It's hard to believe that our thirty-five day experience in Tanzania has come to an end. Where we were once counting the days we'd been in country, we now count the days until we return home and to when we being the Fall 2016 semester. It seems to have all gone so quickly. There were struggles along the way, that goes without saying. We had times where we didn't talk to each other about the important things and confusion ensued. We had times when emergencies arose and people stepped up. We had times where simply organizing a ride for the day seemed to be the most challenging task we'd ever faced. Conversations with locals that, to us, only seemed to need to last five minutes would sometimes last into ranges of hours. Objectives for the day sometimes seemed impossible to communicate to the people we were working with. Yet, we managed to work with these people regardless. We managed to adjust our plans and accomplish our redefined goals.
We originally came into this experience thinking that we would work on a variety of projects in the areas of ICT, water, solar, education, and health. We ended up spending the majority of our time teaching ICT lessons, not something we'd planned on doing at all. I guess you learn to make yourself useful wherever a need is identified. You learn quickly in Tanzania that you can't plan things ahead of time no matter how hard you try, and that there's always a chance things will change last minute. We carried on hopes of future projects in all of those broad original categories by collecting as much information and contacts as possible so that we could present this to next year's team. We want to give them as much useful information as possible, presenting them with everything we documented. With the help of a few people, we came up with some new and exciting ideas for next year's team to investigate.
We'll miss all the wonderful people we worked with ever so much. We thank those that supported us and helped us in accomplishing our goals while in country, especially the Michigan Technological University Pavlis Institute, the Foot2Afrika Foundation, and the Asante Africa Foundation. We thank the staff and students that we worked with at Mwalimu Anna's English Medium Pre and Primary School and Rift Valley Secondary School as well as the students that were always so enthusiastic for our lessons. Those students made our days pass quickly while there. Their smiles motivated us to keep going, keep planning, and keep working. Without their enthusiasm we wouldn't have been as successful as we were.
Throughout our whole experience in Tanzania, we fell in love with the people we interacted with. Each of them is so unique and offered us completely different stories and life lessons. The people are determined to improve their lives and are willing to work hard to make it happen. This inspired us and is sure to inspire future groups. We were moved by the people, the experience, and the individual lessons we each took away from this journey. This international experience has meant something different to each of us and has changed each of us in a profound way. Looking back on it all a week after leaving Tanzania, I'm sure it isn't something any of us will forget anytime soon. As the Tanzanians told us, "Remember where you came from."
Thank you for reading about our journey, the trials we faced along the way, and the lessons we learned through our experiences. We are forever grateful to have had this opportunity.
Posted by: Corinn Gehrke
We originally came into this experience thinking that we would work on a variety of projects in the areas of ICT, water, solar, education, and health. We ended up spending the majority of our time teaching ICT lessons, not something we'd planned on doing at all. I guess you learn to make yourself useful wherever a need is identified. You learn quickly in Tanzania that you can't plan things ahead of time no matter how hard you try, and that there's always a chance things will change last minute. We carried on hopes of future projects in all of those broad original categories by collecting as much information and contacts as possible so that we could present this to next year's team. We want to give them as much useful information as possible, presenting them with everything we documented. With the help of a few people, we came up with some new and exciting ideas for next year's team to investigate.
We'll miss all the wonderful people we worked with ever so much. We thank those that supported us and helped us in accomplishing our goals while in country, especially the Michigan Technological University Pavlis Institute, the Foot2Afrika Foundation, and the Asante Africa Foundation. We thank the staff and students that we worked with at Mwalimu Anna's English Medium Pre and Primary School and Rift Valley Secondary School as well as the students that were always so enthusiastic for our lessons. Those students made our days pass quickly while there. Their smiles motivated us to keep going, keep planning, and keep working. Without their enthusiasm we wouldn't have been as successful as we were.
Throughout our whole experience in Tanzania, we fell in love with the people we interacted with. Each of them is so unique and offered us completely different stories and life lessons. The people are determined to improve their lives and are willing to work hard to make it happen. This inspired us and is sure to inspire future groups. We were moved by the people, the experience, and the individual lessons we each took away from this journey. This international experience has meant something different to each of us and has changed each of us in a profound way. Looking back on it all a week after leaving Tanzania, I'm sure it isn't something any of us will forget anytime soon. As the Tanzanians told us, "Remember where you came from."
Thank you for reading about our journey, the trials we faced along the way, and the lessons we learned through our experiences. We are forever grateful to have had this opportunity.
Posted by: Corinn Gehrke