Makumbusho village museum

Around 120 languages are spoken in Tanzania. Thursday we visited the open air village museum in Makumbusho, which showcases the variety of house types from around the country. A map from the museum (see below) shows that the Mara region–where students will do their service during the second half of SST–has quite a few different ethnic groups living near each other. (The map shows roughly where different groups are concentrated, but boundaries between groups are not as hard as the map implies. )

Julius Nyerere–first president of the country at independence in 1961–managed to unite Tanzanians around a common language, Swahili, which is still a source of national pride.

A group of musicians and dancers at the museum entertained us, and then had students take a turn at dancing.

At the canteen in the courtyard of Upanga church we can snack between morning language classes, or eat a simple lunch.