Talking to the Girls @ Bagamoyo Secondary School

The day after my first visit to Bagamoyo Secondary School, Sophia told me that the girls I talked to were asking her tons of questions about me, and were looking for me to visit the school again. She asked if I could come and talk to them to encourage them. I certainly don’t consider myself an inspirational speaker by any means, but I figured if there was anything I could say that would encourage even one of the girls, then I would do it.

I went to the school armed with a skeleton outline of some things I could talk about and my photo-book with pictures of my family, friends, some former students, and my life in America. There were about 25-30 girls whose ages ranged from 17-26. They sat on the edge of their seats and listened intently as I (re-)introduced myself and told them why was in Tanzania. When I told them I was working with a women’s empowerment organization, they all clapped and cheered and were very excited! I asked them questions to gauge what they knew and wanted to know about my life in America, and I asked them about life growing up in Tanzania. Mostly though, they asked me questions and prompted me to talk about specific things.

All of the questions were excellent and many of them really made me think. I told them they could ask me any question they wanted to about me or my life, and I would be honest with them... and boy did they ask!

Do you know what country in Africa or which tribe your family is from? Why not? Who do you think will win the presidential election? What do you think of Barak Obama? Are men and women treated equally in America? Why isn’t HIV/AIDS as big a problem in America as it is here? How do you protect yourself from it? Should we avoid having boyfriends while we are in school? Should we marry before or after finishing school? Why aren’t you married? Is interracial dating/marriage accepted in America? Have you ever dated outside of your race? Is homosexuality really legal in America (it’s illegal and prosecutable in Tanzania)? Is there apartheid in America because it seems really segregated on television? Is there poverty like this in America? What’s the biggest difference you see between Tanzanian and American culture? What is the education system like there? Are there really free schools?
















It was immediately obvious that this was an extremely bright group of young women. Even though I had only met them a few days prior, I was so extremely proud of them.

(For those of you who teach, the girls and a teacher expressed an interest in having pen-pals, so if you’re interested just email me and I can give you the info.)