I just got back from the inaugural journey of our teen service trips to Tanzania, Africa. It was an amazing experience. Here are some highlights:
The Camp: after driving for over 4 hours on dirt roads through what seemed like the middle of nowhere, we arrived at a patch of land that
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would be our campsite for the next few days. It turned out to be more comfortable than I expected. The tents were high quality, clean and the staff created private “bathroom” and “shower” tents.
Community Service: Our community service project was working at the local school, which was about 20 minutes away through the bush. Since school was on break, we were joined by members of the community to help paint 4 classrooms. The classrooms were in pretty bad shape, so it took us 4 days to get them looking like new. Most students thought that the best part of the service project was playing with the little kids who came by the school “to see the white people”.
Cultural Immersion: For me, the most interesting aspect was learning more about Masai culture. Although they are often photographed by travelers, most people do not stop and try to really learn about their rich cultural heritage. We had an amazing local Masai Program Director who helped us reflect on what we were observing and helped us understand things that did not make sense at first glance.
The girls on the program bonded with the women who taught them how to do beadwork. The Masai beadwork is so intricate and beautiful. I would have liked to learn it, but according to Masai tradition, only woman do beadwork. So, I joined the boys who were learning how to throw spears. None of us could properly throw a Masai spear – we ended up being entertainment for the local Masai warriors.
Overall, it was an amazing experience and I’m excited to be able to continue working with the school board in the village where we worked.
More photos can be found here.
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