Harvey Scholar Travels - Kellen in Tanzania Again

Kellen in Tanzania Again: I Bless the Rains part 2

So I can’t say I expected to go back to Tanzania with Village Schools so soon. I was actually planning on going to Thailand to do an ethnography on rural vs city development, but I am so glad things fell into place to return to Tanzania! Once again, on my way to Tanzania I had a forced 24 hour layover, this time in Abu Dhabi instead of Zurich. This is why one of the heads of Village Schools thinks I am one of the luckiest travelers.

As I mentioned last time, Tanzanians are some of the nicest people on the planet. On the 12 hour bus ride from Dar Es Salaam to the village of Mafinga, I had no food or Tanzanian money with me. A very nice lady sitting next to me on the bus bought food and shared it with me mid-way through the bus ride, even though she didn’t know a word of English. (Thank goodness I still remembered how to say thank you in Swahili).  

This second time at the college was even better than the first. The students recognized us as soon as we arrived and were very excited to see us. We lived in dorm rooms with three of our students each, and they had electricity as of one year ago! That really energized their day to day school activities and made it more computer focused than last time.

While the group of Mines students and I were there we taught Drafting, AutoCAD, science, and computer skills. We also worked on setting up a 3D printer, offline pdf library (that was a doozy), hand washing station, a sand+UV filter, surveying for a water distribution system, and setting up a design lab. We did a lot of stuff, but more importantly taught the students how to use those skills so that they wouldn’t need our help in the future. 

I am very thankful to have gotten the opportunity to go back to Tanzania so soon and see so many familiar faces. If I learned anything from this trip, it is that home is where the heart is, and your heart is where your friends and family are. Instead of attempt to tell stories with words, I’ll attempt to do so with pictures.