Global Volunteers Featured in AARP Bulletin!!

Global Volunteers is excited and honored to be featured in the most recent edition of the AARP Bulletin!!

In the article "Boomers Mean Business," Global Volunteers is featured as an organization that allows boomers to "Do Good" in this world. Please read an excerpt of the piece below, or use the following link to read the whole article: http://www.aarp.org/work/work-life/info-02-2011/boomers-mean-business.4.html


As featured in AARP Bulletin:

DOING GOOD

In 1979, Michele Gran and Bud Philbrook, imbued with youthful idealism, spent part of their honeymoon in a mountain village in Guatemala, writing grant proposals for development projects.

Enthusiastic response to a newspaper story about their experience led them to found Global Volunteers in 1984, a nonprofit that sponsors two- to three-week volunteer vacations in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. Volunteers care for children or work on long-term building projects. Today, boomers make up about 30 percent of their participants.

"When boomers started to turn 55, we started to see a significant uptick in interest in our trips," says Philbrook, 64. "They want to give something back, add meaning to their lives."

Peace Corps volunteers 60 and older have more than doubled in the past three years. And the foundation started by Microsoft's Bill Gates, 55, and his wife, Melinda, 46, has given more than $24 billion to U.S. and international causes.

Repeat Volunteer Reflects on Time in Tanzania!

Tanzania Voluteer Pam recently wrote a wonderful story about her Ipalamwa service program experience for her company newsletter. In the coming weeks, we will share this reflection with you in all its glory (lots of lovely photos and everything!) but for the time being, we thought we would give you a sneak peek!!

Thank you for taking the time to share you story, Pam!!

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My Third Annual 3-week Volunteer Vacation with Global Volunteers



Each year of volunteering with Global Volunteers in Ipalamwa, Tanzania is a new adventure and safari (is Kiswahili for journey). It’s not just the physical journey of getting and being there, it’s more of a mental and spiritual journey; learning more about the Tanzanian people, resources, politics and culture, as well as learning more about myself. This year led to the adventurous idea of retiring on my own mountain in the Iringa Region of Tanzania running a kindergarten and orphanage, which is an ongoing email discussion with my rafiki (friend) and Global Volunteers Country Leader, Edward. This year’s safari is best described in the following topics and photos.

Ipalamwa Secondary School Form 4 Graduation

Our host for the 3-week volunteer project is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) Iringa Deices, who has had a partnership with Global Volunteers for over 25 years and who owns and manages 7 Secondary Boarding Schools along with thousands of church congregations in the Iringa Region of Tanzania. I visit the Ipalamwa Village and ELCT Ipalamwa Secondary School, which has only 4 Forms or grades instead of their traditional 6. Here’s a little background - Tanzania secondary school consists of Forms 1-6 with official government exams held at Form 2, 4, and 6 and based on the exam scores the government determines whether a student continues to the next Form and what schools they can attend. Thus, the students at Ipalamwa Secondary School graduate at Form 4 and then wait at home from October thru January to be told if they will go on to Form 5 and whether they can go to a Government School or a Private School, such as the other ELCT Iringa Deices school in Pommern.

This year I had the honor and privilege to attend the Ipalamwa Secondary School Form 4 Graduation. It meant the world to me and to a number of the students whom I taught and befriended the previous 2 years.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE OF PAM'S STORY !!!

Team Journal ~ Heading Back to Dar via Iringa!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Quote for the Day: “You can’t have everything and you’ll get over it.”

It started out like any other school day, a good breakfast, Edward joining us and making sure we would be ready to leave by 1:00 p.m. It seems impossible that we’re on our way home.

This morning at the secondary school Don I taught Prosper and Headmaster Shadracki how to use the new calculators. Katie and Don III each had a good morning being in classes that they enjoyed. I stopped by my room and it was junked up again and I had to push benches and desks around to make it useable. I then went to the classroom next door and asked for 10 students to come with me for Conversational English. We practiced writing friendly letters and notes and ended the class by singing:

“Make new friends,
But keep the old,
One is silver,
And the other gold.”

It was then time for Staff Tea, which is a delightful tradition, and I think we will all miss the camaraderie, chai, and sweet fried dough. I taught them “Make New Friends” and we sang it through several times and then with Don III’s help as a round.

Mickey sewed on the Mission House veranda with Tumaini. Four bags were finished and three were sold, maybe the fourth as well.

Connie went to the Catholic Nursery Scool. The teacher sat in the courtyard leaving Connie with 43 tiny tots that were tired of counting from 1 to 10, Connie’s only Swahili. The children spent the hour and a half running around, mimicking her sometimes.

Nesia, (Mama Toni), prepared a very fine last luncheon for us with chapaties, rice, beans, greens, pork and fresh mango.

The trip to Iringa took 2 hours. The weather was warm and sunny. We are staying at the Mlandege Lutheran Guest House. We were told there was no running water. I wanted to cry. I was so looking forward to a warm shower before I got into my clean sheets. (The generator just went off, Connie brought me a powerful little light so I could finish typing but the bugs were drawn by the light and are swarming all over me.)

Continued: We shopped, rested and waited for Edward to appear with Bud Philbrook, President of Global Volunteers, and the Bishop of Iringa, Bishop Dr. Owdenburg Moses Mdegella. They finally arrived about 7:30. Bud spoke about Global Volunteers' mission and that the UN has 12 interventions. Global Volunteers helps with all 12 services, but not at one site. He said the essential services covered Hunger, Health and IQ. He told us that it was 23 years ago that the Bishop had the dream of a secondary school in Pomerini. He was on the first team to help the Bishop begin planning to make his dream come true. It was a pleasure to meet both of them. We finally had dinner.

The water came on so I had a cool shower. Then the generator went off, only to come on sometime in the middle of the night.

The manager of this Lutheran guest house is a very capable and nice man. He brought lights when the generator went off and walked me to my bedroom with the computer.

I am still impressed by the kindness of the people I have met on this trip.
My cup runs over.

Team Journal ~ February 3

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Thought for the Day: "Do not let what you can’t do interfere with what you can." ~ Coach Wooden

Written by: Volunteer Don III


The day dawned brightly and freshly after the steady, all night downpour. The red clay paths to both the primary and secondary schools were relatively hard packed and free of mud. A crew of older students and workers busily hoisted the roof trusses on the new kitchen, while teetering on makeshift scaffolding. All seemed to be very happy pounding enormous nails or merely standing around.

Don Juan I continued teaching use of the donated calculators to Mr. Sedock’s Form IV B and A classes, assisted by Don III and Mr. Sedock. The students were quite enthusiastic and all were able to arrive at the correct answers to problems posed. Don Marshall later worked in the computer lab and arranged for a prerecorded chemistry “magic show” at 8 PM in the student dining hall.

Don III reviewed mathematical Relations and introduced mathematical Functions to Form III A and B classes. It was very difficult to determine how much the students already knew. They had apparently had no teacher this semester, but appeared familiar with some of the material. ‘Will continue to try to establish a baseline for a regular instructor. When attention seriously lagged, a little harmonica music seemed to reenergize the class. Mr. Sedock is attempting to have the academic schedule rearranged to allow him teach both Form IV and Form III math, as he is the only teacher presently qualified to teach these subjects. The present schedule has both Form classes taught at the same time. When Don mentioned his home state of California, many students wanted to know about Arnold Schwarzenager. They were surprised to know that he spoke no English when he first came to the USA.

We had a really nice traditional African meal (lunch) prepared by Merina and offered by the primary school staff today. It was so nice to know everyone by name. Engera and Donald (Head Mistress and Second Master) both impressed us with their English in welcoming and thanking us. Enock gave a blessing.

Carol: Yea! I finally have a room to teach in and don’t have to move furniture in the teachers’ lounge. At the end of my first period, students did the “Hokey Pokey”. At the end of second period, we started making up a story.

A group of Global Volunteers returned to the primary school later and continued teaching English to the primary school teachers.

Mickey focused on the sewing classes for 10 to 12 year old girls. She later conducted sewing classes for some of the teachers, using the electric sewing machine at the Mission House, powered by a small generator shared with the clinic. The latter group made several beautiful tote bags, using local, colorful material.

A crew of secondary school teachers, students and technicians started surveying for new water lines in front of the Mission House.

Katie only taught one class today, but spent a lot of time talking with teachers about the educational system. She practiced English with some students and later helped some local villagers with computer skills.

In addition to accompanying the Global Volunteers in their various forays, Edward took photos of students and GVers in action in classrooms, of the new kitchen roof raising efforts and of the survey team at the Mission House.

Team Journal ~ January 31

January 31, 2011

"Charlie Brown may feel sorry for himself, but he gets over it fast. He is ennobled by how he handles being disappointed." ~ David Michaelis, biographer of Charles Schultz.

Written by: Volunteer Don

Weather update: Man, when the rains come, they come hard.

Today saw us returning to school for our second week of work at the secondary and primary schools. I worked with the form three English class, taking over the academic mistress’s classes as she is absent while taking exams for two weeks. We worked with dictation using a Ugandan song, and it was a lesson in how hard it is to understanding American English. But the good news is, these kids don’t get frustrated: they speak up, laugh, and we make sure everyone understands. I was stranded at school when the rains came down, and afterwards ate lunch in the duka with some other teachers. After lunch, I worked for awhile with form two students practicing English, which broke into an impromptu kucheza party when a student started beatboxing a Michael Jackson song and students jumped up to show off their moves. Afterwards, they took me to the Grounds, where we watched the football match until dinner time.

Don the Third continued his musical act today, continuing to entertain teachers and students alike. He worked with form 4 trigonometry, and focused on trignometric function tables. In the afternoon he worked with a group of students, teaching English and harmonica-sizing. After dinner, we heard barking noises and found Don outside exchanging animal noises with village kids.

Don Marshall taught chem classes, sat in on a biology class on genetics, prepped for tomorrow, and wrapped up the day by helping at the primary school teaching English. He calls his teaching style “hunter gatherer”. In other news, on a pun scale, it was a low pun day.

Mickey began the day by drawing a picture of a sewing machine and labeling parts, made a pattern for a bag, and in afternoon taught English at primary school.

Connie lay in bed this morning, attempting to figure out the bird noises coming from outside her room. She learned a little Swahili today, too, coloring the alphabet, and worked at the primary school teaching English.

Carol worked with form 2, reviewed vocabulary for things within one’s house and parts of one’s head. In the afternoon she worked with kids, singing songs and getting to know the kids as a group.

And so our first full week in Pommern continues! Edward leaves tomorrow for Iringa: safari njema!

Team Journal ~ January 26

January 26, 2011

Written by: Volunteer Carol

Quote for the Day: “If I am through learning, I’m through.” ~ Coach John Wooden

After a cold shower my brains freeze and I volunteer to write the GV Journal of the day. Breakfast is lovely with the addition of light, delicious pancakes.

Edward makes sure we know what our assignments are and we walk to school at 8:00. Each of us follows our given assignment and most of us appear at 10:10 for Tea in the Teacher Lounge seemingly in great shape. Personally, it is a pleasure to sit down, drink tea, eat fried dough, and gather my strength and wits for the next couple of hours of helping out.

Connie Randolf and I helped out in Form I English classes between 8:15 and 10:10. Each class had between 70-80 students. The kids behaved excellently. The teacher was a good teacher, but looked like he was flying by the seat of his pants. It turned out that the computer teacher was filling in for an absent English teacher.

At tea when asked for comments I said, “I am truly impressed with all of you, (teachers) and your students for being so well behaved. I give all of you so much credit for the wonderful job you are doing.”

After tea, Connie and I go into another Form I English class. It is much smaller, only about 45-50 students. The young man teaching the class looks like one of the students. He is wearing a white t-shirt and he doesn’t seem to know anything about the lesson. He checks his cell phone and after 20 minutes he leaves. He says, “I am a From VI chemistry teacher and have to go there now.” Connie and I don’t know what to do, so we go to the 2nd Headmaster. After a short conversation with him we go back to the class and together Connie and I teach the class. We finish off the morning in a Form II class, orally giving them a Practice Final exam.

I trudge up the hill looking forward to Nesia’s lunch and I am not disappointed.

At lunch I give my team members a slip of paper and ask them for the highlights of their day for this report. Here they are:

Don III – Mirrored Mr. Sakoki, math instructor, in Forms II and IV. He helped with an introduction to Trigonometry. He also had a long conversation in Spanish with one of the local Roman Catholic Franciscan priests.

Katie – The best part of today was students’ insatiable curiosity and friendliness. They have a hunger to know me and America, and I had a great cultural exchange when some students overcame their fear of ‘wasungu’ (fear of white people and Americans). They ate ugali and beans with me and some of the teachers. It was a moment of great community.

Mickey - I typed a history synopsis of World War I in the morning. In the afternoon I pulled weeds in the garden and then went to the secondary school to teach Spanish.

Don I – I taught in Form II Chemistry. It is old fashioned and the teacher spoke in Swahili. I did a fruitless search for the Periodic Tables in the library and the Chemistry Lab. I discussed cleaning the solar cells with the headmaster. I also tutored Form III and Form IV Chemistry students.

Connie – Helped Adriane teach English through a mapping exercise to large classes to many children with no pencils or unsharpened ones and no sharpener. A class with a Chemistry teacher filling in for English was not so successful. A small group for conversational English was much more fun. Don III acting as my faithful lantern holder so I could write this journal entry by the warmth of the fireplace was nice.

Carol- My small group for conversational English was great fun. I showed them pictures of my family, we talked about the animals they have seen, and just enjoyed each other.

Edward personally invited us to a special treat after teaching. He took us to Ashanti Kentucky where we enjoyed a drink of our choice and quiet conversation.

Nesia out did herself with dinner. We had perfectly steamed rice with a mixture of green beans, carrots, tomatoes and onion to put over it. There was also chicken, lovely bitter greens and guacamole. Mango for dessert was perfect.

A short meeting to make sure we know what our duties are for tomorrow finish off the formal day.

As I sit here writing this, the others sit around the table and discuss lesson plans for tomorrow. It reminds me of days around the dining room table doing homework with my sons. I smile thinking how full our days are and what a wonderful experience this is. I would say we’re not through!

Team Journal ~ Last Day in Pommern...

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Thought of the day: “What you don’t learn from your mother, you learn from the world.” – Masai Wisdom

It is our last morning here - we leave at noon today. Classes aren’t in session - all students but form one are out of class getting ready for graduation. Many students are out in the courtyard cutting grass and wave to me as I head to the English Department.

School was positively buzzing, excited for the graduation ceremony.

It is so hard to say goodbye when you don’t want to leave. After lunch, we left Pommern, making our way down the bumpy, brilliantly red road, the landscape stretching around us, breathtaking and heartbreaking at once.

I am sad to look at it for the last time.

Eventually, we reached the Lutheran Center in Iringa. Our time in Pommern was officially over.