Enjoying Saba Saba Day!

Saba Saba Day, 7th. July, is a public holiday in Tanzania. It celebrates the founding in 1954 of the political party, TANU, the Tanganyika African National Union. Like schools and businesses throughout Tanzania, Arise School was closed for the day. Tamsin, one of our three volunteers at the school, sent us the account below of how they enjoyed the day by taking three of the pupils from the school out for a special treat for the day. Two of the little girls, Neema and Joy, are sponsored through ACE. Both without families to care for them, they live in accommodation provided by the school and paid for by their sponsors.

“On Saba Saba, one of Tanzania’s national holidays, we decided to treat two of the children to a swim at Kia Lodge. Along with our new Tanzanian family, Martha, Judie, Faith, Prosper and James, we all bundled into a dala dala (local bus) and were on our way.

We were all very excited but grey clouds loomed and, sure enough, the heavens opened and it poured with rain. However, our optimism for a good day’s swim was not dampened (excuse pun!). But luck was not on our side, we discovered, when the receptionist greeted us by explaining that the pool was closed for cleaning!

It was disappointing but Kia Lodge is set in beautiful grounds which we admired as we ate a lovely lunch. The girls were on their best behaviour, acting like VIPs wearing our oversized sunglasses! After lunch, we walked and chatted, as well as plane spotting by the pool side, so despite not swimming, it was still an eventful and enjoyable day. The girls snoozed all the way home!”