Reflecting back..."Would I do it again?"...
I've been home nearly over a week since returning from Tanzania and it's still a little crazy to think I spent 6 weeks in such a different part of the world.
The biggest thing without a doubt was seeing the difference in how people live, even when we weren't directly shown the real picture for many of the people living there. Stories from children walking over an hour to get to school in the morning, the majority of students not having any lunch, the state of the classrooms and lack of basic resources such as tables, chairs and even access to water. It was dramatically different to my secondary education - with our school moving to a a brand new site costing millions when I was 13.
I don't think anything could really have prepared me or any of the other volunteers out in Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa for the first time about what the experience would be like. Yet I without a doubt enjoyed volunteering for Warwick in Africa this summer despite the challenges, hurdles and exhausting periods that were bound to happen!
The big questions from many of the students on the final day was "When are you coming back?", "Are you coming again next year?". Well, it's highly unlikely that I will be returning either to Morogoro or going to any of the other WiA locations next summer as a result of a scholarship programme that I'm currently undertaking. As a result, I'll probably be spending 10 weeks working for Lloyds Banking Group instead. However, I won't be ruling out applying to volunteer in the summer I graduate as the summer of 2020 is a long time away! Whether I'd return to Morogoro, or even Tanzania would be a big question I'd consider, as while I'd love to return (and maybe find a way to add a Kilimanjaro climb in somewhere!), I'd also love to see the teaching and cultural differences in a different country like South Africa and Ghana.
Another question I think I've tried to answer from this experience was: "Is teaching for me?". At the moment, while enjoying teaching and having to really fill the shoes of a teacher out there, I do think in the UK it would be much harder to have the respect of students and I'm not sure if a teaching career would keep me interested, engaged and fulfilled as a career for life. I do enjoy teaching as well as tutoring (which I'll be continuing again this year in GCSE and A-Level Mathematics and Economics), but at the moment I'm still searching for a job and career that really pulls me in even more.
The biggest thing without a doubt was seeing the difference in how people live, even when we weren't directly shown the real picture for many of the people living there. Stories from children walking over an hour to get to school in the morning, the majority of students not having any lunch, the state of the classrooms and lack of basic resources such as tables, chairs and even access to water. It was dramatically different to my secondary education - with our school moving to a a brand new site costing millions when I was 13.
I don't think anything could really have prepared me or any of the other volunteers out in Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa for the first time about what the experience would be like. Yet I without a doubt enjoyed volunteering for Warwick in Africa this summer despite the challenges, hurdles and exhausting periods that were bound to happen!
The big questions from many of the students on the final day was "When are you coming back?", "Are you coming again next year?". Well, it's highly unlikely that I will be returning either to Morogoro or going to any of the other WiA locations next summer as a result of a scholarship programme that I'm currently undertaking. As a result, I'll probably be spending 10 weeks working for Lloyds Banking Group instead. However, I won't be ruling out applying to volunteer in the summer I graduate as the summer of 2020 is a long time away! Whether I'd return to Morogoro, or even Tanzania would be a big question I'd consider, as while I'd love to return (and maybe find a way to add a Kilimanjaro climb in somewhere!), I'd also love to see the teaching and cultural differences in a different country like South Africa and Ghana.
Another question I think I've tried to answer from this experience was: "Is teaching for me?". At the moment, while enjoying teaching and having to really fill the shoes of a teacher out there, I do think in the UK it would be much harder to have the respect of students and I'm not sure if a teaching career would keep me interested, engaged and fulfilled as a career for life. I do enjoy teaching as well as tutoring (which I'll be continuing again this year in GCSE and A-Level Mathematics and Economics), but at the moment I'm still searching for a job and career that really pulls me in even more.
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