What? So What? Now What?

A Reflective Analysis of My Honors Experience to Tanzania, Africa

Mackenzie Mayernik

Part One: What?

In December 2014, twelve University of Cincinnati students and I completed a volunteer
service trip to Tanzania, Africa with the organization Courts for Kids. This international
volunteer opportunity was made possible to students through the University of Cincinnatis
student organization Serve Beyond Cincinnati. Over my fourteen-day experience, I worked with
my fellow Bearcats, local students, workers, and community leaders to build a multi-purpose
sports court for the Mungere Secondary School in Mto Wa Mbu Tanzania. Not only did we make
significant efforts to complete a court, but most importantly, we interacted with and actively
learned from the local community to understand and embrace cultural differences and further
explore the reciprocal relationship between the community and the UC students.
With over five months of preparation, forty-five hours in transit, two weeks on the
ground in Tanzania, and two months of reflection, this experience was both physically trying and
emotionally moving. My favorite part of each day was the challenges that our trip leader, Sam
Obol, a former professional Ugandan basketball player who was soft spoken, yet passionate,
picked for each of us every day. Each member of the team would have a specific task to
complete, from challenging a local to a push-up competition to giving everyone on the team a
complete to learning what a local thought was the biggest issue facing humanity. These daily
challenges pushed me out of my comfort zone, and allowed me to connect with the UC team and
locals more than I ever could have imagined. From those challenges came some of the most
moving moments of the trip; for example, a seventeen-year-old student named Amina opened up
to me about her desire to change the job opportunities for women in Tanzania, and her biggest
dream of becoming a lawyer to help fight for those in court who cannot fight for themselves.
These challenges also allowed me to interact with the locals and express a sensitivity,
appreciation, and respect for the complexity of human nature, while also humbling me to realize
that although we are all humans, we are all given a certain set of circumstances that determine
our attitudes, actions, and desires.
Selene Nesland, the founder of Courts for Kids, who presented to us prior to our journey,
warned us that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong when you are working in a
developing nation. While I initially thought that was an exaggerated statement, I quickly realized
the truth behind those words. The biggest difference between my expectations from my selfdesign proposal and reality was that we were unable to complete the court that we had worked so
hard on for a week. We were dealt a certain set of circumstances (rain, broken equipment,
missing supplies), and we knew that despite those key items, we would be determined to

complete the court to the best of our ability and remain positive. This situation also allowed me
to meet the second of my learning outcomes, the acknowledgement of differences between
cultures. Not only was the efficiency and possession of adequate resources that the Tanzanians
drastically different than what we would have had in America, but their attitudes toward the
difficult situation was drastically different than ours. The biggest difference between cultures that
I saw was the sheer happiness of the locals and their humble pride, something that I hope to
emulate as I continue to serve others. While many other situations allowed me to meet the global
studies learning outcomes, the aforementioned situations were just a few cases of those outcomes
in action.
Part Two: So What?
While I came into this experience hoping to pursue my passions for lifelong learning and
the powerful impact of sports, I never could have imagined the even greater impact that the
experiences had on my personal goals.
I discussed the subject of children and sports in my self-design proposal, where I used the
Sport for Development and Peace section of the United Nations Millennium Development
Goals Plan to guide my thinking about the global impact of sports on children. I came to
Tanzania with an understanding of and sensitivity towards the current opportunities for children
(and in particular, girls) to play sports. I genuinely believe that with the building of this court, the
Courts for Kids organization and the UC Team played a role in helping to accomplish the United
Nations Goals to make sports more globally available to children. In addition, my second
reading The Values Americans Lived By played a particularly important role in both my goals
for the trip and my connections to the learning outcome of possessing global literacy. Indeed,
there was initially some barriers that hindered our collaborative teamwork with the local team,
like language and efficiency. However, because I understood the values that I live by as an
American citizen, I was able to express a sensitivity to the locals expectations of our work ethic
and values. We were able to show through our words and actions that the values that Americans
live by may be overarching, but they did not impact our work ethic or desire to complete the
court.
There are three key words that I have chosen to take away from this experience: service,
love, and faith. At the root of this experience, I came to serve. Through my words, through my
actions, through my time, I helped to serve a local community to give children the same
opportunity I had to play sports. I was able to see first-hand what service has done for Mungere
its given them a Secondary School and now a sports court. The second key is love, and it was
what made this experience so significant. I loved what I was doing there, the cause of building a
basketball court. I loved that I was able to learn and grow as a person and a player because of
basketball, and I was so lucky to be able to share that with others. There was able love,
appreciation, and respect for the local people and my team, as it was evident that the community
loved having us there, and we loved being there. Finally, faith the biggest and most important

aspect of every journey. Every person had to have significant faith in this mission, cause, and
experience. An entire community allowed thirteen strangers to come in and use their time and
resources to build a court that would hopefully be safe to use thats faith. In a nation where the
people have so little, the one thing they hold closest to them is their faith; therefore, in a nation
where I am blessed with so much, I now realize the even greater importance of faith in my life. I
truly believe that I am a better person because of this experience, and I believe that it impacted
every aspect of my development.
Part Three: Now What?
Indeed, the two weeks that I spent in Tanzania were incredible, but I am fully prepared to
move on from this journey as a better person. As I wrote in my journal on the flight home,
Indeed, God blessed that slice of Africa with breathtaking natural wonders, from the
Great Rift Valley to Mount Kilimanjaro to Mount Mero to the Ngorongoro Crater. But whats
more beautiful goes beyond the landscape and geography its the people. Never have I ever
seen happier people than in Tanzania. Whether it was the children screaming MAMBO as we
drove by or the sheer joy of the students as we interacted with the, it was evident that their
culture is one of the happiest to exist.
Thats what amazes me, that a group of people are so resilient and determined to
continually better themselves, and I am inspired by their determination. The heart and soul of
the breathtaking nation is its people, and their hearts and souls are abundantly rich. Its not
about what they have, its about what they give, what they hope to have, and how they hope to
make their families proud. With such limited resources, yet such beautiful resiliency, who am I to
stay back and contain my blessings from the world?
What I hope to do is capture the essence of the beauty in Tanzania, and to try and see the
world from the eyes of their humbled culture. It starts in my own attitude, and spreads to others.
With their sheer gratuity for their education, I have a newfound appreciation for the educational
opportunities made available to me. In times of stress and difficulty in my studies, I am already
making strides to continually remind myself of my situation I am blessed to have graduated
secondary school and attend a fantastic institution, let alone any school at all. Outside of the
classroom, I can safely say that I have caught the travel abroad bug and am now addicted to
exploring the world around me. Service is contagious, and I am continually inspired to serve
other communities. We may make a living by what we get, but our lives are made by what we
give. My goal is to look at my life in perspective, and see how I can continue to give back to
meaningful causes and serve local communities.
Finally, the now what has already translated the sharing of this experience with others.
I contributed to a blog on the Courts for Kids website, and hope to see it posted there soon.
During the report of the Chief Education Officer during my sororitys chapter meeting, I was
able to complete a short presentation about my experience, and because of it, ten of my sisters

are now going on Serve Beyond Cincinnati trips over spring break! It is so neat to be able to
manifest the ideal of service that my sorority values in an actual volunteer experience, and I hope
to work with Courts for Kids soon to plan another trip to build a court with my sorority sisters
and peers.
My experience is over, but this is not the end. Ive been able to take so many lessons
away from this experience, and I hope I can continue to look back and be inspired by the people
of Tanzania, their pride, their attitudes, their happiness, and their hearts. I am so blessed to have
been able to go on this journey, and my eyes have been open to a world unlike any other.
Welcome to the world.