Michael Fadugbagbe ’21 describes his new surroundings and the first meeting with his reading buddy.
I had a tough night of sleep going into our first official day in Tanzania, but when I woke up I was so excited and the temperature was not too hot or too cold that I barely felt my lack of sleep. We started off the day at Papa’s and had a great breakfast, we talked about how beautiful the shore was and some chirps were exchanged between Mr. Emerson and myself in good fun.
Breakfast was cut short when we went down to the shore by Lake Victoria and basked in its glory. The quiet of water flowing to the south complemented with the crashing of the water on the coast’s sharp and jagged rocks. And as the villagers began to row their fishing boat for the morning catch, we took pictures of the sun reflecting on the water’s ripples and the rest of us standing on the coasts rocks, it was a beautiful sight.
By the afternoon, the group and I were so tired, the jet lag really hit us then, and it was much hotter so it only made the sleepiness more potent. But after some of us had a quick afternoon nap, I was excited and energized going into reading buddies. Reading with Mags was awkward at first, but after reading through Sylvester’s Magic Pebble and Judy Moody we had a quick conversation about Drake and life in Tanzania before getting to the Meeting Hall for prayer. I had a great conversation with her and we were much more comfortable.
During prayer time, there was a lot of singing, clapping, and table banging; I was so excited, it was an electric atmosphere. The singing was all in Swahili, and even though I had no clue what they were saying, I could tell from the body language and the emphasis that it was beautiful and the voice of the girl that was leading the singing was incredible.
