Teaching at a Maasai school inside the Ngorongoro Conservation area 

This is a really unique volunteer activity in the middle of the Maasai country. To the adventure of “Teaching in Africa” and additional exciting component will be added, which is living in the middle of the “bush” in daily interaction with one of the most popular and vibrant tribes of East Africa – the mighty Maasai.

  
Besides the Maasai, which have been herding their cattle on the plains of the Ngorongoro for centuries, no other Tanzanians or foreigners are allowed to settle in the conservation area. The only exception are teachers who are teaching at the few government schools which exist inside the conservation area; as there are few Maasai learning to be state-approved teachers, most of them are non-Maasai Tanzanians.

 

The primary school is under the national curriculum and classes are taught in Swahili which is the first foreign language for the Maasai children who previously typically just know the Maasai language “Maa”. The curriculum also includes English classes which are a subject that can be taught by foreign volunteers.

 

In total the school has 7 classes, one for each grade, from Standard 1 (age around 6 years) to standard 8 (age around 12 years). There are 90-130 pupils in each class. This amount of kids is being taught by just one teacher. 6-8 kids have to share one bench. Typically, there are around twice as much boys as girls in the classes, because many Maasai still don’t consider it necessary for girls to attend school.

 

The school is very simple. The library only has few books and leaflets which are normally not handed out to students to prevent lost or damage. The doors of the toilet building have been eaten by termites; therefore a simple fence has been built to give at least minimum privacy.  

 

Volunteers can also teach sports, there is a football (soccer) ground behind the school building. Only boys are allowed to play football; they play on their bare feet as the typical Maasai sandals which are being cut from old car tires are inappropriate for playing football. The problem is that the ground is not smooth and full of thorny plants, resulting in many injuries. Further, much more children participate in the games as the number of players a football team typically has. As they don’t have any jerseys or sports cloths they are wearing their regular school uniform which makes it difficult to distinguish who belongs to which team. The girls play a kind of basketball; two baskets exist behind the school.

 

For the Non-Maasai teachers who are teaching at the school, regular stone houses have been build, of the same kind like they exist elsewhere in Tanzania. Volunteers can live in a room of these houses.

 

However, as a volunteer you have to be be aware of what it means to teach at these Maasai schools: Water is being brought through a tube into the house; however the water pump is only working for half an hour every day. During this moment you will have to catch your water and store it in a bucket. The water is safe to wash yourself, however not for drinking. There is no electricity, nighttime illumination will have to be done using candles or gas lamps; cooking is being done using charcoal. Mobile phones however can be charged at the house of the head teacher where there is a solar energy panel. 

 

There is no real “village” but just an assembly of several “bomas”. As the Maasai don’t have „professions“ or division of labour, there are no shops or service providers that you could make use of. As the Maasai food for a longer period of time probably doesn’t correspond to the ideas of nutrition of most foreigners, it means you will have to buy your entire food supplies for 2-4 weeks in Karatu Town and then store them at your house, just as the Tanzanian teachers do who will live with you at the accommodation for teachers. By car, Karatu is around an hour’s drive. As there is no public transport you will have to come to some arrangement with the other teachers.