Menlo Abroad- Tanzania 2024

What’s up, blog?????! Today, we split into two groups to visit NGOs. One group visited Food For His Children, a nonprofit dedicated to educating poor Tanzanians about agriculture and lifestyle and help them become more self-sufficient. We visited two of their locations and had the opportunity to make bricks, feed/care for goats, learn about water conservation, plant herbs, and make cement. Additionally, we learned how their organization works; they visit poor families and observe their living situations. If the families are in need, they can partake in the organization through a sixteen-point system. This system teaches the families sixteen essential tasks to improve their daily lives (i.e. how to make/use a clothing line, how to care for goats), and if they show commitment, the organization will provide them with additional support. The other group visited the Hidden Hope NGO run by James. James started this nonprofit in order for disabled people to obtain jobs as they tend to traditi...

Today, with our homestay partners, we went on safari!  We visited the Leakey Living Museum, where we learned about archeologists Mary and Louis, who researched about the first humans in Tanzania. We saw the Leakey’s living quarters and got an idea of how they were able to live and research in the Serengheti in Tanzania. They had a water tank, a windmill for energy, a place where they stored their findings, a kitchen, rooms, and more. Next we visited the Olduvai Gorge Museum. There we learned about the fossilized findings, dating back to Lucy, 3.5 million years ago. The Gorge also had fossil remains of later human ancestors: Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, and Homo sapiens, all within a small area of the Gorge. The museum and our guide explained the evolution of humans and how Homo Erectus and early Homo Sapiens lived. The view was very beautiful as we saw the dried version of two rivers that connect and reach the Red Sea. We also celebrated Audrey’s birthday at the Gorge, where she ope...

The main focus of today was installing solar powered lights around the school. We started off by splitting Menlo and Banjika for a brief check-in at 8:00, followed by morning tea and Tanzanian snacks. Afterwards we mixed up and split into three groups: to plan how we would hang the solar lights around the school. Each group worked through communication barriers to design and present a plan to a group of teachers and students whom gave feedback such as: recommending the use of poles and ladders. Then we took a brief lunch break, while Wilson and Tim went to go get the materials we needed at the market. Following lunch we started work on the project, and continued working in our groups until completion around 4 o’clock. Each of our groups was assigned an area to work through to most efficiently light, for example around a water tank, on a street, and a dock for portable lamps. We had to work to balance some engineering troubles such as the need to protect the solar panels from the rain a...

Today we met at the school at a later time, 8:00 a.m. We had our daily check in with Mr. Mitchell and Sareena. Afterwards, we had a snack break our Tanzanian homestay students. The snacks consisted of some delicious beef samosas, banana bread, and doughnut holes. After having time to socialize and build deeper connections with the Tanzanian students we dived right into our next activity. We were split up into six groups that were a mix of Menlo and Tanzanian students. The activity was to explore six different stations, each station having an important part of Tanzanian culture and society. There was a dancing and singing station, a brick building station, a chapati making station, a tree planting station, and a vegetable prepping station. Lastly and most interestingly there was a chicken station. We chased down and captured a chicken. We  killed the chicken afterwards(This station was optional and some faced the challenge). After each group finished we all had lunch together. Lunch...