Thursday update

Hey everyone,

Today was our second workday, and we made major progress on putting up the brick walls! Well… let's be honest, the fundi (workers) did most of the work, considering they had to constantly follow us around and make up for our amateur masonry. After a short break of tea, bread, and cookies, a District Education Officer, Mr. Mnyenyerwa (…say that five times fast), talked to us about the political side of education in Tanzania. At the end of his visit, he told us that he had been working on a name for Ensworth and Banjika combined….wait for it…… EnsBa. J

While he was with us, the Banjika students were given an opportunity to voice their opinions on how their school lives could be improved. We split into smaller groups, and had a lot of good discussions—harkness style. After a wonderful lunch made by our cooks, Betha and Leopold (Chuy), everyone went outside for a fast-paced name game and the girls laughed continuously. After all of the laughs, we headed back to work. Some of the Banjika girls decided to strut their stuff and model-walk in one of the classrooms, inviting each of the Ensworth students to come join. Alexandra even taught them some classic dance moves, like the "Charleston," and then went more modern and did the "Cupid Shuffle." After work, our Banjika friends took us into a classroom and taught us some Swahili to use in our homestays! We then went back to our campsite, with our friends, and danced with the elders of the Iraq tribe and it was unbelievably exhausting. And amazing. These elders were jumping up and down nonstop for at least an hour! How is that possible? We all got tired after only about five minutes. We then walked our friends to the street, where they all headed in their different directions home. After some wonderful, refreshing showers, we sat down to dinner, talked about our day, and are now off to our tents to collapse. Goodnight—we love you all J

 

~Madison and Ashley (Leaders of the Day)