For the third year in a row, Tumaini Evangelistic Pre & Primary School has taken a study tour (field trip in the USA). Remember your own field trips to museums or local farms to learn but to also bring alive some of the lessons from the classrooms. Field trips are important to young students to give some type of reality to the book lessons. The same is true here in Tanzania. We want the students to engage their world with the wonder of the first time you see a giraffe gracefully running across an open meadow. So every year we take students from Standard 3 to Standard 7 of some type of field trip. This year it was to Arusha National Park, home of the White colobus monkey and Blue monkey as well as giraffes, water buffalo, zebras and wart hogs.

The day started at 7 am with the students gathering at the church near the main road. As I arrived, I noticed something similar to field trips of my day. All the girls were dressed up which at a school with uniforms it meant they all did their hair differently and wore some type of head wrap that drew attention to it. The boys looked the same as they did every other day of school.

I unfortunately cannot go with them on their trip. The cost difference for me vs a Tanzanian citizen and then the discount students get confuses the park rangers and they try to charge the school triple to four times the cost of entry.

This year we had 64 students because one of our sponsorship programs pays the fee to join the study tour. This was our largest group yet, putting a lot of pressure on Magreth who made all the lunch packs for students and staff.

After loading the bus up they started the journey which for many of our students will be their first out of the district and region to the wonders of their country they never expected to see. Each student nervous and excited to see the bigger world. Despite coming from a farming community with cattle, sheep and goats none had ever seen a blue monkey or giraffe before. The trip was more than a simple outing; it was a bridge connecting classroom lessons with living, breathing reality, bringing to life the words from textbooks about wildlife, ecosystems, and the importance of conservation.

I can tell you from personal experience that some sights never leave you like watching a giraffe gracefully run or curiously peak its head out from behind a tree to see who is watching them eat.

The blue monkey is always fun to watch as they are grabbing vines to pull leaves off for food.

Another interesting aspect of the field trip is having to loan my camera to one of the staff to take pictures. They took over 440 pictures with 250 of them being pictures of the adults posing. So roughly 7 adults and 64 kids but picture quantity they took over 50% of themselves, 10 % of the park attractions then about 35% of the students.

Of course if you follow my Facebook page you realize they don’t always have to go to a park to see wildlife as group of elephants have taken up residency in the hills past our site and occasionally visit. 4 were near our soccer field one Sunday afternoon, I assume they only visit on Sunday as it is quiet at the site.