Howdy.

Hunter Renken: Day 6

Day 6 of the Ensworth Tanzania trip was homestay day. The day started off with all of the Banjika students meeting us by the entrance of our camp and us going our separate ways to the houses of the students. The houses of the students varied from basic square brick houses to nicer and painted houses with marble floors. William and I stayed with Moses whose house was one of the nicer houses in the community. The house was painted a light gray with two different wings, marble floors, toilets in the house, and a TV. William and I had the opportunity to walk through the Rift Valley and see a wide arrange of plants and also a pretty good view of the mountains. We were also able to watch Tanzanian TV, listen to Tanzanian music, and also watch some world cup soccer. Also the food that William and I ate while staying at Moses’s house, in my opinion, was really good. We ate rice with some sort of this beef pot roast, fried bananas for breakfast, and we also got to cut down and eat sugar cane. After coming back to camp and talking with the rest of the group, I got to hear some very interesting stories about what everyone else got to experience at their homestay. Some people got the opportunity to watch the mother of the homestay cut the head of a chicken off, pluck all of the feathers, and butcher the meat. Some people got to attend Tanzanian church. At the church that William and I went to it was comparable to a gospel church with a lot of singing and dancing. It was cool to see everyone get so into the prayers and the songs. Multiple times during the service people broke down into tears and were screaming, “glory to God!” or, “Thank you God, thank you!” Overall my homestay experience was great and was a fantastic opportunity to be immersed in the Tanzanian culture.

Kelson Gray: Day 8

On Day 8, instead of going straight to Banjika, we first went to a private school called Tumaini roughly 10 to 15 minutes away by car. While I was there, I made a lot of observations about what was different and similar at the two schools, and it made me appreciate what I have because something that was considered a very nice school was not as nice as Ensworth. After our trip to the school we went to Banjika and all worked hard on making enough bricks to create a designated goal. In the afternoon, we had a great group discussion about the purpose of education and what makes a school successful. It has been great watching these schools interact with one another and how their culture works differently from ours. But a surprise that night was getting to get to go watch the French and Nigerian soccer game at a local restaurant. It was another unique, fun and interesting day in Africa.