Greetings from Tanzania!
All is well in Il’Kidinga, and the students are preparing to leave for safari in two days. The classroom is nearly finished, complete with roof, floor, chalkboards and plastered walls. Tomorrow we will have our farewell ceremony at the school, which re-opened to over 1,000 students this morning. Needless to say, it was quite a distracting work day!
We had a fabulous weekend at a community center outside Magi ya Chai. After arriving in the morning, we commenced with an ngoma workshop (dancing, singing and drumming) and learned a traditional song and dance that is performed after a successful hunt. Everyone got their chance to “shake it” and we later performed the dance in front of an audience from the surrounding community.
By far, the highlight of the weekend was meeting and getting to know the founders of the community center, former members of the Black Panther Party who have been living in Tanzania for 40 years. They have dedicated their lives and opened up their home to service; they recently started an orphanage that now houses eighteen children from the surrounding villages who are bundles of joy and energy. We had a great discussion one night after watching the documentary “A Panther in Africa,” and the students asked incredibly articulate and thoughtful questions and got a real history lesson. They were even schooled in a little jazz history and Charlie “Bird” Parker’s sax music.
Sunday morning we hiked to the snake farm, home to many reptiles, including spitting cobras and green mambas (behind glass of course!), tortoises, crocodiles and chameleons. In the afternoon, we met with a group of Tanzanian youth for a forum on current issues facing Tanzania, the US and the world.
Hope all’s well in your part of the world. We’ll write again when we’re back from the porini (bush).
Cheers,
Francesca & Barrett
