Student Spotlight - Richard Lin
This past summer seventh grade student Richard Lin and his sister Shala (’17) traveled to Tanzania with their family. This is the second time that a Harbor Day family has journeyed to Africa to visit the Mbahe Primary School. Richard shares his experience.
After traveling for seven hours from Ngorongoro Crater, my family arrived at Mbahe Primary School at noon. The road was uneven, but the beautiful Mt. Kilimanjaro towered above the village. Mr. Paul Meela, the school’s former Principal, kindly greeted us as we arrived at the school.
While we were on campus, there was a classroom filled with kids all wearing two types of green and blue uniforms. They stared at us with curious eyes as we unloaded school supplies for all the students. Some of the items we brought included bags of luggage filled with coloring workbooks, stickers, and Legos.
As we approached each classroom, we introduced ourselves in English. Mr. Meela helped us translate into Swahili. One room was filled with seventy kids, three to each desk. Once we began handing out coloring books, the kids started to smile and thank us. We taught them some math, English, and geography while they taught us songs and words in their language. They found taking pictures with an iPhone was very intriguing.
At the end of my visit, I had made new friends and experienced the school life of the kids at Mbahe. My favorite part of the trip was throwing the paper airplanes that we made, which the children at Mbahe had never seen as paper is scarce in their country. I also enjoyed handing out coloring books to the children. It was rewarding to me because I assembled these books for every single child. Watching their eyes light up and a wide smile slowly creep onto their faces made the trip all worth it.
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After traveling for seven hours from Ngorongoro Crater, my family arrived at Mbahe Primary School at noon. The road was uneven, but the beautiful Mt. Kilimanjaro towered above the village. Mr. Paul Meela, the school’s former Principal, kindly greeted us as we arrived at the school.
While we were on campus, there was a classroom filled with kids all wearing two types of green and blue uniforms. They stared at us with curious eyes as we unloaded school supplies for all the students. Some of the items we brought included bags of luggage filled with coloring workbooks, stickers, and Legos.
As we approached each classroom, we introduced ourselves in English. Mr. Meela helped us translate into Swahili. One room was filled with seventy kids, three to each desk. Once we began handing out coloring books, the kids started to smile and thank us. We taught them some math, English, and geography while they taught us songs and words in their language. They found taking pictures with an iPhone was very intriguing.
At the end of my visit, I had made new friends and experienced the school life of the kids at Mbahe. My favorite part of the trip was throwing the paper airplanes that we made, which the children at Mbahe had never seen as paper is scarce in their country. I also enjoyed handing out coloring books to the children. It was rewarding to me because I assembled these books for every single child. Watching their eyes light up and a wide smile slowly creep onto their faces made the trip all worth it.
Harbor Day School
3443 Pacific View Drive
Corona del Mar, CA 92625Phone<title><script type="mce-text/javascript"> (function(a,e,c,f,g,h,b,d){var k={ak:"984895077",cl:"EfBCCP-Fv3UQ5ZzR1QM"};a[c]=a[c]||function(){(a[c].q=a[c].q||[]).push(arguments)};a[g]||(a[g]=k.ak);b=e.createElement(h);b.async=1;b.src="//www.gstatic.com/wcm/loader.js";d=e.getElementsByTagName(h)[0];d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a[f]=function(b,d,e){a[c](2,b,k,d,null,new Date,e)};a[f]()})(window,document,"_googWcmImpl","_googWcmGet","_googWcmAk","script"); </script><head><body>1-949-640-1410<html></html></body></head><br><br><br>
949-640-1410
Corona del Mar, CA 92625
949-640-1410
Harbor Day School is a co-educational private independent K-8 school established in 1952.