Last holidays a group of Yr.10 and Yr.11 students traveled to the School of St Jude’s in Tanzania. Angus Gourley and Fin Grimmond share with us their experiences.

Last holidays I went on the Tanzania Immersion for two weeks of my Easter break. At first, I thought that it was going to take up a lot of my holiday and that it was going to be very religious based, however it was very different from what my original thoughts were, and I would highly recommend it. The original reason why I went was because I wanted to do a school trip, and this was one popped up at the end of year nine and I liked the idea of going to Africa. For the majority of the trip we stayed with the school of St Jude’s in Arusha, where we went on home visits with the local children, spent time at the local markets, went to indigenous places like maasai boma’s, played sport with the school kids and eating street food. However, the highlights of the trip were definitely interacting and playing with the locals and going on the safari. Interacting with the locals was a highlight as you never walked down the street without hearing the phrase “Ah white boy”, before they would try to sell you an overpriced item and walking down the small market alley with every shopkeeper trying to bargain with you was a fun experience. The other highlight was the safari and we started by going to Lake Manyara for half a day where we saw the first African animals on the edge of a huge lake. That night we stayed in a nice safari lodge where we woke up and went to the eighth wonder of the world, Ngorongoro Crater that had an abundance of wilder beast, zebras, African buffalo, flamingos, lions, hippos, elephants, warthogs and even managed to see a rhino. Over the two days we managed to see four of the big five African Animals, to tip it off we had the stereotypical crazy tour guide which made the trip entertaining. These trips often get knocked back by a lot of boys because they think it will take up a lot of their holiday, that it would be all about faith and that you would have to work but it is entirely different. It is going on a holiday doing the touristy parts but also doing the things that you would never do if you travelled there with your family, seeing the real side of the streets. I would differently recommend it to any boys who are thinking of doing it.
Angus Gourley.

During the Term One holidays I had the chance to travel across the world into a completely different living environment, to Tanzania in Africa on a Joeys immersion. Looking back one year ago, I had no idea what Tanzania was. When I decided to apply for the immersion I saw an opportunity to travel to Africa with the school, it seemed like something I was willing to try. Months later after being accepted onto the tour I began to research the destination to see many aspects of bad health problems, threats of danger and an update on the Australian safe traveller website stating ‘take high degree of caution’. This was not the case while being there. When it came to the experience I look back on it being unforgettable, I experienced things that I will never again. I was able to witness children from the poorest of backgrounds wanting to become heart surgeons or engineers, these kids had dreams of this at eight years old. I ran across a complete dirt soccer field to be chased by 50 African children. We went on safari to see many animals and some being lions, elephants and zebras. Each day we would observe how proud and excited the kids were to have us at their school, seeing eighteen white people every day was a big deal. In small groups we went to the St Jude’s student’s homes where I saw how lucky we have it over in Australia, the families consisted of normally three children and usually just a mother. They would mostly live in tiny mud houses that had 1 or 2 very small rooms, though this didn’t affect how happy they were at all. All of these experiences ultimately gave me another look at how I live and how eye-opening some people live and work to survive. I definitely recommend the trip for boys in the coming years, I took a lot out of it and had a fantastic time.
Fin Grimmond.