THE PENPALS

The purpose of the penpals is to provide a cross-cultural experience for Queen Victoria students so that they can broaden their understanding of world issues, cultures and participate in the global community. SEE THE LETTERS >>

Building a better world with cross-cultural friendships.

Moshi has returned from his home village of Sori, Tanzania, with letters written to Queen Victoria students by the school children. Like the children in Sori, Moshi grew up without electricity, running water, tv, the internet or even cars. The people here live in houses made out of mud and live by farming goats, cows and crops when there is enough rain. The people protect their cows from the Lions that come into their village at night by putting them behind fences with sharp sticks called Bomas.

Moshi left to go to school as a teenager and became a cook and a tour guide where he takes travellers to see animals like elephants, cheetahs and giraffes in the national parks in Tanzania. Moshi also has a non-profit organization that helps out the villages around where he grew up. The people who live in this part of Tanzania are from the Irangi tribe. This tribe has been there for hundreds of years and they have their own language also called Irangi.

THE TRIP
Moshi travelled 6 hours down the Great Northern highway which is really more like an abandoned logging road to get from Arusha to the little village of Sori to deliver gifts to our new pen pal friends. The green Air bus below took him as far as the town of Kondoa and he had to use a bicycle to get the rest of the way to the village because there are no buses that go to Sori. In fact you would never stumble across Sori because after Kondoa you keep driving for 20 minutes until you pass a village where you turn off at the drug store and drive between mud huts on a dried up river bed. Then you have to turn left at a fork in the road and 5 minutes later you suddenly come across the hidden village of Sori. The village is divided a river bed that is dry most of the time (see below) but if the rainy season comes the river becomes a dangerous place where pe0ple have drowned.

THE SCHOOL
Moshi brought gifts of pens, writing paper, exercise books and balls as gifts to the children from the Queen Victoria Kids. The kids were very happy to get paper and pens as they can't afford to buy school supplies. They were also very happy to get a soccer ball. They call it football and its a very popular sport in all of Africa. Below you can see the elders of the community, staff at Sori Primary school and the curious and very happy children greet Moshi.

THE WALK TO SCHOOL
Most children have to walk alot. They walk sometimes up to an hour to get to school.

THE CHILDREN WRITING LETTERS
The children spent the afternoon writing letters and drawing pictures for the children at Queen Victoria. The letters were all written in thier native tongue, Irangi, and later translated into English. Then Moshi brought the letters back to Arusha and scanned them into the computer and emailed them to us.

COLLECTING WATER
Every family needs water and the women and children are the ones collecting it.

THE CHILDREN IN THE COMMUNITY
The houses in sori are brick and the roofs are made of straw. The women are in charge of the cooking and domestic duties. The standard meal is beans and rice. People do not have electricity and cook with charcol and fire. Even though it is hot people need covering over the windows because there is a fear of the lions in the area.