T.I.A. - This is Africa

Amongst the English speaking people in Africa, there is a common saying….This Is Africa (or T.I.A.). Everyday we experience something that makes it easy to just smile, nod your head and say “This Is Africa.”


Today was our 2nd day at placement, and 1st day to actually do some work. Mama Mrema was out sick (she is diabetic and recently had eye surgery), which actually made things much easier. I started off the morning by teaching some of the more advanced girls how to use excel. They have used it before, but have only copied tables of data from other documents. They did not really understand what they were doing with the tables.

I worked with them to build a table to determine how much they could profit on sales of the clothing they are sewing in tailoring class. It was VERY tiring work, as their Engilsh is not very good, and nina sema Kiswahili kidogo sana sana sana (I speak Kiswahili very very very little). The girls, however, were very happy with the lesson. I spent the rest of my time there working on excel templates they could use for their individual businesses. They include worksheets to determine the cost to make each piece of clothing, information on the number sold, and how much it was sold for. I also started to put together a budgeting template, as budgeting is a foreign concept for many of these girls. This is Africa.

The afternoon activities included another Swahili class where I learned to say the following:

Jina langu ni Jessica - My name is Jessica

Mimi ni Mmarekani – I am American

Ninatoka California – I come from California

Ninajitolea WEECE - I am volunteering at WEECE

Nina sema Kiswahili kidogo sana – I speak Kiswahili very little

Ninipenta chokoleti – I like Chocolate



The remainder of the afternoon/early evening included a trip to the Macheme area (the Kilimanjaro route I will be climbing) to visit an orphanage. The orphanage is only 4 years old, and I was impressed by the quality of the facilities. We spent a little over an hour playing with the 1-2 year olds, then spent another ½ hour playing with the 2-4 year olds. Such cute little kids! Almost makes me want to pull an Angelina! ;) Just kidding.

On our way home, we almost hit a herd of cattle and goats that were in the middle of the street in the middle of the village we were driving through. Not every day do you see that! This is Africa!