Evergreen Rotary

More Updates from Tanzania: Weeks Ten and Eleven

Many Evergreen Rotarians sponsor the entire tuition for girls at the Maasai Girls School in Tanzania.  Ashley Shuyler is a Genesee native who is taking a semester off from Harvard, with her friend Liz, to teach at the school.  She is a very remarkable girl who started a non-profit organization before entering high school (she founded Africaid when she was 12). Her web site, www.africaid.com, is nothing short of amazing.

Takwenya! (Good morning! In Kimaasai)

Our travels to Dar es Salaam and Iringa this past week revealed parts of Tanzania that I had never before seen: palm-tree dotted countryside, sisal farms stretching as far as the eye can see, and high rises and traffic lights in the bustling city of Dar. The trip was quite eye-opening and productive for AfricAid, but as I arrived back on campus, I felt overwhelmingly grateful to be back with my students, a sentiment that felt appropriate given the upcoming holiday. So in keeping with the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to share a few of the reasons that I’m grateful to be here among these young Maasai girls.

Although it may sound trite to say, I constantly feel that I am learning more from my students than I am teaching them myself. Their generosity towards Liz and me is at times overwhelming, and the way that they care for and look out for one another is humbling: Mariam, one of our students who struggles with English, is helped (unbeknownst to us until recently) by Theresia at night in the dormitories after “lights out” time; likewise, all of the students call each other their “sisters,” and when the Form II students left this past week for the holidays, all of our pre-Form students cried at their departure. We recently asked our students to write letters to each other, and after having the chance to read them, this incredible sense of community was made even more apparent to me. In one letter, one of the students says, “How are you? If you are okay it is my happiness.” In a second letter, another student writes, “I love my friend because we are the same people I love you very very nice” (meaning to say “very very much”).

It is when they turn this same generosity of spirit towards Liz and me that I feel overwhelmed by love and gratefulness for my students. Last night, Liz had to stay the night in Arusha; when our students found out that I was sleeping alone in our hut, they became concerned, saying, “Teacher! You will be scared!” By the end of the evening I had four offers to share a bunk with the girls in the dormitory.

Similarly, when I stepped on a thornbush on a recent hike, the students all cooed (”oohee!”, “pole!” (sorry!), “tsch! tsch!”), exclaiming their concern, and despite my insistence that I was okay, they proceeded to take off my sandal and help me pluck the thorns one by one out of my foot. It amazes me that, although I am the one who is supposedly here to take care of them, these girls continue to find ways to take care of me. How could they not be what I am grateful for this Thanksgiving?

I don’t mean to come across as idealizing these girls; they are, of course, normal kids who get in arguments, sometimes talk too loudly during class, and look forward to the end of the school day. But they seem to have a sense of responsibility and graciousness that is rare in kids their age from the States. For instance, when I asked some of them last night during study hall what they were thankful for, they all gave one of two answers: “I am thankful to be able to go to
school” and “I am thankful to have teachers.”

Happy Thanksgiving,
Ashley