School holidays – fun and learning combined

In Tanzania the school year coincides with the calendar year and is divided into two terms. In June our children were on holiday and James, the Village Manager, decided to take the older students on a trip to the Village Museum in Dar es Salaam.

The Village Museum is an attempt to recreate the distinct housing and other customs that the 37 tribes of Tanzania possessed before the arrival of colonial powers. Many of these customs survived well into the twentieth century and even now it is easy to forget that in Tanzania the first language spoken at home is generally a tribal dialect. Kiswahili initially developed as a coastal trading language but is now used in much of East Africa, including Tanzania. English has become very important commercially but is usually the third language learned.Eleven of the older primary school students took part, as did all eighteen of our secondary school students. They each wrote a short essay, in English, on their return to the Children’s Village in Mkuranga.

One girl wrote, “We meet with Madam Zakia (the tour guide), a very beautiful woman was dressed properly. In short she was very smart. She started to ask us, “What is a museum?” We answered correct exactly. We are very clever girls and boys. After that she started explain to us that in Tanzania we have got seven museums. In my life I know that we have only one museum so I was very surprised to hear that.”A boy wrote about three of the tribes – the Haa, the Sukuma and the Gogo. “The Gogo is the tribe found in the central region of Tanzania in Dodoma (now the capital city.) This tribe are good in farming and livestock keeping. They make their houses very short when you look at the outside but very tall inside because of their semi desert climate and strong winds.” The children explored the different dwellings and were particularly impressed by the tribe that always placed snail shells on the top of their huts. They were surprised to learn that monogamous marriages were not always the case and that the chief often had several wives.

Another girl was excited by the journey to and from the museum. The van went over a new bridge and then on a ferry – for many this was the first time they had been on a ferry and they were anxious to learn whether we have ferries too in our country.The holidays are over now and all students are back at school. The eleven primary school children are studying hard for their Standard 7 exams, and we hope that most of them will go on to do O levels at secondary school. We thank you for your generous support that allows the children in our care to have experiences like this. With very best wishes

Alan Edwards Malaika Kids UK Chair

School holidays – fun and learning combined

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