A Day in the Life: Majengo Children’s Home
July marks the start of the second term of school in Tanzania and that means back to school for our 85 all-star students! So in honour of the start of the new school term, we want to share with you a day in the life of a Majengo child.
Daniel, 13, in Grade 6, wrote this breakdown of a typical school day at Majengo. You will notice certain things are very much the same (brushing our teeth!) but certain things are a bit different (5:00 AM wakeup!) We hope you enjoy!
A DAY IN MY LIFE by Daniel
Daniel
5:00 AM – Wake Up! It is still dark out, but thanks to the solar power, we can get dressed in the light!
5:45 AM – Eat breakfast. Usually we have mandazi (buns) and tea.
Nasri enjoying his breakfast tea
6:00 AM – Walk to school.
7:00 AM– Arrive at school, put our books and bags in our classes, sweep our classroom and get ready for assembly.
7:30 AM – All school assembly. We get together on the field at school, hear announcements from teachers and other students, and we sing the national anthem, and the school song.
8:00 AM – Our first class of the day starts.
10:40 AM – Breakfast, again! We have porridge at school and a bit of time to rest and spend time with our friends.
Maria in her Grade 1 class having breakfast porridge
11:10 AM – Back to our classrooms for our 5th class of the day. We stay in the same class, and our teachers come to us.
1:10 PM – We have our lunch break. We usually eat ugali and beans, or corn and beans. Ugali is like polenta.
3:20 PM – Classes end! Now we have 40 minutes to do our homework, and sweep our classrooms.
Some of the Majengo girls arriving home from school.
4:00 PM – We pray as a school, and then we start walking home.
5:00 PM – Arrive home, eat a snack, have a bath, wash and change our clothes!
Wilburt washes his socks with the help of Mama Miriam.
Amina hanging the laundry
5:45- 7:30 PM– Homework time. We spend this time studying and reading, and we get another snack around 7, which are always peanuts!
The Majengo kids studying in the dining hall after school.
8:00 PM– Dinnertime! We eat different food every night. Tonight we are having cooked bananas, with potatoes and beans and a piece of watermelon.
9:00 PM– Brush our teeth and prepare for bed.
9:30 PM – Lights Out! Goodnight!!