An Awakening in Tanzania
An Adventure A Week
Hi, my name is Erin. I used to call myself an Adventure Philanthropist. Now I just say I’m a nomad.
I am curious about the world, with a thirst for adventure and exploring the unknown. I love learning about new communities and meeting interesting people, and I want to lead a more purposeful, fulfilling life.
I decided to spend 2 years traveling around the world, volunteering with local organizations. During this first global outing, I had plenty of adventures—some of them heartening, some of them harrowing.
I had just quit a loathsome job in the corporate world and decided to escape to Africa for a few months. I went whitewater rafting on the Nile, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, scuba-dived in Zanzibar, and trekked the Usambara Mountains.
It was during this journey high in the mountains of central Tanzania, that I got me thinking. I was staying in the town of Lushoto when a group of fellow travelers and I visited the Mpanga Primary School, which serves students between the ages of 7 and 14.
In preparation for our visit, we went on a shopping expedition to buy gifts for the children. Tito, our local guide, suggested that we buy paper, pencils, and chalk—necessities for the school.
But we collectively rejected Tito’s advice (school supplies seemed so boring) and instead bought sports equipment, musical instruments, and art supplies. Much more fun!
We arrived at Mpanga Primary and met the school principal in his office. We presented our gifts, and he thanked us profusely, telling us that the sports equipment and art supplies would make school more enjoyable and help encourage the kids to attend.
On a tour of the classrooms, we discovered that the children go to school in shifts due to a lack of space. Even so, they still sat squeezed 6 to a desk, sharing one book. Some classrooms had more than a hundred students in them. Groups of students sat on the floor.
Seeing the condition of the school made us tourists take a step back. It became clear that we had selfishly bought the children what we wanted them to have, not what they needed most. The students had few books and no paper for their assignments, and we had brought them playthings. We were the ones learning the lesson that day.
For their part, the students were excited to meet a group of foreign visitors and honored us by lining up outside the school to sing and dance for us in the African tradition.
Next, it was our turn to sing and dance. Our group of international travelers chose the one song that we all knew—the chicken dance—which we had practiced the night before.
We got up in front of the students and quacked with our hands, flapped our wings, and shook our tail feathers (more or less in unison). We pulled a couple of students from the audience to join us, and the kids were crying with laughter. Several fell to the ground in hysterics, especially when the principal got up to shake his rear end, too.
Afterwards, a couple of us decided to make a group donation to the school, which our tour company generously matched. Jointly, we were able to raise $800 toward the purchase of building supplies to make new desks and give those kids more room to learn.
The new desks were a much better use of funds than the flutes and paints we had originally bought. That said, the kids loved the soccer ball, which replaced a ball of rags they had been kicking around. Can you imagine 750 kids sharing one ball of rags?
Meeting these children was the highlight of my first trip to East Africa. Their commitment to learning and sense of fun made me realize what my travels could offer beyond simple enjoyment: personal enrichment, cultural awakening, and a more profound understanding of humanity. Pretty heady stuff.
This insight offered me an enormous opportunity to grow as an individual. I felt like I had been given a prized gift, and part of what I learned was that I could give a gift in return. 🦋
Have you ever had a cultural awakening? What did you learn? How did it change your life?
⭐ An Adventure A Week is a series based on my autobiography “Adventures Of A Nomad: 30 Inspirational Stories.” You can read the essays in order (or not). Can’t wait for the next installment? Get the book.
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Christened “Wander Woman” by National Geographic, Erin Michelson is a professional speaker and author of the Nomad Life™ series of travel books and guides, including the #1-ranked “Explore the World with Nomads.”