Happy Summer!

Welcome Cornelia!

I hope everyone is off to a great summer. I know I am, but I sure am getting busy finalizing all the details before I leave to Hanga, Tanzania for the year. I wanted to start this blog by giving you a little information about what I will be doing while living abroad.

Hanga is a village of about 7,000 people. Almost everyone there is a farmer and relies on their crops and livestock for food. They depend so much on their farming because the average family of four lives off of only $5.00 a week. Within the village there is a monastery that has set up 4 schools:

Kindergarten and Primary School: 250 students
Secondary School: 470 students
Seminary/High School: 160 students
Vocational School (focuses on teaching auto mechanics, carpentry, bricklaying, tailoring, and plumbing): 80 Students

I'm not sure where I will be placed yet, but I will be teaching English or math at one of these schools. The classrooms are much different from what you are used to at Cornelia. The classrooms are about half the size of yours and there are usually between 50-70 students in one class! There aren't any TVs or computers for the kids to use or play games on. In fact for part of the year, there is usually only 3-4 hours of electricity for the whole day!

Besides going to class and studying the kids help in the gardens, build bricks for new buildings, help gathering eggs from chickens and milking cows, and when they get a little free time they love to play soccer (that part sounds a little like Cornelia).

I don't leave until the end of July, but then I have a little over a 24hour plane ride before I arrive in Africa.

I hope you keep checking back, as I hope to be able to update frequently while I am over there. Hopefully this website will give you the chance learn a lot about the different cultures and lifestyles of the students in Tanzania.

If you have any questions leave them in the comments section and I will try to answer them as soon as I can. I would love hearing from you!

Kwaheri (goodbye in Swahili, the national language)

Derek