Tanzania SST

Goodbye Dar es Salaam!

Last evening the students and hosts families all came together at the YMCA for a meal and time for appreciation.  We are so thankful for all of our wonderful host families who truly welcomed our students as one of their own.

Nyumbani Goshen

Every Wednesday, for the past 5 weeks, instead of an afternoon field trip or lecture, the students make their way to Nyumbani Goshen, or the Goshen home (aka. the Schramms’ apartment). The students were divided into 5 different groups.  Each week one group was responsible for cooking, another…

Nyantira Mennonite Church

This past Friday we made a trip to Nyantira Mennonite School to take a tour, learn about what they are doing there, and to learn about their affiliation with Compassion International (for information about what Compassion International is doing in Tanzania, click here). Nyantira Mennonite School is unique because…

Tolly’s Kitchen

  This is Tolly.  She is a lawyer-turned-chef that owns the catering business.  She is fun-loving, sweet, patient, and always has a smile on her face.  She seems to love teaching and exudes endless joy.  She has her own YouTube Channel if you want to check it out.  It’s…

Week 3 in Dar es Salaam

Hello friends, families, strangers who are interested in what we’re doing.  We have had another adventurous week in Dar es Salaam.  This city is so full of interesting experiences, people, sights, sounds, etc. On Monday the students attended a lecture at the University of Dar es Salaam on the culture…

Bagamoyo

Forgive the multitude of photos in this post, but we saw so much this past weekend.  We visited a town called Bagamoyo (originally Buagamoyo, which means “lay down your heart”).  For the history of Bagamoyo, click here. While in Bagamoyo, we stayed at the Livingstone Beach Resort.  Although we…

National Museum of Tanzania

This afternoon the students visited the National Museum of Tanzania (forgive the Wikipedia link; they don’t have their own website).  We casually roamed the exhibits to learn about the history of Tanzania, along with other details regarding archaeological findings related to the evolution of humans and animals.  There were…

Day at the Beach

Today we had a much-needed day of play and fellowship.  We met up at a nearby beach with some of the local youths from a few Mennonite congregations.  Along with normal beach activities, such as swimming, looking for seashells, and building sandcastles, we had some friendly competition with football/soka (soccer),…

Makumbusho Village Museum

Today the students were able to go on their first afternoon field trip to the Makumbusho Village Museum (click here for more information about the museum).  It was fascinating to learn about the different types of materials different tribes use to build structure, what kinds of tools in the…

Host families

One of the most important components of SST is living with a host family.  This helps the students with language acquisition, better understanding of the culture, and providing them with the kind of support only a family can give. Last evening we had a reception for the students and…