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Fourth Break
Sunday, April 9, 1967. Dear Mom, Happy birthday to you tomorrow. Wow, 52 years! The boat to the little town of Bukoba, on the east side of Lake Victoria near the Ugandan border, shoved off at 11 a.m. last Thursday. My job was to escort the Bwiru girls from Bukoba home for the school break. […]
Fifth Term
Wednesday, May 3 Dear Family, Back at school after four days at Ukiruguru, an agricultural training center on the other side of town. About twenty teachers gathered to learn techniques for teaching field biology. For our first exercise we caught giant grasshoppers, abundant on the grounds, then killed them with chloroform and mounted them. You […]
Fifth Break
I left school early to get to Loitokitok, Kenya for the start of the Outward Bound Mountain School. It’s a tough course, and usually it’s for policemen and other leader-types. This was the only course for young women that year. Most of the male instructors went to the coast for another type of course. As […]
Sixth Term
Monday, September 18 Mwanza Dear Pop, Mom and Carol, We shifted classes around, expecting three teachers would leave for National Service but then the plans changed and they are still here and teaching, which is great for the rest of us. Right now I’m only teaching 20 periods a week, because I was supposed to […]
Looking Back on the Peace Corps Experience
Those years in Tanzania were historic not only for me but for the country. Two years before my arrival, Tanganyika joined Zanzabar to form the new country. Mwalimu (teacher) Julius Nyerere became the first president, a brilliant and peace-loving man doing his best to guide his country through the pitfalls of independence. It was a […]
Mountain Women: Outward Bound Kenya
Willing to try anything during my Peace Corps service, I applied to be a temporary instructor at the Outward Bound Mountain School. Located in Loitokitok, Kenya on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the school courses were for men with one exception. Once that year, young women from secondary schools throughout East Africa participated in the […]
Basic Training
Fifteen hours out of Mwanza, the rattling bus made its final turn into Arusha, Tanzania, and a solitary snow-capped peak swung into view. My heart flipped. I was on my way to join the Outward Bound Mountain School (OBMS) and to climb the legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro that loomed enormous in the sky as we approached. […]
On the Mountain
At the morning meeting of instructors, John announced our first expedition. My heart flipped. When he announced this to the students, the room started buzzing with excitement. A few were quiet, though everyone had been told the agenda at the beginning. In any case, being active at the higher altitude of the school had given […]
To the Plains
After days of physical conditioning and orienteering classes, practicing with maps and compasses to find their way, it was time to test the students’ abilities. Our next challenge was in the bush: a flat landscape flanked by Tsavo and Amboseli Game Reserves. Recently, one of the school employees had speared a lion near the school […]
Climbing Kilimanjaro
August 21, OBMS, Loitokitok Kilimanjaro waited while classes and physical conditioning resumed. Each person prepared for the final expedition with excitement, some with a touch of fear. I’d only hiked a few lesser peaks in central Oregon on trips that took a whole day up and back. Mount Kilimanjaro rose to 19,000 feet, its legends […]