Another Amazing Day

Hamjambo! (Hello everyone!)

It’s your girls Sophia Longinidis and Sophie Michel (aka Long and Mitch). Today we had another amazing day at Banjika School. 

We were woken up by the sounds of chickens squawking, birds chirping, cows mooing, and mamas cooking. We started the day off with a nice walk through agricultural fields---where corn, onions, pumpkin, and spinach are grown---on the way to school. When we arrived at school, we were greeted with a warm breakfast: pancakes, potatoes, beans, tea, and coffee. After, we had some free time where we played Slap Jack, B.S., Uno, and made friendship bracelets. Let’s just say a couple fingernails were broken during an aggressive ‘Slap Jack’ round. Then we completed an activity on the seventeen ‘Sustainable Development Goals’, where we ranked the importance of each goal in small groups. We then created our own goal for the future of the planet, as well as decided where individual happiness stood among other developmental goals. We took another break (life at school moves slowly, with lots of breaks and snacks!), and made our way to a class on Ethics and History in Tanzania. In Banjika school, all classes are taught in English except for the Kiswahili class, and it was very interesting. We learned about the history of tribes, their different languages and cultures, and compared them to Native American tribes in the United States. At lunch, we celebrated Adrian’s birthday with a surprise cake and song (Note: Adrian wanted to thank his parents for making this happen and express his gratitude). After lunch, we participated in a Mchaka Mchaka---similar to the Amazing Race---with different stations: we peeled pumpkin leaves, made chapati (savory pancake), caught a chicken, planted a tree, and learned songs and dances. It was really fun! Then we had yet another snack, played games, and made more friendship bracelets (our wrists are now filled with colorful string). Life moves slowly and calmly here. We finished the day off by reflecting, and now that school is finished, and after we finish writing this blog, we are going to walk to our neighbor’s houses and hangout with their families.

Signed with love,

Long and Mitch

Pictures of the Mchaka Mchaka (videos coming soon)    

  

Part of the competition was to learn a traditional Tanzanian song and a dance.

   

We made delicious, warm chapati, which is similar to a savory crepe. We rolled the dough, and cooked it in oil on a small stove heated with fire.

The students taught us how to peel pumpkin leaves. Their stems are eaten as vegetables, and their leaves are slices; everything gets cooked.

 

This is the "ku ku" catch, or the chicken catch, where we chase a chicken around and try to catch it. Congrats to anyone who did, the chicken was fast, and you had to really jump on it!

  

  Ethan caught the chicken!