Tanzania Trip Day 8

Morning assembly did not disappoint. In a ceremony run entirely by the student prefects, they hoisted the flag, sang the national anthem, sang other patriotic songs, went over some disciplinary issues (make your beds or you will be punished!) and then sent the students to their classes.

We then sauntered back for breakfast and then headed off for our morning in Morogoro. Our first stop was a visit to the Hero Rats of APOPO. These are African Pouched Rats which have exceptional senses of smell, and are trained for two different purposes. The first is to detect landmines - they are used in about a dozen countries to find landmines and unexploded ordinances which can then be disabled (they are 100% effective at finding explosives if they get within a meter). Their other mission is to detect the presence of tuberculosis in samples sent from clinics. TB today kills more people than malaria and AIDS combined. Third world clinics are only about 50% accurate at detecting TB using microscopes. APOPO receives samples from clinics and can detect TB in samples that did not get discovered by the labs with about 80% accuracy - those they indicate on are confirmed under a more expensive and powerful microscope procedure than the clinics can afford. Some of the patients who are indicated by the rats and who are deemed not to have TB under the microscope later develop TB, so it is possible that the rats are more accurate than the system the checks on them - this is being researched.

We saw them in action as they worked on some samples and then got to hold a couple of the rats. The kids were a bit freaked out at first but came to love them (well, except Rory).

From there we headed to the horticulture area of Sokoine University - the country’s leading agricultural institution. We met Elias, who has been working there since 1977, and he led us on a tour of the fields and orchards. We saw mango trees regenerating, citrus trees beginning to ripen (got to sample grapefruit and pomelos - like a large grapefruit), citrus shoots being grafted onto rootstock to make new trees, and their spice area where they were growing cardamom, vanilla, and peppercorns (got to sample these) among others. Elias is a guru, and we appreciated him leading us on this horticultural adventure.

After picking up some supplies in town, we headed back to SEGA for a late lunch, then spent the afternoon ordering custom clothes and bags from Hussein the tailor (using the cloth they had bought), doing our own laundry by hand, playing netball (like basketball without a backboard) with the SEGA students, and helping Loveness cook dinner.

After dinner and a dance party, we settled in to get ready for another day of adventure.