Adrienne, Ume, and I went to Machame this morning. Our main purpose for the trip was to deliver books and learning toys to the Machame primary school. We were picked up at KCMC and driven 35 minutes to the school/church. When we arrived, we were greeted by teachers Hilda and Moses. Before going into the church, we said hello to all the students. Moses gathered the school choir, and they sang two songs for us: one in Kiswahili, one in Kiingereza (English). I filmed the whole thing and wish I could post it here, but it won't load. Teacher Moses was playing the drums while the other students sang and danced in sync. The main singer was Winnie, and she was really good.
With the Machame School Choir!
After the choir performance, we went into the church. It was a lutheran church. I felt a little bit intimidated at first because Adrienne and I were the only white girls in the entire place. I could feel multiple eyes staring me down, probably wondering what I was doing there. I tried to ignore the staring faces and take everything in. The music was much louder than what I'm used to hearing at church in the states, and everyone was singing loudly and getting really into the songs. Unfortunately, I have no idea what mass was about, but it was cool to see everyone else enjoying it. At one point, everyone started turning to each other and shaking each other's hands (but they would only turn to the person directly next to them). Ume and I turned to each other and just kept saying "peace be with you" (like we do in catholic church back at home), but that was definitely not correct. Finally, we were called up to the front and asked to introduce ourselves. All I said was "Jina langu ni Rachel" which means "My name is Rachel." Adrienne and Ume introduced themselves as well, and then Ume did the rest of the talking. Ume explained that we came from America and are students at Cornell University in New York. We were here working in a collaborative study with the KCMC medical students, and our purpose for coming to Machame was to deliver books to the students. Teacher Moses translated everything she said. It was rewarding to see everyones faces light up and you could see everyone was grateful that we were helping out in their community. I was no longer intimidated, because all the blank stares turned into smiling faces.
Front and center at church
They gave us a basket of bananas!! And I love the bananas!!!
After the church service ended, we took a tour around the school's campus. Machame is a boarding school, and it had a fairly big campus. It had pre-school through 7th grade. It was sad to see the conditions that the children were learning in (unfinished stairwells and classrooms, broken desks and chairs, unsanitary bathrooms, etc.) but it was also cool to see that they were actually getting an education!! We walked in a couple of the classrooms, and saw that a range of topics were taught from counting to health to mathematics and more. One thing that was really sad was to see that children here still receive physical punishment. Ume watched one girl get hit by the teacher with a cane. Sooooooo not okay. I would have started crying if I saw that. I teared up when she told me what happened, and she herself had to walk away. She was so angry at the teacher. So sad. After that happened, we all kind of just wanted to get out of there and get dropped back off at KCMC. However, they had prepared us lunch. We decided we would stay for lunch and then we told them we needed to go.
With some of the students
That one incident was very heartbreaking, but it was a good experience overall and it was cool to see a more rural part of the Kilimanjaro region.
With the roomie, Adrienne, at Machame!
Highlight of today: Watching the school choir perform at the Machame school and seeing how appreciative everyone was that we brought books and toys over from the US!
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