Student impressions of Umoja

Daria: It was so nice to see what we achieved. I'm working on my booty shake. It was an amazing experience. I loved it!

Jessica:  It was amazing. I wanted to go to the school; it was a highlight of the trip.

Peter: The kids faces, they were so happy to see us. You don't know until you see it.

Will: I was so honoured with the meal and the tshirts. It was a great experience. They really liked my leg hair. I loved how we all split off and made our own friends with the students.

Garrett: I'm blown away by all Africa. I didn't know what to expect. You wave at kids, they wave back. It was a very emotional experience.

Tyler: I felt really welcomed and at home.

Lindsay: The people here are a lot happier than people in North America and they have so much less.

Lovejot: It was nice to see how happy the people are.

Kyle: It was crazy how welcoming they are. I knew they'd be fascinated , but it was crazy to see. And they loved our technology - cameras and such. It reminded us that they don't have that stuff.

Karly: This has been life changing and emotional. They surrounded us with flowers; it was so emotional.

Hailey: Really good learning experience. They were teaching us words, dancing, clapping.

Bryce: Crazy how welcoming they are - the show.  They have so little and offered us so much.

Christina: Mrs. Athayde told us about the hair touching etc. - it didn't prepare us, it was an amazing experience - the children braiding our hair.

Melissa: It's overwhelming. Sad. Happy. Cool.

Mrs. P: I loved the universal language of play. Students all connected without language language. Each of our students were working with the Umoja students. I learned what the school still needs - classrooms, teacher housing.

Ms. Michaleski: I'm so appreciative and thankful, they don't realize what they've done for us, what a wonderful experience today was.  We will hold this in our hearts for a long time.

Mr. Shute: The adults were having as much fun as the kids. The Tanzanian teachers were all playing volleyball. Watching the kids with our cameras - they learned how to use the cameras, which buttons to press. And they were very careful with them.

Ms. Salamon: Laughing. Playing. Skipping. Jumping. Tag. Holding hands. Little fingers running through your hair. Amazing day. Really hard to say goodbye. Lots of hugs and tears.

Ms. Athayde: The whole experience defies words. Everyone from two very different cultures had so much pleasure simply connecting with each other. The memory of this very special day will remain with all of us for a very long time. Jean from CPAR :  this is the most interaction between visitors and students I've ever seen.

Visit to Umoja School

What a difference a full night's sleep in a real bed can make! We awoke marvelously refreshed and ready for the next adventure. After a satisfying breakfas, which included coffee for Ms. Salamon (which made everybody happier), we set off for Umoja School with a bag full of sports equipment and school supplies.

We got a taste of the massage benefits of rural African roads as we headed further off the main highway and down the muddy, heavily rutted roads. Umoja school is charmingly situated between the Ngorongoro Forest and Lake Manyara - picturesque despite the occassional marauding elephant.

"Our" water tanks are completely constructed and curing and construction is proceeding at a furious pace on the girls' latrines. We were treated to a spectacle of song, dance, poetry, and a hilarious skit about the perils of drinking "pipe water" - the unsanitized water from the bore hole that leads to trips to the doctor or frantic runs to the toilet, all acted out so capably that it transended language barriers.
We symbolically  helped prepare a vegetable gardenand then shared in the school lunch - a special treat of beans and rice eaten African style (fingers only).

Finally we got to drag out the bag of sports equipment and spent the rest of the day playing with the children - volleyball, skipping, frisbee, soccer (some GREAT girls-only games), and the biggest hit - the parachute. The Tanzanian chidren quickly warmed up to us and were soon touching  our hands, our hair, and our cameras (one found the "delete" button on mine and managed to delete every single picture from the past two days - here's hoping card recovery software is as good as it professes to be).

Some impressions of the day are in the next post...

Written by - K. Athayde

We've Arrived!

Nairobi - Kilimanjaro - Karatu  May 13

A mere missed connection in London with a darn good wrist slapping from Kenya Airlines. A nice introduction to the squat and pee toilet system in the Nairobi airport.  Exchanging money and learning the rate largely depends on the mood of the  teller. A precarious four hour jeep ride with majestic giraffes and some angry baboons. A jeep ride many of us slept through thanks to some serious jet lag. But, alas we arrived at our destination two and a half days later - Karatu, Tanzania! And only one piece of luggage went missing! More importantly, we still had all the kids and teachers in tow!  Journey successful.

Even though we were a bunch of zombies, we were greeted warmly by the CPAR staff and the staff of the hostel where we are staying. We participated in an orientation at the CPAR office where we continued to battle consciousness--although we perked up when we were given the wifi password and everyone could let their families know we arrived safe and sound. Or at least that's what the students said they were doing...but they may have been updating their facebook statuses.

Although tired, many of us were still ravenous after trying to adjust to the 8 hour time change and we were well fed at the hostel.  Pork anyone?
Have you ever heard of a bunch of teenagers willingly going to bed before 9 pm?  Throw them on a plane for two days and anything is possible. We woke up feeling refreshed and fantastic and ready to take on Tanzania.

Written by - D. Salamon

En Route - Toronto - London - Nairobi

Sunday May 12, 2013

Our flight to London was uneventful and gave us our first taste of a very long leg. Six hours of sitting with your eyes tightly closed pretending you were sleeping while your head lolls around uncomfortably. Landing was a bit bumpy and left a few feeling  a little queasy. We disembarked and snaked our way through Heathrow to meet our guide, Tom, for our London tour. Although it was 11 am London time, our bodies and minds were telling us it was 5 am Winnipeg time. London was lush, green, and sunny to start off. The bus was a tad too comfortable and many of us were nodding off and missing highlights like the Tower Bridge. We then got out to walk around Westminster Abbey (and Big Ben), which perked us up a bit. A further stroll around Buckingham Palace invigorated our flagging energy. Unfortunately, the Queen was not in residence so didn't have us in for a cuppa. We did, however, find some of the palace guards with the big fur hats who obligingly ignored us so we could take the requisite shmaltzy tourist pics. A final stop at "The Old Star," a traditional British pub wrapped up our tour. Food was excellent, whether you opted for the fish 'n chips or something less traditional.
The expected half-hour ride back to the airport soon turned into a 2-hour battle through traffic that seemed to obey no rules of any road. Our Dutch bus driver kept droitly maneuvering through detour after detour, to little avail. He valiantly drove over curbs and had a number of hair-raising near missed with side mirrors, but we still arrived at the airport with very little time. Our flight was already boarding so we ran to get or boarding passes (at the far end of the terminal) and then all the way back to go through security. Unfortunately, a couple of students got caught up in a having their bags inspected. For a short time, we had most of the students and 1 teacher on the plane, and were not certain that the others were going to make it. Big sigh of relief as the rest of our group came bursting through the door seconds before they slammed it closed. The adrenaline rush from the mad dash quickly left us and we mostly managed to grab some sleep on the eight hour flight to Nairobi.
Now we just have to see if our bags made it as well.

Written by - K. Athayde

Ready for Adventure!

After more than a year of preparation, our group is finally about to embark on our journey. The bags are packed (almost), arrangements made, and months of planning at end.  With the help of our entire school and community, we have raised money to provide clean drinking water to students at Umoja primary school in Tanzania. Fourteen students and five teachers leave tomorrow on what will surely be an experience of a lifetime. We will visit the school and learn about life in a very different part of the world.  Here is a sampling of thoughts before we go:

Lindsay: "I'm going on a school trip that will actually make a difference in the world."
Will: "I'm most looking forward to meeting the school children in Tanzania."
Jessica: " I've always wanted to go to Africa. It's been a dream of mine since I was young. I want to help the economy and provide something for children there."
Tyler: "I joined the project to help fundraise for the water tanks and for the amazing opportunity."
Kyle: "I've already gained confidence and enjoyed the team building. I wanted to get involved and help people."
Garrett: "I joined for the experience. I'm expecting to gain so much from the trip and become a better person."
Bryce: "I'm looking forward to seeing a different culture. I'm excited about being able to help out."
Daria: " I want to make a difference in the world. The best thing so far has been working together to create smething great!"
Hailey: "I've already made new friends  and I think this will be an amazing experience and an awesome opportunity to give back to others."
Karly: "This will be a once in a lifetime experience. I'm really looking forward to our safari!"