We arrived in Tanzania via airplane and immediately after touching down we met our in country contact named Mohammed. He arrived with a bus and took the entire group with all of our luggage to the hotel where we stayed for the next two days. We took these two days to prepare ourselves for the upcoming teaching experience as well as enjoy each others’ company for just a little bit longer. When Saturday came our host families arrived at our hotel where we had lunch and then left individually for our new homes. My first night with my home stay family went well. The next day was a Sunday which was completely free for us so we took advantage and went into town to pick up a few essentials that had been previously overlooked, toilet paper being the most important. Then Monday came and it was time to go to school. On the first day every Global Routes intern had an appointment to meet with the head master of their school. My meeting went well as we were given a very thorough tour of the school and then assigned subjects to teach. For the second half of Monday and all of Tuesday we observed the classes we would soon be taking over for the next five weeks. When Wednesday came it was time to teach our first classes and we all had mixed results but I personally was able to draw up an extensive lesson plan and execute it fairly well. Thursday’s lesson didn’t go quite as smoothly, but all in all I was happy with my results. No Global Routes Interns had school friday because there was a Muslim holiday. Most of us took this time to go into the city and enjoy a nice meal at an Italian restaurant that has become a favorite for all of us. It is here that the entire group, minus two, met by accident. Today we will be returning to Arusha to meet at our leader’s apartment. We are all excited to be reunited and share our experiences of the past week. We are also taking this time to celebrate Emily’s birthday, Halloween, and Thanksgiving because there are no other opportunities to celebrate the events in our very busy schedule.
Submitted by Ian Weishar
