How Tanzania changed my life
Last month Alex Burrows wrote about his first experiences of Tanzania as a sports teacher at the Dar Independent School (DIS) in Dar Es Salaam. This month he explains how he set about improving the school’s sporting performance:
The enthusiasm to learn was there, and it was just a case of providing a
strategic direction for their collective aspirations. Managing and organising
the football sides with extra training sessions and inter-school matches,
I was fortunate to meet a handful of extremely talented and dedicated youngsters;
ironically back-firing somewhat when we were thrashed in the staff versus
student football matches!Many a night was spent out on the town with local friends and teachers where a good game of pool goes down very well. Despite being one of a very few ‘mzungus’ (white people) in Dar, I was out socialising with Tanzanians, welcomed into the local community (mainly at the bars and pool clubs!), speaking Swahili and keeping life very much African. A fresh fish barbecue was held for my birthday at a bar next to the beach with 20 local Tanzanian friends, enjoying music and dancing until late into the night.
Many people live in Africa but aren’t really living an integrated African life, leaving their houses to drive in air-conditioned Land Cruisers to work and back again, avoiding local contact. This was not for me. Keeping it as real as possible was the name of the game!
Whilst Tanzania is still one of the poorest nations on earth, efforts from people like Susan Huxtable, the dedicated headmistress of DIS, are giving these children of the future an extraordinary opportunity to build their country. Tanzania is unassuming and that’s what makes it special. Thank you, Susan!