Volunteer Story – Sinead McColgan Hi, I’m Sinéad. I went to Songea, Tanzania in Summer’23. I am a secondary school teacher, and I travelled with 4 other teachers. When I began teaching in 2018, the school I worked in organised a trip every year to Ambo, Ethiopia with the VLM. I signed up to go as I always wanted to volunteer abroad in an educational setting. The trip was then cancelled unfortunately, and I knew I still wanted to go. 5 years later, a simple google search led me to find Madeleine’s contact. Madeleine helped us book our entire trip and was so easy to work with. We had a chat on zoom, and it all took off from there. When travelling to Tanzania, we were offered to go to Dar Es Salem, which is the capital or a village called Songea, which is further south. We opted to go with Songea, as we decided a rural setting would suit us better. The school in Songea had a preschool, primary school and secondary school. It was a perfect mix. The students were the happiest I have ever come across and were always willing to learn and keen to participate. Amongst our group, we taught in all 3 schools, facilitated training with staff members and did extra-curricular activities e.g. rounders, singing and observed some local dancing, which is one of the best memories we have. I was treated to the girls braiding my hair everyday too! The staff in the school invited us into their staffroom and made us feel part of the team. The management in all schools were friendly and supportive. All the priests and sisters we met embraced us with hugs and smiles. One person who needs a special shout out is Brother Leopold. We stayed in his accommodation, and he was the main link with the school. He was like a celebrity, everyone loved him. He did everything and more for us. We still keep in touch wishing each other a happy Christmas and Easter. The conditions we stayed in were excellent, we had private rooms that were clean and comfortable and undoubtedly amazing food. There were vegetables, meat, rice and the cooks kindly made us homemade chips which tasted delicious. The fruit was full of flavour and fresh daily. The Wi-Fi was quite good, so we were able to contact home and give updates. The weather was hot but not too hot. A perfect temperature really. When we had time off, Brother Leopold took us to local markets, lakes and restaurants. It was 5-star treatment. When we landed into the capital we were shown around the city for 2 days before taking the local flight to Songea. Our return flight home had a long stopover in Cairo. We booked a tour from the airport than showed us the pyramids, which was amazing. After our placement in Songea, we decided to go to Zanzibar for a few days, considering we were so close! It was a lovely way to end the trip and the water was transparent, with blue skies and incredible sunsets. We also squeezed in a Safari in Mikumi national park which was a day tour from Dar. If you are interested in going, do it! It is never an experience you will regret. I loved every second, learned so much and hope to go again in the future. Share this article
