Our journey to Tanzania started at 5.00 am on the 5th of may when we travelled by bus from Nairobi, Kenya to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Apart from the usual challenges at the border, the very long bus journey went smoothly and we arrived in Dar es Salaam.

Now it was time to find Moshi, our contact in the city. Since we were able to contact Moshi via the bus staff’s phone (we didn’t have a Tanzanian SIM card after all), it was quite easy. He drove us to our hostel and helped us buy some food. We should eat chips mayai (chips in egg) more often on this trip. The next morning we started early again to our first of the many projects we were to visit during our time in Tanzania.

After a one-hour drive through Dar es Salaam, we arrived in Moshi’s home village, where we were lucky enough to attend the finals of the GO INTERSCHOOL HANDBALL TOURNAMENTS. First we won a show match against the selection of all participants. Afterwards, we had the great honour of selecting the MVPs of the boys and girls finals, as well as presenting the trophies and medals. After our first exhausting day, we went back to the hostel. On Sunday morning, we continued our journey to Zanzibar.

On this part of our exchange we were accompanied by Kombo, an old friend from Moshi.  After arriving in Zanzibar by ferry, we went on to Matemwe by local transport (Dala-Dala).

After a two-day holiday trip to the north-east coast, we went back to Stone Town where we met Kombo again. Together we drove to the Secondary School in Mwanakwerekwe where we had a look at the sports project and had a training session. In the evening, Kombo took us to the best street food stall, where we ate our way through the local offerings.

On Wednesday, as usual, the alarm clock rang early and we drove to the Ministry of Education, where we met the people responsible for handball in Zanzibar and familiarised them with our project. Afterwards we went to another project in Ndidyani. After arriving at the school, we finally had the long-awaited breakfast, which consisted of a very oily chicken soup, chapati and casava. After the rich breakfast, we went on to the sports field in sweltering heat, where we led another extensive training session together with Kombo and Moshi.

Early on Friday morning, we left for the well-deserved weekend by dala-dala.  We spent the last two days in Zanzibar lazing between butt-bombing in the pool and playing volleyball on the beach.

Sunday after breakfast we drove back to Stone-Town where we met Kombo again at the Secondary School in Mwanakwerekwe and then drove to the airport. After another long day of travelling, we arrived back in Kenya. The last hurdle was to find a place to stay for the night. Luckily we were able to sleep on the sofa/floor with our colleagues Sophia and Carol.

Now we are all back to our normal everyday lives with a proper lack of sleep and look back exhausted and satisfied on a very successful exchange in Tanzania.

Konrad, Paul and Henning