August of 2023, a team from Canada ventured to Tanzania, East Africa, for a couple weeks to join the work of EastARM along the Rufiji River. In that time they taught in three different village schools, kindergarten to grades 7, fed hundreds of meals to hungry kids, experienced the true African landscape, its open plains, bush elephants and river hippos – in doing so the team received a warm welcome back from the mission and partnering village schools.
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:14
Pictured above are the Children’s Dinner Clubs where East Africa River Mission feeds hundreds of kids weekly in four villages – Ngorongo, Kipo, Kipugira and Mloka. The team from Canada helped prepare and serve the meals, as well as playing with the village kids who regularly attend. It’s a big task for the mission! These local children are hungry, but more than that, the opportunities for their development are limited in these Rufiji River communities. We organize youth sports leagues, love these kids and work closely with their school teachers to help them grow in wisdom and stature.
(above) the famous sunset riverboat cruise of the Rufiji River, where one shares the water with nile crocodiles and hippopotamus. It’s a great chance for mission-goers, staying at Baker & Sons lodge, to appreciate the beauty and awe of God’s raw creation in Africa.
(below) our team from Canada visited three separate village schools while on mission in August of 2023, two primary schools in Ngorongo village and one in Kipo. Between eight classes, kindergarten to grade seven, the school populations are roughly 300+ kids. On average there are 4 teachers to handle the full daily workload. The Canadians taught every grade level, each class from the opening anthem to the closing of the school day. The young students adored their visiting teachers, and the team cherished their time with the kids. The regular teachers were thankful for the day off and warmly welcomed our mission to return again!
The team had a variety of experiences working with EastARM in Tanzania. There was never a dull moment! Transportation to the lodge, traveling over the hills of Pugu in the team bus, and in between villages, afforded a feast for the eyes. At meals the team quickly learned to never turn your back on the food, because the monkeys in the surrounding trees would snatch any unguarded morsel. Preparation of the celebration meal on Sunday gave a new experience for most of the team members, cleaning a cow and cooking over an open fire. The infamous man-eating lion grave of the Rufiji was an opportunity for a team photo, and the night skies contained more stars than most had ever seen.
(above) staying at a genuine safari lodge, we’d be amiss if we didn’t host the short-term mission team on a safari game drive of the animal reserve in our Rufiji backyard. The team saw families of bush elephants, a plethora of giraffe, a pride of lazy lions and many more African beasts, great and small, from the vantage of our open-viewing vehicles.
(below) before the team flew out, after a week of early mornings and late evenings faithfully laboring in the hot dusty Rufiji villages, there was one final stop at the historic town of Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Among other relics and ancient stone buildings, at an old coastal catholic mission, Dr. David Livingstone’s body was laid in state before returning home to the UK. This was the final place he would touch African soil, and the last stop for our team before returning to Canada.
