi brought us to the market, and it was incredible - the colours, the sights and the sounds- so many peole selling all sorts of things - colourful fruits, beautiful batik dresses, you could find anything in the sprawling market.
I wanted to take some pics of the Maasai tribal people - with big colourful self-made accessories, typical red-blue clothing - made-famous by movies. But they wanted money for any picture taken, not just coins, but notes - the smallest note in Tanzanian currency is 1,000 Tsh (Tanzanian shillings)! We were told later that they believe that anyone who wants a picture of them, wants to sell them abroad since they've seen many pictures and postcards of themselves and know that others are making money outta them.
It's been only 2 days in school, but I've fallen in love with the children. I play with them during the breaks, we bought football and played all day with them, I try talking to them with basic words and just getting to know them. I love it here, and this feeling's like nothing I've ever felt before. Everything back to basic.
posted by Nell at 10:24 AM
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