Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

One of the fun things I got to do last year was participate in the Peace Corp Volunteer’s conference for secondary school (high school) girls.  This year they did a conference for boys in Singida and I was allowed to participate again.  I don’t really do much at these other than walk around and smile but it is still fun getting to see students participate in science competitions especially since this is the first time for some of them to actually put what they learn on the blackboard to some kind of activity that they actually do. One of the great things about the Peace Corp Volunteers is that they are easy going, fun loving group but that they also critically analyze their own work and improve on it.  For example, last year’s science day was great and they had a lot fun while learning to put their knowledge to work.  But with everything in this world if you look at it in hindsight you can spot a couple of things to tweak and make it better.  That is ex...

Got the opportunity to particpate in the Girl's Conference put on by some of the Peace Corp volunteers.  They did a four day event in Singida, housing and feeding the girls from I think 6 different secondary schools in rural areas for a total of about 30 girls with the purpose to empower them.  They had science talks and experiments, items on health and safety, careers and to express themselves artistically.   I participated in Saturday when they did their science talks and experiments.  As part of the section they had them break into groups to draw everday things in their life that have some type of scientific element and to then present their drawing and talk about what it has to do with science to the whole group.   The other part was to do break into teams where they had to work with girls from the other schools to compete in three competitions.  The first was pretty neat.  They  were to make boats from a sheet of alumi...