Field Lectures and Primary School

What an exhausting day! I was extremely grateful to only have to spend a half hour in the classroom today though. It's really hard to pay attention when you're only thinking of all the things you can see outside! We had a traveling lecture this morning, so we first went to a beautiful outlook and learned about several different ways the local area is trying to increase their sustainability and protect local wildlife. We then went to a neighboring district and learned how they conserve water at the local rice farms. Looking around you would have thought we were somewhere in Asia! The area was covered in rice paddies! After lunch, we went to the local town, Karatu, to exchange money and visit the market. I didn't buy anything. Bartering is just too intimidating for me. After we got back to Moyo Hill we had a quick Swahili lesson in preparation for our visit to the local primary school. I learned a few new greetings - Habari za mchana (Good afternoon) and mambo (slang for hi). We visited the school for a few hours to play games and read to them since they'll be on break for the remainder of our time in Tanzania. It was a lot of fun and entertaining teaching each other English and Swahili. They were really talented at jump rope! We ventured into a local village, Rhotia, to visit the tailor. She's super nice and tried to teach us Swahili. She has a ton of patterns and usually finishes things in two days! The kids in town followed us everywhere, just wanting to hold our hands. Tomorrow we finally get to go into Lake Manyara National Park and hopefully see elephants!! I'm so excited!