Today is another OAT interaction with the local population, starting with the Tloma Elementary School which is the beneficiary of OAT’s non-profit Grand Circle Foundation support.  Our group (minus two, including Phyllis, who stays at the Lodge battling a stomach ailment) visits the school carrying textbooks that are being donated by the Foundation, plus assorted school supplies that members of the group have brought themselves.  We stop in a third grade classroom where the students sing songs in English that they are just starting to learn.  Afterwards we hand out the school supplies and then sit down with them at their desks as they read from their textbooks in Swahili.  One thing that stood out to Craig was noticing that while many of the students had nice uniforms on, there were several who had no uniform at all or were sporting a badly worn uniform sweater with big holes in it.  The uniforms are the primary item that the families have to supply and some families simply cannot afford them.

We next went to a sixth grade room where we again listened to them sing (in English; by this age they are quite good) and then, ended with a presentation, including dancing, from a seventh grade group who are nearing graduation.  Public education is free through seventh grade in Tanzania, at which point the children take exams to determine if they are eligible for government-provided secondary education.  These seventh graders are preparing for their “finals” but take the time to spend some time with us.  There is also a strong network of private schools at all levels in Tanzania, in which English is heavily emphasized, but these schools are quite costly.  The government schools teach Swahili primarily, since it is the national language, with English as a required second language.  Still it is surprising how much good English one hears spoken throughout the country.

After leaving the school we travel to a “quarry” of sorts where they are making the mud bricks used in most of the home construction.  Families come here to work and use the bricks themselves or sell them and keep the money.  You see some pretty small kids hauling around some pretty heavy mud and bricks.  We spend some time in the home of the man who runs the brickyard and then head off to the “market.

The market was not originally on the schedule, but it is the once-a-month gathering in that region where people show up with cows, sheep, shoes, radios, clothing, you name it, and we prevail upon our guides to stop.  It is classic “learning and discovery” and, to their credit, they immediately agree though they do ask us to try to be back at the jeeps in 15 minutes.  Fat chance given the five to ten acres the market covers.  When we stop we are immediately besieged by young people wanting to sell us tourist items, but as we move through the market they drop away and we have a great time just walking around and observing.  Craig is tempted but decides against the roast goat.

One of the interesting observations along the route was watching a bus pull up to pick up passengers along the road.  As we have observed in the past, every time this happens there are free-lance “agents” who try to get a person to get on a particular bus, for which they are paid some form of commission.  In this instance the prospective passenger was a very old lady trying to get onto a bus only to have two “agents” compete for her business by simultaneously grabbing her bags and pulling them in different directions.  She looked pretty shell shocked as her stuff was flying out of the bags in the struggle.  We drove past before we could see who won her business.

This evening is our farewell dinner for the group, since not everyone is going on the upcoming Zanzibar extension.  (Phyllis is improved enough to participate.)  Ronald, Samson, and Joseph join us before the meal for a round table commentary by everyone of what each person found most meaningful or striking about the trip.  Ronald also presents us each with a surprise, a beaded bracelet made for us by the women back in the Maasai village we visited, complete with each of our names, correctly spelled, in beads.  Lobulu brought them all the way to the Tloma Lodge for us as a farewell gift.  Knowing that the Maasai walk everywhere and that quite a distance was involved, we asked how he managed, and learned that modern Maasai do in fact take a bus occasionally.  Still that was an incredible gesture.  (Another touch of the modern world’s intrusion: Ronald commented that he had texted the names to Lobulu upon his request.)  In closing, we all compliment the guides and how well the logistics were planned and executed, and of course we were all amazed by the variety, profusion, and proximity of the wildlife.  Safe to say, the experience exceeded everyone’s expectations.