Two in the morning and we hit the road. My parents were able to take me to the Charlotte airport and drop me off to meet the other Wofford students that I am currently in Tanzania with. After the ever-complicated process of TSA, constantly trying to reattach my plane pillow to my book bag and a cream cheese bagel, I was ready to board my first of three flights, en route to Kilimanjaro. We made our way to Washington D.C. to catch our main flight to Ethiopia, which was 13 hours long. We waited in Washington and while some decided to eat 5 Guys at 6 a.m. before a 13 hour flight, I opted for yet another cream cheese bagel.
The flight to Ethiopia was long — not just long but long long. I tried to stretch everything that I did out as long as possible. Read for 2-3 hours. Watch a movie. Take a minimum of 15 minutes walking, using, and returning from the bathroom. Eat a snack in really small bites and drink lots of water so that I, again, had to take 15 minutes to walk, use, and return from the bathroom — it was quite the elaborate strategy I formulated as the flight wore on. I also got to silently know the woman that was sitting next to me as we elbowed each others elbows off of the arm rest "unknowingly" "accidentally" "in our sleep". As we landed, a sigh of relief filled the cabin and each of us filed out of the plane into the hustling airport of Addis Abba, Ethiopia.
From there, a two and a half hour flight took us to Kilimanjaro where we received our visas and boarded our final mode of transportation, a van, to Moshi, TZ where we stayed through Sunday. Meredith and I accompanied the other group in Moshi for the first weekend before we arrived in Usa River where Silverleaf Academy is located. We ventured to the market, a waterfall, and a coffee farm before the workweek began. Moshi is a crowded metropolis filled with street vendors and public transportation, of which my favorite is the Bujaji — a small scooter-like buggy with three wheels. One foot on the sidewalk, one foot on the road, throw up your hand and they will swerve from the flow of traffic to pick you up (I could use some of these around Wofford).
After our time in Moshi, Meredith and I made the journey, an hour and a half from Moshi and our other group members, to Usa River — a much more rural area of Tanzania. Our driver took us directly to the school, via a washed out mud road (as there is no dirt here, just mud). As we bumped a mile through brown and green farmland, we rounded a corner and the little rainbow beehive began to come through the trees. We saw, for the first time, the school at which we would be spending the summer — I never expected the most colorful building I have ever seen to be in East Africa in the middle of an agricultural community. We toured the school and got to know the faculty and staff while the students were completing their final exams before their one month holiday which will start Wednesday.
The school will be on break for the next month, and the students will return to Silverleaf in July to multiple improvements. The school is in need of multiple cosmetic changes, the curriculum needs to be modified, and the sustainability of the campus expanded. To meet these goals, Silverleaf wants to expand the playground, include a mosaic on the wall facing the road, grow the compost project and include more students, and develop a stingless honey bee project to produce the school's own honey and pollenate the garden and surrounding orchards. While the students are on holiday, it is these tasks that Meredith and I hope to complete at the little rainbow beehive in Usa River.
