Here are some comments from customers who have already been to Tanzania with i-to-i:
Tanzania - Teaching"Yesterday it rained - that was not included in the price of my ticket!!!!! - note to self to try to get refund from Kenya Airways - got drenched walking to school - which is a 50min walk there and back (great training for Kilimanjaro!). Today the sun is out and oh my god its hot (not that I am complaining but being a girl you have to cover up your knees and shoulders), something which takes a little getting used to.
We as volunteers are pretty spoilt but it makes for happy volunteers - we have a cook called Cecy who is fab and the dinners are actually really nice but I am already missing my breakfasts - no cereal and no milk for a cup of earl grey!! We have a cleaner called Scolastica who is also fab and washes our clothes too. She has a daughter called Elizabeth who is totally spoilt by everyone and is the biggest cheat at playing cards! We also have a maasi warrior dude called Landis (a.k.a our security man) and he has the biggest earrings I have ever seen!
Now I have been here a week I almost feel like a local, the first few days I felt like a celeb - EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE says hello to you, so by the time you have got to where you want to be you are exhausted by conversation! It is quite like being on a film set!
So on to the school I am teaching in. The kids are just amazing, I don't know how else to describe them. I am teaching 2 classes in Year 1 who are about 12-14 and then a class in Year 4 who are between 17-20, and there are between 50 and 70 in each class. Year 4 have exams in October so I am helping them to revise, although they are the same as everyone else their age in the world and the opposite sex is a lot more interesting to study than English!! The boys have mastered the art of making their uniform look trendy: trousers rolled up, no socks, funky shoes (Tanzania funky), and football tops under their shirts which are unbuttoned and not tucked in - maybe this makes them more attractive to the girls who knows. As well as English I am teaching the girls sport twice a week - this I thought would be obviously a lot easier than the English but hell no!!
I have 70+ girls to teach at a time and they have NO equipment and they get pushed into the corner of the playing field because the boys HAVE to play football and have balls, goal posts and a full size pitch. The girls love to play but because they don't get the attention they are less confident than the boys and this is evident throughout all the lessons they have. So I am going to teach them to play rounders and netball and hopefully introduce some silly team games. I already know that I am not going to want to leave them in 7 weeks time - and it has already started to get my mind thinking of what I want to do when I get home"
Victoria Catchpole, Teach English in Moshi, Tanzania
