A trip to town

The lives of students at the centre are quite sheltered and the hours of each day are fully occupied with all they have to do - lessons in their trade, lessons in maths and swahili by teachers from the local school and organised sport and exercises.  There are also lessons in health from the Medical Officer at the local dispensary clinic. The students also share responsibility for all the communal cooking and cleaning as well as their own personal washing.  They really don’t get out much!  So the excursion program is an important way of broadening their horizons. 

Day to day life - masonry students making blocks

Most of our students come from remote villages and so a trip into Arusha town is quite a novelty. Just like our Hamilton students on a trip to Melbourne, their eyes are out on stalks. 

Yesterday we went all went into central Arusha,  The 41 students and 4 of the staff were squashed into 2 daladalas (minibuses).  Two more teachers travelled in the land cruiser pickup with the wheelchairs in the back.

Some of our tailoring students

The aim of the day was to show students the sort of shops where they might buy the materials and equipment they would need for their small business.  When we arrived in town we divided into the different streams and each group went with their teacher to see shops for masons, carpenters, agrivets or tailors.  I went with the tailors to see sewing machine spare parts shops, notions shops and fabric shops. The tailoring group includes four students in wheelchairs (baiskeli in swahili), four using crutches and another 10 with mobility issues.  So getting around town with uneven footpaths and roadways and anarchic traffic around midday when a large slice of the business community were heading off to pray was somewhat problematic!  But, as always, optimism and perseverance triumphed and we managed it!  The students now have a better understanding of the business world that are training to enter.

And who was last back on the bus ( and almost got left behind ) ?  The Agrivet students of course!    

A  highlight for the students was having lunch at a cafe - roast meat with rice and a soda!  A meal they didn’t need to prepare and clean up after, plus soda - a rare treat! 

Having lunch in the cafe

An additional highlight for me was meeting Brian at Arusha’s central market. I had stopped short when I saw the Essendon Bombers t-shirt that he was wearing with pride - he clearly didn’t know about the season they’d just had.  In fact he didn’t know what an Essendon Bomber was.  He now knows they are a football team in Melbourne Australia (probably thinks soccer as Aussie Rules seemed like information overload under the circumstances) but not how poorly they played this year.  He was very happy to have his picture taken.

Brian, the happiest Bombers supporter in Tz!

More soon, love Jenny