Hello Sakina!

Hello! I have made it safe and sound to Sakina, where I will spend two months working with Irene and Emanueli Maturo. Right now I am spending a day or two getting oriented to the village and preparing our plan of attack.

SAKINA: I’m staying in a small village within Sakina called Maziwa (which means milk in Kiswahili). I got a tour of the house and my room, which is very nice! The restroom (which is basically a nice outhouse) and washroom (where I was with a bucket) are outside by the cowshed. They have a very big compound and grow their own banana trees!

Maturo family: There is Baba and Mama – Baba speaks very good English and he was a math teacher in primary school and then a program officer for primary schools at the Ministry of Education. He is Masai, but the last person in his family to live in a Masai boma (village) was his grandfather. Mama is Chagga (the tribe from Mt. Kilimanjaro) and she speaks very limited English; however, she is so nice and welcoming! The kids are Winston, Irene, Gladys, Emanueli, Stephen, and Clemens. Winston is the oldest and he used to be a shopkeeper for a tourist office, but now lives at home and also takes English classes. Irene and Gladys sometimes decorate and cater weddings to earn extra money. Gladys teaches primary school and is taking classes to resit the Form IV exam so she can get a certificate, which will allow her to earn more money. Emanueli finished through form IV and enjoys painting and drawing. He was an art teacher. Stephen is a chef at a restaurant that makes American type food and he is going to cook for the family next week. Clemens is in Form IV and will be taking his national exam in October. He really likes the sciences.

ARUSHA: Yesterday, Emanueli took me into the city of Arusha, which is surrounded by mountains. It is winter here and is in the 70’s. After spending a month in Zanzibar where it was consistently in the 90’s, this is a refreshing change of pace. The city reminds me a little of the western USA landscape and is the base for many tourist safaris.

We went to the Museum of Natural History, which is located in the old German Boma from when Germany colonized TZ. Behind the museum is Mt. Meru, which takes about 3-5 days to climb. It was colonized in 1885 and then peacefully taken over by the British in 1918 after Germany lost the First World War. Some good things: Germany built lots of infrastructure that still stands today, which many Tanzanians agree still benefits TZ. They also encouraged the use of Kiswahili in government. Some bad things: They mistreated the Tanzanians, especially women and used corporal punishment. They would severely beat people for small misdemeanors.

We also went to the UN Tribunal for Genocide in Rwanda (which occurred in 1994) and sat in on a court proceeding. The tribunal will close this year because they will soon finish will all of the court proceedings.

Today, I will be meeting all of the Sakina Scholars from Burka Secondary School and will post updates and hopefully pictures later this week.

Learn Kiswahili:
skuli - school