Jambo!

Jambo! Today’s post will be about today and yesterday because we just got our internet access. Yesterday we woke up early at our hotel in Dar Es Salaam, had a great breakfast, then were taken to a bus station. At the station we were able to explore a small market while waiting for our bus to take off. Our bus ride took us about 8 hours and brought us all the way to Tanga. Our ride was full of scenery and various music videos in Swahili playing on the bus. We then arrived and were brought to our hostel where we were fed a delicious home cooked dinner. We were introduced to Tanzanian tea and coffee and a special ginger soda, Tangawizi, that was highly recommended by Mohamed and Mary Lou. The rest of our night was our team just settling in.

This morning we were able to finally see our site in person! We arrived at the school to and saw many of the 910 students that attended playing outside. Our first task was a meeting with many school and government officials who are overseeing and invested in our project. Everyone was very friendly and we are excited to work with them for this next month. After those initial greetings we toured the school, got to meet some of the children, and saw the project in person. When we arrived the contractors had started working on the concrete columns, which means tomorrow we can start working on laying the bricks. We had a meeting with everyone and the contractor and decided a good schedule for the upcoming week.

After our meeting at Pongwe, we were able to tour Tanga and visit some of the shops and markets. Everything was very exciting and we are looking forward to a walking tour of Tanga that Mohamed has promised us! Tonight, we are meeting as a team and discussing more details of the work we need to do tomorrow.

Here is a picture of us with the sign marking our project!