FranznTanz!: 29 January. Form 2: An adventure to Choma.

It was agreed upon by all the staff in our initial planning meeting, that the boarders needed to have an outing from SEGA atleast once a month. One suggestion was to arrange a home visit, however, due to some challenges, the staff decided to roster monthly excursions: Form 2 one weekend Form 1 another. The aim being twofold:
1. An adventure
2. Either pure pleasure OR it could be linked to a subject teacher’s curriculum

Ideally the students would be part of the decision making process.

Having chosen to take the first excursion, I put the choice to the Form 2’s: Swimming?.....A University visit?.....

Their response was unanimous: CHOMA – A hike to the water falls into the beautiful Uluguru Mountains.

CHECK: bus booked/ bread rolls/ drink bottles/ peanut butter and pocket knife/ Mustafa, our guide/ fruit/ 24 excited girls/ Elena & Camilla/ Polly & Martha (didn’t want to miss the excitement) and Shalin!!

Excitedly we walked our dirt track to meet the bus in the early, crisp Saturday morning.....

We heard them before we saw them......

The entire busload of girls was singing at the top of their voices. They finally appeared, waving madly out the windows. They welcomed us onto the bus with no less than a heroine’s welcome!! We were overwhelmed.

Not having seen Mustafa since before Christmas, they gave him a second emotional welcoming as he boarded. Many heads turned at the singing belting out the windows as we passed them on our journey into town and onto rock Gardens where the hike began.

Walking, singing, onwards, upwards, eating any fruit that hung across the path, laughing, splashing in any refreshing pool of flowing water, greetings, meetings, friends, family passing travelling down to the town with produce or up to the gardens to collect produce to sell..... Passing life in the tiny villages....weariness, heat, rest ...encouragement....