In Tanzania all children are required to go to Primary School- even though many families are so poor they cannot afford to buy the school uniform for their children. At the end of Primary School students take an English test, and if they pass the test they are allowed to move on to Secondary School. Without going to Secondary School there is little chance of ever landing a job beyond manual labor—like working as a porter, hotel cleaner, cook, or farmer. And sadly, 20-30% of children pass the English test to get into Secondary School. After that only 5% of children graduate from Secondary School to go on to college or university.
So one of the key things Theresa asks volunteers to do when they come to Tanzania is to spend quite a bit of time reading books with the children so they can hear how Westerners pronounce things and to imitate them the best they can. And these kids LOVE to read. I would stand at the orphanage and call out “Who wants to read?” and at least 5 children would race to the library yelling “Me, Madame, me!” There was a line to read with the volunteers. These photos are of volunteers Josh and Vanessa reading with the children.
It definitely put a new spin on “Go, Dog, Go!” and “Curious George” for me to hear them read out loud with a Swahili accent.
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