We said our goodbyes and headed to a Maasai Primary School. As we drove down the dirt road the kids started to get really excited. They were running around yelling and waving at the truck. As we pulled up, the kids surrounded the car saying "JAMBO!!" (HI!) and "MAMBO!!" (What's up!) with their hands raised to our windows wanting us to touch their hands. Their energy was contagious! Because kids this age only speak Swahili (they learn English if they are accepted into Secondary School), our verbal conversations were limited, but we communicated through smiles, hand holding, fist bumps, high fives, and eye contact.
It is difficult to get Maasai children to school because their parents would rather have them at home working and they don't see the benefits of education. There are even fewer girls because their fathers would rather sell them to a husband for 20 cattle than send them to school. Some of these kids live 30 km from school, so the school has built dormitories (rooms with nothing but metal bunk beds that smell so strongly of rot and bird feces that I almost started gagging).
The closest water source for this particular school is 40 km away, and they can't open the dorms until they have water. Part of the motivation for parents to send their kids to school is that the school will provide breakfast and lunch, but they can't provide these meals without having water to make them. So, they order a water truck ($50), but the day we were there, they had no money for water.
The kids who were there that day (it was on a school holiday and the majority of the students went home -- there were about 40 students there studying that day) filed into the closest (and nicest) classroom and started to sing and clap awaiting our entrance. It was extremely touching to see them so excited and so welcoming.
We opened our small duffel bag and passed out pencils, little notebooks, stickers and Colorado postcards showing Denver and snowy mountain vistas. Their excitement was through the tin roof. Allison then stood in the front of the kids and played follow the leader while I was in the back of the classroom completely surrounded by kids making faces and wanting me to take their pictures. It was simply kids being kids.
We met up with the headmaster and gave him two bags of additional school supplies we brought with us (pens, pencils, erasers, stickers, crayons, markers, flashcards, dictionaries) to be shared in all classrooms. He took Allison on a tour of the school while I played soccer with the boys. We played on a dusty, rocky "field" with large rocks signifying the goals. It was an absolute blast and an experience I will remember forever. It was really special to witness numerous kids standing there in the middle of the game, studying the postcards we gave them earlier. For the majority of these kids it was the first time they had seen a picture of snow.
The condition of the school was shocking. It was in absolute shambles -- the only room with anything in it is the first year room, which had some posters of letters and numbers. All the other classrooms had wooden bench desks, concrete floors and walls with huge holes and a single blackboard that barely functioned. It really made us appreciate the schools in the US.
Before we left the headmaster took us to the teacher's room that had some tables used as desks and extra school supplies. There were stacks of papers ready to be graded and a message on the lone whiteboard. Despite the school's condition, the children were absolutely adorable and appeared quite happy.
We made a donation to the school, which the headmaster informed us would go towards purchasing water that afternoon so the kids could eat. We gave our last fist bumps and high fives and climbed back into the truck. As we drove to Tarangire National Park for our last game drive, we both sat in silence reflecting on what we had just experienced.
When we stopped at the entrance gate to Tarangire National Park we noticed a man spraying down all the trucks with some sort of liquid. It turns out it was bug spray to help keep away the tsetse flies , which were pretty bad in the park. The park is in a cool setting and has a similar landscape to the Serengeti but with more trees. The baobab tree was neat to see, but they look a little evil.
We saw countless baboons, zebra, and wildebeest. The elephant population was astounding! At one time we counted 37 elephants in our view, and we had a few close encounters. We also spent some time with a couple of giraffes casually snacking on some leaves. We were so close it was like they were making faces at us.
It was a perfect final game drive (except for the tsetse fly bite on my shoulder). When we stopped at the exit gate we bought four bottles of Coke and shared them with Elias and Kassim. Coke is an expensive treat to them, and judging by how fast they sucked them down, we could tell they really enjoyed them.
We drove back to Arusha, which took about two hours, passing numerous colorful markets along the way. We stopped and picked up a Swahili and English newspaper (for our friend Chad, a middle school teacher who teaches about Africa) in downtown Arusha.
We pulled up to Karama Lodge, which felt like "home." We gave Kassim and Elias our contact information, our fleece sleeping bags, stickers, crayons, notebooks, Crystal Light for their kids and a couple of Sports Illustrateds. They were thrilled; Elias was literally jumping up and down. We shook hands and hugged and promised to stay in touch. It was really sad to watch our two friends drive away, but it also brought a smile thinking about the past seven days.
We checked in and walked to our cabin to rediscover the luxuries of flush toilettes, hot showers, and a bed. We walked to the main dining cabin, had a great dinner while we relived our experiences and talked about what we would show Kassim if he comes to visit in April (he is planing on visiting his brother in Houston in 2009 and wants to travel around the US). We made the leisurely walk back to our cabin and crashed feeling completely content!
