Back to School!

My friend Lisa teachers English at a private secondary school in Monduli. The mission of the school is to bring a rigorous education to under-served communities.

 All of the students at the school are there on scholarship, and the vast majority belong to the Maasai tribe, a semi-nomadic people who live in fairly remote areas like deserts and scrublands.Some of the students walk more than two hours each way to get to school each day.

And for kids who have never left Tanzania, or even been to a big city like Arusha, English class can be a powerful way to "visit" places  that they have never seen.

They recently read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, and in this lesson, they got to hang the paper cranes they had made last week. They also were able to experience a little bit about Japanese culture by having a hand in making vegetarian sushi.

I can't emphasize enough what a big deal it was for them to make, and more importantly eat, sushi. In this dry region, where most meals revolve around corn and beans, and eating anything other than fruit raw is pretty much unheard of, trying s seaweed wrapped rice ball that had uncooked (!) veggies in it was an incredible adventure.

It took some heavy pressure from Lisa to get them to take even a single bite. But once she argued that she had tried mughali - a common polenta-like dish that hardens fast when not eaten immediately - most of them relented.

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