YEAR 3 DAR HISTORICAL TRIP

To help our Year 3 students understand the Tanzanian history we have been learning about, we took a historical tour to various locations around Dar es Salaam. First, we journeyed through traffic to our first destination in the city centre, the German Botanical Gardens. The children thought about why the Germans decided to plant a variety of tree species and suggested that these were for food, for beauty or for medicine. We are certainly glad they planted carambola trees because we got to sample some juicy star fruit! Next, we drove past the Kivukoni fish market and remembered that Dar es Salaam was a fishing village called Mzizima in early times. It certainly was a busy place! We also noted the very many DART or Mwendo Kasi buses and even thought that we counted 73 buses on our drive around the city. These buses are very fast and a popular transportation choice for many people. Next, we visited the Mwalimu Nyerere Museum in Magomeni. We were especially excited to see and touch ‘history’ in the form of Mwalimu’s sofa set, dining table and historical briefcase. We were thrilled to get the chance to play Bao, a fabulous traditional board game played by the late president. We must admit that our favourite stop was lunch at Down Hill restaurant where we were encouraged to eat local food with our hands. Yummy! Lastly, we visited the Kunduchi ruins and saw many 17th century tombs of early traders from places like Oman, India, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. We learned some interesting details about the belief systems of early explorers and traders in this country when it comes to death and burial. We are beginning to understand that knowing about the past helps us to think about ourselves and that knowing the past can change who we are in the future. Big ideas!