School Holiday Trips and Fun

School Holiday Trips

All our children are on holiday now until 9 September. The weather is heating up from a low of 17 degrees, a month ago, but not nearly as hot as it will become – 40 degrees, towards the end of the year; when it’s their summer but our winter. James, our Village Manager, decided to take the secondary school children and the older primary school children on a day trip to the National Museum in Dar es Salaam. The museum, originally named after the British King George VI when it was opened in 1940, houses exhibitions on First Man and his emergence in the Rift Valley, colonial Tanzania as first ruled by the Germans as German East Africa and then by the British as the sovereign state of Tanganyika, and post-colonial when it and Zanzibar merged to form the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964.

A guide took our group around the Museum and explained issues such as slavery in Zanzibar and Oman to them. Afterwards each student wrote an essay on some aspect of their visit. Some chose the Iron Age, others Culture, the Evolution of Man, the Slave Trade and Colonisation.

James shared the essays with us and we were impressed. We could compare them with others they each wrote a year ago. In every case their English had improved, for some of them a great deal. Even those who still struggle with grammar will, I am sure, be able to make themselves understood with their spoken English. And we also learned some new facts from their essays. We now know that the Kiswahili for museum is “Makumbusho” and that Kilwa Island played a key role in the East African slave trade.

Meanwhile, our younger children enjoyed a day out at the beach. This is probably their favourite outing and there is great excitement and chatter as they drive in our two vans to the coast. When we started to go on this trip a few years ago virtually no children could swim, but now around half can at least manage a few strokes and a few are very confident in the water.

The mamas pack a picnic and, as you can see, they eat on tables in the shade. Games of hide and seek are played and of course football on the sandy shore. I am only sad we have no picture of the children returning to the Village after their day out. A few years ago, when Francesca went swimming with them, they were all so exhausted that most of them fell deeply asleep on the drive back home!

We are so very grateful that your support means that we can give all the children in our Village and the Reception Home positive experiences like these. With best wishes.

Alan Edwards Malaika Kids UK Chair

School Holiday Trips and Fun

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