English Fluency Program: A True Cultural Exchange Experience
the 34 students were divided into small groups of 6 each and were paired with two volunteer teachers.
Your senses are renewed by participating in Nurturing Minds’ annual English Fluency program! Your eyes marvel at the beauty of the students’ genuine, gracious smiles. Your taste buds are delighted when eating sweet mangoes every day. Your nose breathes deeply to take in the scent of the everywhere-blooming flowers. Your ears perk up listening to the girls sing traditional songs. And…your heart feels so much love for the girls it is ready to burst!
Not only does the program provide a life-changing cultural and language experience between volunteers and SEGA students, but It is an experience that fills your heart with the love and joy of spending time with girls who live in unbelievable hardship, yet whose souls are pure and resilient. For two weeks you breathe in harmony with the girls you come to know and wish you could take home with you.
The program’s academic goals are to improve the English language ability of younger, new students in PreForm 1, and to improve students’ confidence levels. An outstanding curriculum guide makes even the volunteer with no teaching experience shine like a veteran educator with its varied, fun lessons that include vocabulary development, story reading, role playing and many enrichment activities.
To expand the girls’ English speaking and listening abilities, creative, cultural activities include introducing Halloween (since we were there at that time), singing, dancing, chess lessons and a science experiment.
Leaders Susan and Sue made it to the Choma waterfall with their group.
But, the overall cultural experience exceeds one’s expectations. Volunteers live on SEGA’s campus in its guest lodge for two weeks - complete with mosquito nets and private bathrooms. When not in the lodge, they are totally, 100% immersed in the students’ lives who are from the poorest of the poor families…Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The 270 students most likely wouldn’t be in school if it weren’t for SEGA/Nurturing Minds supporting them.
Volunteers have the opportunity to eat daily with the girls. Ugali (maize flour and water) anyone? Rice and beans? The food itself may not be your selection of choice. But, when you share meals in the banda (outside shelter dining area) where girls receive protein-rich, balanced meals, you forget about your personal culinary favorites and just enjoy conversation with the girls while they use their fingers to eat - without napkins!
When not eating with the girls, you enjoy Loveness’s traditional, Tanzanian cooking back at the guest lodge. Her chapati and chipsi mayai are the best! You will start adding coconut milk to everything when you return home.
The girls have a rigorous schedule and you are invited to become part of that. Upon waking in the morning, volunteers may join the girls on their mandatory 6:00 jog. Or, after dinner, there is the option of helping girls with their studies from 7:00-9:30 pm.
One of the program’s highlights is hiking with the girls to the Choma waterfall in the hills not too far from the school. The hike is a bit strenuous but well worth it when you reach the waterfall destination. Talk about cultural ex-change, though! Along the way you pass intermittent hillside homes where people live with no electricity, no water, no paved roads. Occasionally you see women washing clothes in the streams or walking the two hours downhill to town, barefoot, with baskets of fruit on their heads to sell in town.
Our eclectic group of volunteers.
And the safari trip! What a thrill for both volunteers and the students. An excursion to Mikumi National Park includes seeing amazing wild animals in their natural habitats - elephants, lions, zebras, wart hogs, and so many more. When the girls return to school at safari’s end, volunteers stay overnight in “tents” that provide experiences beyond any Girl Scout or Boy Scout memories. These tents have hot showers!
One other perk from participating in this program - making new friends. Under the leadership of Annie de Cossy Forsyth, the 12 of us volunteers developed a unique bond when we ventured out of our comfort zones to be part of the English Fluency program in a very different country, 8,000 miles on the other side of the world. Forever, we will share the memories of our time together with SEGA’s students-teaching, singing, eating, playing and exploring our world together.
Written by Susan Schneider, English Fluency Volunteer and Nurturing Minds’ Board Member
