ARUSHA

Visiting Tanzania was too expensive for our budget. We decided to discover the culture while leaving with an economical lifestyle. Volunteering was a very good option. We could do useful things and get free food and accommodation.
For this first volunteering experience, we found a local GNO: Children community support based in Arusha.

Arusha is a country with approximately 500000 inhabitants located in the northern part of Tanzania. The city is famous to be the starting point of many tourist attractions: various safari, Mount Meru and mount Kilimanjaro treks.
During a sunny day you can actually see m’ont Meru from the city. We didn’t climb those mountains. It was way too expensive for our backpackers budget. Arusha is accessible by airplane from local flights. You can also come by train from Kenya or by bus from the capital Dar es Salam.
We went by bus and took our tickets from a company called Kilimanjaro express. The bus is air conditioned and very confortable. The travelling time is about 12 hours and cost 36000 Tanzanian shillings / pera (13,70€).

 

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| FIRST UNCERTAIN DAYS

The 2 first days were a little strange cause we had to get to understand the place we arrived and accomodate with the work and the local lifestyle. The description on the workaway announce was a little different from reality. We almost passt our way because their were actually lot of surprises.
The district where we used to live was called Bandam Bili (knows as the hyena street) it was quiet a poor neighborhood. The roads were simply made out of earth and the gutters looked more like a small river by the side of the street. Their were a lot of different types of houses. Next to eachother, you could find the luxurious house of the pastor and the wood and mud house of some normal inhabitants.
We arrived by night and their was no public lightning. We weren’t scared untill we discovered that we wouldn’t be allowed to go out from our room later then 7pm. Christmas time was very close so it was not safe to hang around. The director of the GNO (Salim) got attacked with a knife 3 weeks earlier and had a big scarf. He didn’t want to empty his pocket when a theef asked him.

 

After we digested those small informations, we were very impatient to discover the volunteer house and our colleagues. The house we expected with all the volunteers and a common room didn’t exist. In reality we had just one room with opens to a courtyard shared with 4 other rooms rented by locals.
We had shared local toilets (with cockroach) and bathroom to shower with the bucket. We had to fill the bucket every night from the well.

 

All the other volunteer rooms were spread around the neighborhood in similar houses. We went to sleep with lot of hope for the coming days…
The next morning we went to get breakfast at Salims’s house. Their we met the other volunteers which were very nice. We discovered that we won’t work in an orphenage but be teacher for a school. Our task was to give class in the morning to 3 to 7 year old children. During the afternoon we would give some lessons to some teenagers.

 

We got pretty much disappointed when we learned that we need a buisness visa to do volunteering. The price was 150$/pers plus the 50$ we already paied for the tourist visa… It was a big expense cause we already applied for a safari wich was very expensive and not planned in the beginning of our trip.
The GNO also offers the possibility to go and help at a Massaï village. During the first 2 days we killed the cokroach in our room, got to know the children and decided to stay at school for the 3 weeks in order to get to know the children as much as we could.

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| OUR EVERYDAY LIFE

 

We had to spend only 4-5 hours per day at school but we ended up staying much more time. We went their at 8 am and ha dlunch with the other volunteers at noon.
When we were on the way to school, everyday some children came towards us, screamed “teacher” took our hands and started to walk with us with a very happy face.

 

Once at school the hug marathon started. Their are about 100 children and each one wants to touch a piece of your body.
At 8:30 am it’s “class time” the children did 3 lines and started to repeat some English sentences. After they go to 3 different classes according to their age and level: small, middle and tall.

 

 

They is more than 30 children per classroom. The space is so tiny that it’s difficult for the children to sit all together. Their is very little space on the table wich leads to a constant fight. I’m in the middle class and Jan is with the taller group. Normally we should be assisting a teacher by correcting and writing the homework. In fact, eventhough they are paied, the teachers are not very involved in their work. During the class time, they often pickup a call and walk out of the room for 15 minutes.. Sometimes when they feel lazy they just make the children sleep on the table for a while..
For the middle class it’s even worth, their is not teacher at all! We are 2 volunteers teaching and 1 Tanzanian assistant (who doesn’t help if you don’t ask him).
At noon the class is over and we leave school accompanied by some children.

 

After a small break at our room we meet the other volunteers for lunch at Salims’s house.
At 2 pm, we go back go school. I teach French while Jan gives English lessons. After class, we do some activities with the teenagers.

 

At 6pm, we come back home and are quiet exhausted. It’s time to have a drink with other volunteers untill dinner time.
We share the dinner wich takes place at 8 pm at Salims’s house with the volunteers and Salims’s family. For dinner, we usually get some rice and beans. Sometimes volunteers are cooking. It’s useless to say that Jan cooked quiet a lot. After dinner we go to sleep or continu the evening at some local bar.

Weekend time was used to explore Arusha’s touristic attractions with other volunteers. We went to the hot springs (close to Moshi) and also mont Méru waterfalls.
We also went to Arusha center town to find fabric, vegetables and hardeware. We made some customized Christmas presents made out of wax and assembled by a Taylor. We also did boring activities like laundry and housekeeping. On Sundays, our courtyard was transformed in a big washroom. But here, no washing machine, only women sitting on the floor with piles of clothes and a bunch of buckets. Doing laundry in Arusha has to be well organized. First you have to go and find some buckets. After you need to go to the well and get some water. Once you are setup you can start to wash the clothes and rince them by saving your water otherwise you’ll need to refill it many times. It takes almost 2 hours to clean everything.

 

Doing laundry in Arusha has to be well organized. First you have to go and find some buckets. After you need to go to the well and get some water. Once you are setup you can start to wash the clothes and rince them by saving your water otherwise you’ll need to refill it many times. It takes almost 2 hours to clean everything.

The first week passed very quickly. Eventhough their was a real lack of organisation we felt well and helpful at school. I don’t know if we thought many things to the children but we tried to enhance a little bit their everyday life.
With help of other volunteers, we organized a “movie day”. We went to watch “The lion king” on a big screen at a bar (called zoulou bar). The screen was usually used to watch football games. We also designed and built some hangers for the children’s bags and coats. Before they got the hangers, they were carrying the bags the whole morning on their back.

 

After one week, we started to know very well all the shops in our neighborhood. Ciapati and mangdazi seller for the breakfast and chips mayaye restaurant at any time for Jan.

 

After one week, we started to know very well all the shops in our neighborhood. Ciapati and mangdazi seller for the breakfast and chips mayaye restaurant at any time for Jan.
We became friends with our neighboor and her son Nelson. With them, we could learn some basics of Swahili language. We continued our routine for the 2 other weeks and tried to get the most out of the experience.

 

 

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| OUR EXPERIENCE

The overall feeling of our experience is more then posotiv!
First of all we met lot of people: volunteers, children, neighbors.
Saying goodbye to all was really hard.

 

Eventhough we knew that we are privileged before we left France, the people we met and the experiences we lived made us relativize about our lifestyle, our way of consuming and also about the chance we have to get a good educational system.

We will definitely rehurse this volunteering experience during our trip around the world. To be useful and not only a tourist give you great satisfaction. We all most regretted to leave but luckily we have lot of further adventures waiting for us. We created strong links with the population that we didn’t expected and learned more things that we thought.

The only negative point was the Visa which made us spend a little more money than expected…
I would recommend to everyone to do a volunteering experience in Africa, it changes your way of thinking about our world!