23 May, Day 8 of cycling: Babati -> Katesh

As arranged with with Isaya, we went to the school at 8 am, much to the teachers surprise. It's a local primary school in the rural village of Babati, a poverty-stricken area. The children were all rushing into class and inquisitively waved at us. We were lead into the staff room, a small room, the size of our bathroom with a few wooden tables piled with notebooks. The staff were very friendly and were interested in what we were doing. Just before we left South Africa, Singakwazi Aid, a charity organization approached us asking if we would like to represent them throughout our travels. They distribute the product For Life, a sachet which purifies water, making it drinkable. The target is rural areas who do not have access to clean drinking water. We explained that we are involved in this product and would like to share it as well as we are doing RhinoArt lessons in support of creating rhino poaching awareness. The head mistress came out and greeted us in an unfriendly manner. She was not interested in rhinos at all but gave us 10 minutes of the students time to distribute the For Life sachets. A mistake on my behalf, I tried to take a photo of the children and she smacked my hand away uncomfortably. We presented the product and was translated by a staff member. Today's school visit was very disappointing and discouraging. The language barrier was a particularly big challenge and I think a lot was lost in translation but we learned a lot from today's experience and will just have to change and adapt according to each situation.

We had breakfast and got onto our bikes, peddling towards Babati. Not long after we left it started pouring with rain and continued to the whole day. The ride was beautiful, we cycled through very remote areas and hardly any cars passed us. We got to experience the country side which was great. There are just fields and fields and fields of sunflowers - its incredible! Each village we cycled through everyone greeted us excitedly, some children asking for sweets or money. We found a dry spot under a deserted police station and ate the delicious rolls home made from the chef at Asmorein. The plan was to find a school or a church for us to spend the night in Katesh. We cycled past the Sara Williams Hostel where we stopped in to ask for some guidance. We were warmly welcomed by Naomi who invited us in and offered us a bed for the night. The Canadian Harambe Education Society (Ches) a Canadian NGO started a hostel 28 years ago for girls who cannot afford the cost of getting to schoool. The NGO sponsors these girls education and living expenses. Naomi, a local Tanzanian is in charge of the hostel. Her and the staff made us feel so comfortable and at home here. They went above and beyond to look after us, brought us local cuisine (char-grilled chicken pieces) from the girls dining room, made us warm beds, went specially out to buy us fruit juice and coffee. We even got some of her chickens eggs. I was so humbled by the kindness we were shown.

After dinner, we did a RhinoArt lesson with the girls. The girls were so excited and happy to see us. Their messages they wrote down for what rhino conservation makes them feel was incredible. These girls are so bright and its amazing that they have this opportunity to be educated and hopefully will be able to escape the life of poverty. We were all so overwhelmed by this amazing kindness and welcoming we received. The girls were so grateful for our visit and I couldnt quite express how grateful I was to be in their presence and experience this. Definitely lifted up our spirits, reminding us of why we doing this.

Cycling distance: 67 km

Total cycling time: 4:20 hrs

Ave speed: 15 km/hr

Ascent: 834 m