2nd Day in Shamba

As early as 5 am in the morning, we could hear the bell ringing, signalizing the start of the day for the students. Acknowledging our long journey, we allowed ourself to stay in beds until 7 am. In the following days, we would often once more credit the impressive schedule that each student has to cope with . It starts with what they call "worship" in the morning. The students would asemble in the classroom where they sing different spirituals together. Afterwards, each student would pray on his own. After worship, the students clean theit room or study and exercise before the school starts. Around 70 students and 6 staff members are staying at the Shamba Center, although we did not meet all the students as some of them were in the city (Dar-Es-Salaam) to receive medical treatment. All the students stay in two classrooms (each one for the boys and the girls) where bunk beds have been put in and where at least two students share a bed. The Shamba Center has three main buildings, the biggest one with three classrooms (with two of them being used for the students to sleep in) and the other buildings with two classrooms each. During our stay, the girls occupied one classroom of one building with bunk beds while he boys joined the other classroom with the staff. The last building consist of the office and one classroom. This building is exactly the one that the project member from the tanzania Project 07 built last summer. There was also another house with two big rooms, funded by an organisation that sends volunteers to the Shamba Center and where three girls from the States were staying in. However, they left for the week we were staying; we only met Chris and Scott, both students from Florida who were helping at the Shamba Center for the last three months.
To be officially registered as a school, the Shamba Center needs to fulfill certain requirement set by the Tanzanian government, among which it is said that the school needs to be painted. Therefore, our first task was to paint the rooms and building as well as the ceiling.