Falling In Love with Orkeeswa

Over the last two days, Groton has continued to fall in love with the beautiful Orkeeswa community, students, and faculty.

Yesterday, the lodge was serving “tropical juice”, a mix of what we assumed to be mango and pineapple juice. This delicious blend caused led to its rationing among students and started our day off on the right foot :). Upon arriving at Orkeeswa, Groton students enjoyed a brief yet spirited game of knockout, an opportunity that allowed me (Adalynne) to play basketball for the first time in six years! This was followed by tea time, and afterwards, all Groton students participated in a Life Skills class. This is a required class for Orkeeswa students and class sections are seperated by male and female. It covers issues relevant to the lives of students in Tanzania (such as rights and responsibilties) and aims to educate students about the ways in which they might encounter these topics in their lives and the role they play in the surrounding communities.
Before lunch, I participated in my filmmaking class where we brainstormed scenes and plots for our short films, a project we are aiming to finish before Groton departs Tanzania. We are creating one film about two students (one from each school) who step out of their comfort zones to find a friend in each other. I have loved getting to work so closely with the same group of students, supervisors, and teachers on this assignment as it has allowed me to forge deeper connections with individuals and with the group as a whole as we work together each day for several hours. 
After Assembly and lunch, Groton students were given the chance to participate in various classes and activities for the rest of the afternoon. I worked with Pre-Form students in Robotics where we did computer coding on Scratch; I loved their enthusiasm and excitement as we coded several “sprites” to move across the screen and talk to each other. Additionally, we participated in music (many of us played the guitar which everyone enjoyed!) and played 2v2 basketball with each other, a fun and tiring way to end the day. Finally, throughout the day, nearly all of the Groton group were lucky enough to interact with Esther and Juliette, two adorable, affectionate, young girls (likely between two and five years old) who roam the Orkeeswa campus as their mothers work at the school. From holding hands, giving hugs, drawing chalk with us, and sitting with us during class, they both brought so much warmth and smiles to my day at multiple different points.
Today, we enjoyed group sing alongs to the playlist Laurie helped us create and enjoyed a Swahili lesson taught by an Orkeeswa teacher after tea time. Speaking nearly entirely in the target language, we learned several basic phrases and conversation starters and had short conversations with the Maasai mothers who were sweeping the basketball court nearby to practice. Afterward, I worked in the garden with a number of other Groton students and learned how to prepare soil for seedling planting. I also was lucky enough to get to take Laurie’s public speaking workshop along with a group of both Groton and Orkeeswa students. For eighty minutes, we focused on the five main principles of public speaking - diction, posture, facial expressions, gestures, and volume - through games that left us laughing and cheering for one another. After lunch, I returned to filmmaking class and wrote screenplays for our short films with my group before we began the casting process. I also enjoyed playing guitar (again!) today and was excited to observe students and the teacher as they recorded a cover of multiple songs. After asking the teacher, I learned a bit about the software they were using and loved to be back in the studio recording world after taking Music Technology in the winter and Songwriting in the spring at Groton. Around 5:45pm, we reluctantly made our way back to the bus and later enjoyed yet another delicious meal back at the lodge. Tonight, the lodge staff combined the two large tables, and we therefore truly ate as a group for the first time. Per our typical routine, we enjoyed our campfire together and indulged in a discussion that spanned from appreciations about our days to how we could work to implement what makes Orkeeswa’s community so inspiring and amazing into Groton’s community.
Despite only having visited the school for three days (for my group which departed from Boston), all of us are already greeted by name by multiple students each morning and leave in the afternoons, looking forward to reuniting with our friends the following morning. I am beyond excited to see what the rest of this experience will bring and feel extremely grateful to Orkeeswa School for the hospitality and kindness, to our amazing chaperones and the GEO Team back at school, and for the opportunity to get to visit Tanzania and meet people who I know will continue to inspire me for many years to come.