First Impressions & Expectations (Predictions)

There are a TON of unknowns going into this trip: how to travel solo internationally, what the weather will be like, what food I’ll be eating, and what my daily adventures will have, etc…. 

I’ve been told extensively by a Tanzanian native that the weather will be cool as it's their “winter” season; however, whenever I look at the weather for the area I’ll be staying in it’s a steady 80+ degrees and a humidity level of over 95% almost everyday! I have no clue what to expect weather wise, but I’m sure I’ll stay warm!

As of right now, I don’t speak any Swahili (probably should’ve done a little bit of studying beforehand, but I’m sure I’ll be fine). I hope to come back with a good amount of words known!

I have no clue what food I’ll be eating there but I’ve heard Tanzanian food is a fusion of traditional African ingredients, Middle Eastern spices, and Indian culinary techniques. I bet it will be good and I look forward to taking pictures of the meals I will be eating!

I’m planning on taking a small excursion in Frankfurt, Germany during my 12.5 hour layover. I hope to see some of Germany and try some good food (and not get lost in the process as I’ll have NO internet connection)

Why Tanzania?

To make a long story short, my scholarship, the Harvey Scholars, is community service oriented following the slogan “Pay it Forward” where there is an extensive alumni community. Along with the scholarship, there is a $7k Enrichment Grant that is set aside for us to essentially experience anything that would enrich our college experience. At one of our monthly luncheons, an alumni from 2016 (I think) came to present his time at Mines and what he does now. He’s originally from Tanzania, came to Mines for a mechanical engineering degrees, and his parents are incredibly involved with an organization called Village Schools International that focuses on improving the education in Tanzania. During his presentation, I was intrigued with the entire program along with an invitation to start a project known as Kolibri (explained later). After his presentation, I talked with him, set up a meeting and the rest is history. He’s been helping me guide my project development, pack for Tanzania, and figure out all the lovely headaches of international travel. After my experience volunteering in El Salvador in high school, I’ve always wanted to do something similar again and this seemed like the perfect opportunity! Several other Harvey Scholars have gone to Tanzania in the past with this alumni and I thought it would be a great partial use of my grant as well! 

Volunteering & Impact Goals

The project that I’m working on is called “Kolibri”. To put it simply, Village Schools International’s (VSI, the organization I’m working for) goal is to improve the education in rural Tanzania. They’ve made impressive progress in improving dozens of schools, but are looking for the next step. What separates the United States’ education and Tanzania’s comes down to technology. In rural Tanzanian schools, there is little to no use of technology (simply because there’s no effective offline system for these schools to use). The schools have access to electricity (solar panels), computers, and sparse internet but not enough internet for an entire school to be on it. A single teacher might have a couple hundred students which makes teacher-student feedback nearly impossible; however, this is where the most learning occurs. Imagine taking a test and never getting a score back, how would you know how well you did? When a student doesn’t know if they got a concept wrong, that gap in their knowledge won’t be filled which doesn’t prepare them for their extremely important state exams. With the Kolibri program, I’m filling that gap. Kolibri is a program that allows local servers to act like the internet that allows students to log on, access educational content (readings, videos, simulations, ect), and take quizzes all without the use of the internet. The server in question is extremely simple: a Raspberry Pi (a small computer, imagine your entire laptop fit into the size of your palm) and a WiFi router you’d find in your home. When these two are combined, the Pi takes care of hosting and creating the server and the router allows 40+ students to connect. This entire process does not require the internet and has been what I’ve been working on outside of class during the last semester (when I get everything set up in Tanzania, I will make sure to attach a photo of what everything looks like).

When I arrive, I’ve been told that my main mission is to teach the VSI staff the entire process that I’ve learned, develop content for the server to host, and begin implementing these servers at local schools to see if it’s effective enough to begin starting at other schools. I’ve spent lots of time putting together resources and keeping track of how I do things so I can relay this information to those around me. However, I have no idea what this is going to look like and what my daily adventures will bring as the Kolibri program is relatively simple so I might be spending a lot of time just generally helping around and possibly teaching some math or physics classes.

An additional goal that I’m using technology to solve is teacher upscaling. Well educated teachers are imperative to a functioning school, yet lack of training can result in undeveloped areas in their discipline. In other words, a teacher might be really good at teaching 80% of a math class's content, yet that 20% is never covered. This creates a never ending loop where the teachers of the next generation also have this 20% deficiency which hurts students. In order to break this loop and help train these teachers, I am developing a Google Classroom ecosystem. Google Classroom is essentially a program that takes a physical classroom and transfers it online. With this program, the teachers will be the students where they can read up on teaching materials and take tests to ensure that they actually know the content they are teaching. This allows VSI to monitor how well teachers are doing and ensure that the teachers are as trained as possible. Google Classroom is an online program and teachers in Tanzania do have access to the internet which allows all of this to work.

Ultimately, I’m hoping that the Kolibri program and Google Classroom are actually able to help make learning easier and create something that is genuinely useful for these villages in Tanzania.

Basic & Contact Information

Tanzania is +9 hours from Mountain Standard Time!

Tanzania’s main languages are English and Swahili (I don’t know any yet, but I hope to come back with some words and phrases under my belt)

Tanzania is home to Africa’s tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro with an elevation of 19,341ft!

Tanzania is one of the best places for safaris (however, I’ll not be partaking in any but do hope to see some animals on my way to rural countryside)

Tanzania has a gem rarer than diamonds known as Tanzanite which is only found in one small strip at the foot hills of Kilimanjaro (I hope to maybe get some!)

I will be in the Mafinga region of Tanzania primarily!

If you’d like to contact me directly, I will be using WhatsApp or my email. I assume I’ll have access to the internet, but there’s no guarantee so it might take me a little bit to respond!

General Itinerary

Leaving May 26th @ and arriving on May 28th @ 11am

Training at Madisi 

Travel to Bukimau

Working with Staff at Bukimau

Travel to Madisi for mid-travel debrief

Travel to Bukimau

Working with Staff at Bukimau

Travel to Madisi for end-travel debrief

Travel to Dar Es Salaam

Departure from Dar Es Salaam (August 1st)

My total travel time to and from Tanzania is 30+ hours respectively 

P.S.  I’ve been told that I might lose a lot of weight during the next two months so here’s what I’m starting at! (all that work towards my freshman 15 might be gone)

Weight: 196.6 lbs

And FYI I will be sending emails to my mom who will posting into this blog for me!