Bittersweet

We are already half way through our week.  It is flying by and it is so hard to believe that we are leaving in 10 days!!  This is crazy!  We are just starting to get settled into the culture, schools, teaching and life in Arusha.  Now we are going to be leaving, so bittersweet.

As mentioned before, we were all extremely bummed that we were not climbing Kilimanjaro which we were hoping for. GOOD NEWS:  WE WILL BE CLIMBING MOUNT KILIMANJARO!!! After lots of researching and phoning, Lisa (our GVSU professor here), was our hero and discovered a way for us to climb :)  I am so excited!!  Since our schools are having national testing next week Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be doing a day climb on Wednesday :)  Woot Woot!  In addition, Lisa got us a deal that it will only cost $44 to reach Base Camp 1.  9,000 feet :)

Last night, we invited our teachers to join us for dinner at the Outpost!  It was great to have an evening to get to know them a little bit better outside of school.  In our GVSU class we have been talking a lot about culture and education here in Tanzania, and how they relate.  Research shows, that most of the teachers never had a desire or calling to become a teacher, but rather they had the perspective that becoming a teacher is solely a job that they needed to have in order to survive.  Many of my peers have seen this with their teachers in their schools that they have been placed with.  After talking to my teacher last night, I am extremely blessed that I have been placed with someone who has a heart for teaching and children.  It is not just a job for her, but rather she takes pride in her teaching abilities.  Neema always wants to learn better practices from us and other books that she reads.  She is awesome!  My favorite Tanzanian :)

 I love teaching at Assumption Primary School!  The teachers are awesome, and the students and I are starting to bond. I am not going to lie, I love it when 10 kids are “fighting” over my two hands to hold...they are so precious!

Not much has happened this week so far, just putsing and keeping busy :)  Tomorrow we have a Soccer game after school between us and our Safari drivers I believe, which will be extreme. Haha  We will be headed to Arusha National Park to go camping this weekend.  Definitely looking forward to that and good old Chicken Schnitzel at the Blue Heron Friday night. Hope all is surviving without me back home haha

Much love!

xoxoxo

P.S- Here is a video of me teaching this past week:)