When sophomore Lewis Grant sent off an application to a summer program, he didn’t realize he would be embarking on a trip that would change his life. Grant  sent a few of his personal pictures and an essay to National Geographic Student Expeditions.

The program sends high school students to various places around the world, where they get involved in the culture and complete community service projects.
Initially, Grant was scheduled to go to China, but the trip was cancelled and moved to Tanzania.

Over the three weeks he spent in Tanzania in June, Grant did a community service project, spent time with a Homestay family, doing what they do day to day, and went on a safari across the coast of Tanzania.

“I’d been doing the same thing — camp — for a few summers and I wanted to broaden my horizons and get a cultural experience,” Grant said.

Accompanying him were three guides from National Geographic and eleven other students who had also qualified to go on the trip the same way Grant had.
While approaching the date of departure, Grant said his anticipation of the trip began to rise.

“As [time] slowly went on, I thought about Africa,” Grant said. “I was about to experience safari and extreme poverty and I just got excited.”

The journey to Maji ya Chai was an exhausting one. Grant flew from St. Louis to New York, where he caught a flight to Amsterdam. There, he had a six hour layover and flew to the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam. From there, he flew to Kilimanjaro and took a bus to Maji ya Chai.

In the first week, Grant and his group stayed in Maji ya Chai in a concrete compound in the middle of town; the only building with running water. They worked on a community service project, laying down a new water pipeline for the town. While there, he took pictures of the men and women of the community, most of whom were unlicensed for the work, laboriously laying the pipeline for no pay.

Half of the second week was spent with a Homestay family in Maji ya Chai, which hosted Grant for four days. Every day, Grant would hike from the compound to their house, and stay with the family for the entire day.

Aafter breakfast, the family and Grant would engage in a variety of activities, such as picking coffee beans and herding the goats.

“The entire experience was very surreal,” Grant said.

He noted major cultural differences. Breakfast each morning was very small, perhaps a little corn, but after the few small morning tasks,
the rest of the morning was spent preparing for lunch, the biggest meal of the day.
Lunch, as Grant described, was known as dinner, and the time and effort put into lunch was tremendous. Everyone pitched in and did their share and then feasted. Still early in the day, lunch was hours apart from dinner, which they called supper.

Grant took pictures while staying with his Homestay family.  He only started taking photos once he was comfortable with what he was doing.

“I liked having the experience and not necessarily the proof,” Grant said.

The rest of the time in Tanzania, a little over a week, Grant spent on a safari along the eastern coast of the country, described to Grant by the safari expert as “the luckiest safari he had ever seen.”

During this time, Grant and his group travelled in a jeep by day and slept in tents and sleeping bags by night.

It was during his time on safari when Grant said his most eye-opening experience occurred. On the third day of the safari, the group stopped at a Maasai Boma, the name the Maasai give to every village of theirs.

Since the Maasai don’t see mazunga, or white people very often the tribe decided to sacrifice a goat for the passing group.

In ritualistic fashion, two teenagers walked out with a goat and suffocated it while everyone surrounded them. Grant realized the hard work the Maasai people had to put into simply eating.

“This is what they do when they want to eat,” Grant said. “They have to do this every time, they can’t walk to the store and buy some meat. They have to take it directly from the source everyday. It changed my whole relationship with food.”

The goat was cut with a ceremonial knife and the non-edible parts of the goat were removed. As the throat was slit, Grant’s group, as well as the villagers, drank the drained blood.

During the time spent at the Maasai Boma, Grant came to know one of the elders named Paolo. Paolo was Grant’s guide and Hope translated. He told Grant about the village and how he watched over them.

“I don’t think I’ve met anyone more awesome in my life,” Grant said. “I didn’t understand a word he was saying but he was so cool.”

One day, a lion took a goat from town and Paolo chased down the lion and killed it with his spear for the sake of his village. At the end of the stay in the Maasai Boma, Paolo put his hands on Grant’s back, gave him his spear and told Grant he had become a great friend. Paolo wanted Grant to take home not only the spear but also the experiences they had shared over the few days spent together.

Grant is going back to Africa next summer with his family since the trip he took this past summer was one of the best trips of his life.

“My mind was blown around each corner,” Grant said.

He described how tedious the culture of Missouri can get in comparison to Tanzania.

“To have the cultural experience over and over again every day, just to have a new thing everyday, it’s very surreal,” Grant said.

Not only is Grant going to Malawi next year to enjoy it with his family, he is also going to visit Hope, the guide on his trip who became one of the most significant people he met. Born and raised in Michigan, Hope was unhappy simply working in a ski lodge after college and used all her savings to move to Malawi. She is now fluent in Swahili and works agriculture in Africa. Grant said she became a huge impact on his life and he thought about modeling his life after hers.

“I’ve been thinking about it ever since the trip ended, if I could really devote myself to helping others who really need it,” Grant pondered. “It takes a lot of sacrifice.”

Looking back at his overall experience in Africa, Grant said it definitely changed him.

“I almost don’t know how to describe it,” Grant said. “It doesn’t take you out of your comfort zone, it blows you out of your comfort zone. It’s 100 percent different from anything you would imagine.”