TIHUT DEPARTS TANZANIA- INTERN REFLECTION

Sanje Waterfall 2019

I look out through the window to take a quick last glance of the beautiful Dar Es Saleem as the plane takes off from the Julies Nyerere Airport. The past few weeks in Tanzania flew by! I completely can’t fathom the fact that my time in TZ has come to an end. In my previous blog, I shared some of the things I have been working on at Sasamani. I took a look at my previous blog and I realized I haven't shared much about the fun weekends I spent in different parts of Tanzania. Like the beautiful trip Wes and I took to Zanzibar. I loved how kind and welcoming the people in Zanzibar were. Sun-set trips, delicious Tanzanian dishes, Bongo flavor music, beautiful view; Zanzibar had it all. For my last weekend in TZ, we took a 12 hours trip to Ifakara, a rural town in the south-central part of Tanzania, to visit the Udzungwa National Park. I complained for a bit when I realized tourists pay twenty times the price Tanzanian's pay, but I guess that's how the business world of tourism functions. Hiking 3kms to the base of the Udzungwa waterfall was tiresome, to say the least. The park consists of the peculiar waterfall, Sanje waterfall. The waterfall displays the map of Africa showing clear demarcation of boundaries as it appears on a piece of paper. It was mind blowing! The hike was totally worth it. On my last week, I went around to our three partner schools to have a session on Menstrual Hygiene Management. Although I had previous experience with training for Sanitation and Hygiene Management, I worked with Gladness to frame the session for the students in Bagamoyo. I prepared handouts, a few materials for demonstration and ice-breaker games because the students were a tad uncomfortable to get straight to the topic. After my first session 63 female students at the Kingani Secondary School, I decided it would be best to have a translator in the room because most students were more comfortable asking questions in Kiswahili. At Kingani, I stayed a bit late because it was my last day at the school. We sat down and talked with the students. They were kind enough to show me around their hostels and study rooms. The situation in public schools in Ethiopia is not that different from the public schools I have been to in Tanzania. We sat in circles and they were asking me about how I ended up studying in the States. We started talking about college applications and ended up talking about life in East Africa. Before I knew it, it was already 7 p.m, so I had to head home. Saying my goodbye to the students was quite emotional. "Madam Tihut, you are my role model," says Ester who is one of our Sasamani students. I held it in when I saw her tears as she hugs me. Once I got to the car to get back home, I just let it all out. As much as I loved our attachment, it made the goodbyes pretty hard for all of us.

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Tihut posing with students after the Menstruation Sanitation workshop.

I also conducted a session on Menstrual Sanitation at Matimbwa and Kiromo Secondary Schools. The training was the most satisfying work I did at Sasamani. I have dreamt of providing sessions on Menstrual Sanitation for students in the rural regions of Southern Ethiopia. However, I was denied the opportunity because my parents were against the idea of me traveling to the rural regions to give out the training. In Bagamoyo, it felt fulfilling to stand in front of 63 students in each of the three schools discussing and taking questions during the training. It’s surprising how menstrual hygiene management is such a basic topic yet most of these students were not aware of it.

I would be in a classroom for three to four hours with a translator taking questions from the students.

​During my last week, I also conducted one-to-one interviews with 36 Sasamani Sponsored students from Kiromo, Matimbwa, and Kingani Secondary Schools. The purpose of the interview was to check-in with the students and get a general sense of their well-being and academic progress. One of my responsibilities as an intern was to digitalize the files we have at the office. Therefore, after conducting the interviews I updated the responses online so that our Board of Directors can have a general sense of the statistics we have on our Sasamani Sponsored Students. When I started interviewing the students, I thought they would be uncomfortable sharing some personal details with me. However, I think I already had established a rapport with most of them during my time at the schools. In fact, I recall the time when I went to the shop to grab a few things and I was having a hard time describing the items in Kiswahili. Fortunately, I run into one of the students from Kingani and she translated for me. She was kind enough to walk me all the way to the house to make sure I didn't have trouble on my way. The students were not only cooperative in class but outside too!

Tihut hugging a Sasamani scholar.

I headed to Dar to spend some time with Dr. Mori and her family for my last two days in Tanzania. One of the best parts about interning for Sasamani is that once we stepped out of the office, we got to have some family time. Every night after dinner, we sat around the table and prayed together. We also did a bit of singing. After dinner, we would sit in the living room watching the African Cup. Magnus, Dr. Mori’s youngest son, and I lost our interest in the games once Benin lost the match. I didn't even bother to watch after Nigeria lost too! In Dar, I was also able to see some of my families who are expats in Tanzania.

Tanzania really did feel like home in ways I didn’t expect, except the fact that I never rode the motorcycle at home. But, it was actually the to-go ride when I went to most of the schools in Bagamoyo. Although I was scared of being at the back of a motorcycle at first, it was one of the highlights of my stay in Bagamoyo.

For my last day in Dar, Dr. Mori took me to the University of Dar Es Salaam for the last time and I met with a couple of international students from Sweden, the States and China. I was curious about applications to study abroad at UDSM, so I went to the Office of Internationalization and Advancement to learn more about the process. Who knows, I might study abroad at UDSM! That actually sounds like a plan, if it's feasible. I have been on the Study Away Committee at Conn College, and I hope I could share a bit about how Study Abroad works at UDSM. Maybe Conn students (including myself) can study abroad at UDSM in our junior year.

This is probably my last blog, but I have a lot more to share about my time in Tanzania. For now, I would like to restate how grateful I am to have been a part of the Sasamani team. I look forward to contributing in all sorts of ways that I could possibly help with the amazing work of the team. It wasn't just working at the office, and filing paper works but I also spent family time with everyone I stayed with. I strongly hope I will visit sometime again. I have learned lessons and experienced the beautiful culture of Tanzania. Thank you for all the good lessons that will stay with me for a lifetime!

Asante Sana,

Tihut Getabicha

Tihut facing the Sanje waterfall.