News and Diaries

Harry Maitland and Allan Sheriff in Tanzania

( Last Updated: 05-12-2007 )

Five months shacked up among the foothills of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, alongside Masai warriors and living on rice and beans, may sound pretty ordinary but being assistant English and PE teachers (and friends) to 300 kids in a school like Nkwarungo Primary was an experience of a lifetime!

Apart from teaching English, we wanted to introduce rugby to the football-obsessed pupils. However, we faced loud and continuous protests until we brought out the footballs and got a game going. A main concern of Africa and Asia Venture (AV) was that we, as volunteer assistant teachers, actually taught something to our classes and didn't waste out time drinking 10p beers. We did drink quite a lot of beer but also taught for 15-20 hours every week and filled masses of our spare time with sports coaching - especially football!

Bizarre experiences were a daily occurrence and some even ceased to be unusual, such waiting for a dalla-dalla (taxi van) for an hour or so before one would zoom past, packed with cows with their heads out of the windows - all behaving as if it was part of their daily routine!

Travelling on our gap year gave us limitless opportunities to do exactly what we wanted. Amongst other things, we managed to tackle raging grade 5 rapids on the Nile (got wet), climb Mt Kilimanjaro (became exhausted walking to the toilet), see the Ngoragora Crater (the unofficial 8th Wonder of the World) and visit Lake Manyara (home of the tree-climbing lion).

We had read loads of quotes of what others had said about their gap years and the same things always came up: "life changing... amazing...unforgettable..." Through AV, we had challenged ourselves beyond what we thought we were capable of and found the experience...

...life changing, amazing and unforgettable.

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