I’m preparing to leave once again on a journey that will cross one ocean and a few continents. This time I'm co-leading an Arizona State University Global Studies service-learning course in rural Tanzania (in cooperation with Amizade Global Service-Learning). While all the business schools and policy wonks are singing the praises of globalization, many Americans still can’t find Iraq and Afghanistan on a map, so let me take a moment to describe Tanzania’s location. It’s pretty much smack in the North-South center of the East African coast. Its coast and outlying islands of Zanzibar and Pemba have long hosted a trade in spices between the Middle East, parts of Asia, and the eastern part of continental Africa.
It’s the birthplace of humankind, home to the famous Serengeti and its Big Five safari animals, and it was a center of hope in post-colonial African nationalism and socialist experimentation. Rock-n-Roll lovers might know Freddie Mercury was born in a Zoroastrian Community on Zanzibar. It’s topography shifts from pale brown, low-lying mountains in the West to the massive, stretching, dusty vegetated plain that is the Serengeti, and along to humidity on the continental coast edged by what is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and unique islands in the world (Zanzibar).
On our journey, we’ll first fly into Entebbe Airport near Kampala, Uganda. That’s no small thing. The students begin in Phoenix, fly all day to New York, get on a night flight to Brussels, arrive in Europe in the morning, and then fly all day to central Africa – Uganda. We’ll step off the plane together into thick, muggy air – Uganda is lush and green with vegetation. At the airport we’ll meet one of Amizade’s local coordinators, who will be with us throughout the program. That night we’ll stay at a hotel in Kampala. Our bodies will be ready for some real rest after effectively two full days of travel, but the students will be learning how to adjust bed nets over their beds, marveling at Kampala’s traffic patterns, and taking in Africa on the ground for the first time. Rest will nonetheless come quickly.
In the morning we’ll pile into vans, secure our luggage on top, and begin the long journey over road south toward the border with Tanzania. We’ll scoot past fields and fields of banana trees, people moving produce on bicycles, markets, and locals hawking food and water to every passing bus and car. On the trip we’ll cross the equator and we’ll cross the border into Tanzania, getting our visas there.
A few hours south into Tanzania, as the road gets closer to Bukoba, the prominent city on the West Coast of lake Victoria, we’ll veer right and head West toward Rwanda. The road will turn to dirt, we’ll pop over a few bumps and ruts, climb several hills, and eventually after one particularly long climb upward, find ourselves in the community that is Kayanga Village. There we’ll stay for three weeks, learning about development issues, developing the most basic of Swahili skills (one of Tanzania’s official languages), tutoring in English (the other national language), assisting with some water harvesting efforts, and supporting the development of a survey relating to computers in schools. Each of these various service initiatives comes at the direction of community partners there, something I’ll talk about much more in the coming month.
Following our three weeks in Kayanga, we’ll head East to Bukoba, catch the ferry overnight to Mwanza, and go on a safari from Mwanza, across the Serengeti to Arusha. We’ll have one night in Arusha before flying out to Zanzibar, where we’ll be able to think through some of the lessons learned in the previous weeks, go on a spice tour, check out the amazing small city of Stonetown, and relax and swim.
If you're interested in keeping up with this journey, its relationship to development issues, or the inevitable reviewing and sharing of related books, just enter your email in the box on the right or follow me on twitter. As always, I'm eager to hear your comments and questions.
Thanks!
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