June 5th was World Environmental Day and we went to Mgulasi Secondary School to do a school clean up with their Environmental Club. We ended up getting the whole club and about 30 more kids to come do a lap around the school with garbage bags and gloves to clean up their school. They were really eager to fill the bags, which made it even more fun because they really searched hard for as much garbage as they could find. They jumped over ditches and climbed into bushes every chance they got!
When we got to the back of the school the kids got to tie up their garbage bags and plant about 30 trees in holes that were already dug in for them. They had a lot of fun and got to plant and water them from a tap outside of one of the classrooms. At this point the majority of them discovered we had cameras so they spent most of their time trying to get pictures taken with us, but we still got everything finished with them that we wanted to get done. They filled about 20 bags most of the way with garbage which just shows how littering is a big problem in Morogoro, but its also because they just burn a lot of the garbage instead of having it taken to a dump. Even in our homestay the garbage goes into the street and about every week it gets lit on fire.
I think that was one of the good things about this event - the kids got to see how much nicer their school looked when it was kept clean and hopefully they'll learn now not to throw garbage anywhere in the hopes it gets burnt eventually. The trees will grow nice and big for shade and hopefully they can teach future students to keep their school clean.
One of the Teachers at Mgulasi helping us pick up garbage and supervising the students with us. He's actually a reeeally funny guy - he always speaks to us in Swahili and "signs" to us so we understand even though he speaks perfectly good English.
Searching for garbage around their field in the front of the school.
This is the point that they all discovered we had cameras... As soon as one asked to get a picture taken everyone else in the area crams into the shot. Sooo funny
There was a bunch of puddles in the grass so everyone piled in along the side of the school so we didn't sink :P
More garbage collecting
Group shot!! Look for the white girl!
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Me and Grace - She's one of the club members and she's hilarious :)
Planting trees!!
Me planting a tree :)
Norbert and Franki
More of the kids having fun :)
Such a good day... they're so much fun to be around and we're starting to get them to learn our names so we're not called "mzungu" all the time. Totally rewarding day.
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