Travel For Teens: Tanzania

I wish I had known to bring extra clothes, a lot of bug spray and sunscreen and to always stay hydrated. I would recommend bringing enough clothes for a week longer than your actual trip. Bring bug spray and sunscreen (no matter where you're going) because you're going to be outside no matter what. Bring cash because not all foreign stores accept credit/debit cards. DRINK WATER!!! I cannot stress this enough. You need to drink so much water during the day, because it may be hot and you may be walking around, and you get so dehydrated from traveling. Trust me, I've been dehydrated on a trip before and it is no fun.

An average day includes waking up fairly early and eating breakfast as a group. Then you're given time to get dressed and pack your backpack for the day. Next, it's time to board the bus or get in the van and drive to wherever you're going to be working. You spend about two-three hours working and then you eat lunch with those you're helping.

After that, you'll be allowed to do tourist things with the group or with a couple of people from the group like shop and sightsee. I would say that is about an hour or so.

After that you board the bus again and go back to the place you're staying and once you get there, you have time to relax before dinner. Dinner is eaten together and after dinner, you help clean up and spend another hour give or take talking about how the day was for you.

Once everyone has spoken, it's time to get ready for bed and trust me it's early compared to being in America but you are going to be so tired.

Then you start it all over again.

I was scared of not being accepted by the girls at the school. The first day we spent with the girls, I was so anxious. I didn't want them to think I was weird or annoying or anything other than nice. I'm not a very outgoing person, but I believe in faking it until you make it. In this situation, I had to fake confidence when meeting them for the first time. And it worked. They laughed with me and told me about their lives with open and honest attitudes. After this, I saw that, even if you are faking it while meeting someone new, you'll probably end up with a real friend.

Yes, you will have a roommate, but the advisers are amazing at reading the group, so you will never end up with someone you don't particularly like.

This is a fact of life, you will never get along with everyone. But if you go to your adviser and bring the issue forward, they will facilitate a meeting and you will be able to work it out. And if you don't feel comfortable with that, there are going to be other people on the trip that you can spend time with.

A couple of years ago, I led an Older Teens program that included hiking the trail between the five villages of the Cinque Terre in Italy. I pumped up my entire group so that everyone was on board to complete the majority of the hike in the one day that we had to do it. One of my students was not very into hiking, but said that he would do his best because he saw how excited I was about it. He was in the back for most of the time, but still finished the hike. The following summer, he and a friend from college did a backpacking trip around Europe and they went back to the Cinque Terre. My former student sent me a photo of his view from the beach where we went and told me that he even did the hike again! Stories like that always make me the happiest.

Tanzania - I've led this program multiple times and can say, without a doubt, that it is a different experience to any of our other programs. It gives high school students insights into a region that is still so unknown and misunderstood by the rest of the world and going as a student group provides more insights and support than going on their own when they're older.

Students get to learn about city life in Dar es Salaam, participate in a cultural exchange program with Tanzanian high school students in Morogoro, interact with local tribes and go on safari in the Northern Circuit, and learn about one of the richest and most complex histories on Earth on the island of Zanzibar.

Our company is unique because of every single individual who is a part of the TFT family. Whether they are a current student or alum, or a current staff member or have moved on to other work, everyone who has been a part of the TFT experience is a part of our extended travel family! It is amazing seeing students grow into leaders and have many of them go on to become Counsellors in Training (CITs) and even staff members. I am especially proud of my team every time that I participate in summer staff training and CIT training - it is always amazing seeing such a variety of people come together because of a shared passion for exploring the world and sharing that passion with others.

Our staff is made up of people who genuinely care and that kind of support is what truly helps both participants and other staff members grow into the best possible people they can be, both on the road and at home. The desire to continue learning as much as possible about this big wide world that we live in is also a big part of our success.