ABOUT R & S EXPEDITION

ABOUT

Roots & Shoots field expedition Programme

In Collaboration with a Department of study abroad program of the University of Mississippi USA, Roots & Shoots conducted a field environmental psychology program in Moshi from 8^th, through 11^thJanuary2012, in Moshi Tanzania. The program brought together adults, teachers and people from multiple professionals studying at the University of Mississippi of providing teachers, adults and students involved in Roots & Shoots and those working/studying at the Mississippi University with a deepening inspiration, knowledge and experience of which otherwise it would have been difficult too for them to experience in life.

The Program  involved educational services, cross culture interactions, field nature interaction/interpretation and hands on activities for them to feel directly connected to the nature, environments, people, animals, and increased partnerships along being in a mutual connections where they share values, and understanding of different cultures, beliefs and interests regardless of their ethnical, and socio-economical differences. By so doing the programme helps to develop a generation of really world citizens.

During course of this expedition, Participants had time to brainstorm, discuss and acquire in-field knowledge and experience that rendered understanding of wide dimensions of anthropogenic systems and structures at different landscapes. They also evaluated issues for the sake of increasing intercultural understanding and use of hands on service learning activities; as benchmarks to take back this life time experiences for the rest of their life.

PARTICIPANTS; AMERICANS AND TANZANIANS

S/N	AMERICAN PARTICIPANTS	GENDER	TANZANIAN PARTICIPANTS	GENDER
01	Kelsey Lantrip	Female	Gumbo Mhandeni	Female
02	Olivia Bryant	Female	Ahimidiwe Makisa	Male
03	Kathryn Cooper	Female	Zaituni Karim	Female
04	Tiffany Myfield	Female	Sophia Assenga	Female
05	James Kirchner	Male	Lisa Chekwaze	Female
06	John Penick	Male	Deus Cosmus	Male
07	Dr. Laura Johnson	Professor	Kleruu Sumaye	Male
08	Victoria Vaught	Female	Japhet Jonas	Male
			Bakari Sekievu	Male
			Cosmas Haule	Male

ACTIVITIES

Participants interacted through different games to get used to their names, feelings and behavior. The visit was held to the Kilimanjaro Vijana wana Mazingira (KIVIWAMA) at Njoro water springs to learn about botanical interpretation, water catchments and hydrological systems, tree nurseries, hand made papers and processes involved in the hand made paper making process.

A visit to LELA Community project commenced to understand the value of ethno botany in the minds of healing herbarium and nature conservation. Different techniques used for specimen storage and ethno botanical research along with traditional treatments and herb collections were learnt.

A special visit to the Roots & Shoots Conservation Education site was held to enable participate acquire traditional knowledge of cooking chagga food, and methods used to promote sustainable energy alternatives through construction and use of Fuel Efficiency Stoves. Children’s hanging poles were built even before traditional dances from America, and Tanzania had concluded the day.

A special Camping trip to Lake Chala aimed to cement intercultural connections between the bond of friends from Tanzania and America. Participants not only meditated, but they had unique opportunities to swim, wander around, view landscapes and appreciate the nature of being in an untouchable nature of Somali center for endemism, at the face of the lying geological caldera.