We Made It!!!

After a long, long journey we are finally in our hostel in Arusha. The flight to Kilimanjaro Airport (via Atlanta and Amsterdam) was thankfully straight forward and without any delay. We are all well and accounted for (and so is our luggage!!) and the students are settling down for a late dinner before we all get some much needed rest. Tomorrow morning we begin our preliminary orientation to the trip and after lunch we will bounce across the Serengeti to the Maasai Steppe and then finally to our home for the next two plus weeks at the Noloholo Environmental Center.  Jetlagged excitement permeates the group - our work begins now. Stay tuned for more to come...Yee-haw!

Tanzania Service Learning Project

Welcome!

Welcome to the Tanzania Service Learning Blog. This blog is designed to keep you updated on our service learning project in Tanzania as it happens. We will be updating the blog as often as possible while on location at the Noloholo Research Center and surrounding communities. We promise to blog with as much regularity as we can, but please remember that we are remotely located without consistently direct access to electricity or internet (and we will be concentrating on our work on the ground as much as possible). Nonetheless, our blogs are certain to be chocked full of updates and quips about our journey.

We are very excited for our new project and we hope that you enjoy our posts. Please share our blog with others that you think might be interested. The more the merrier! You can also find additional information about this program on the InterConnections 21 website: www.ic21.org

Thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far.

The Program

InterConnections 21 and Arcadia Service Learning are embarking on a service trip to northern Tanzania for up to 15 carefully selected high school students from July 28 - August 15, 2014. The purpose of this trip is to offer students an opportunity to engage in experiential learning about an African nation, its cultures and related critical global issues that most young Americans are not exposed to first-hand. The participants will be called upon to undertake a community service project of building a library adjacent to the school in community of Loibor Siret and will experience the  satisfaction of serving others. The library will the first of its kind in the area. Student will also participate in teaching in the school, conduct animal counts on the Maasai Steppe, monitor game cameras, and participate in building "living walls" to reduce the conflict between lions and the cattle of the Maasai herdsmen. They will also do an independent study on a topic of their choice related to the trip. Upon their return to Jackson, they will make a public presentation about their studies so that our community can benefit from their experiences and they can further develop their leadership skills.

Who We Are

InterConnections 21 (IC 21) is a registered 501 c(3) non-profit organization operating out of Wilson, WY. Our mission is to help US schools and communities, particularly in the Northern Rockies, learn about critical world issues and take action. To this end, we have sponsored and led groups of Wyoming students on educational trips to Ecuador, France, Ghana, Mexico, Switzerland and various locations throughout the US. IC 21 is also the sponsoring organization behind Teton County Model UN, a co-sponsor of the UN Student Conference on Human Rights in NYC, the mentoring organization behind Students for Sustainability, and the sponsor of community events featuring speakers such as Ishmael Beah, Valentino Achak Deng, and Paul Farmer. More info is available at www.ic21.org.

Arcadia Service Learning is a Wyoming-registered LLC. Our mission is to provide community service programing for students that integrates social-emotional learning, capacity for leadership, development of character, cultural awareness and empathy. We collaborate with some of the most remote and economically challenged communities in the world, designing and providing sustainable projects that foster meaningful connections for our students and our hosts. Mark Pommer and Yara Abad, the founders of the organization, have led Wyoming students on several service learning projects to Ghana and consulted on similar programming with multiple schools and organizations in the USA.