Growing and Stretching by Allysa Browne

If you would have asked me 2 years ago that I would be where I am right now and have voluntarily chosen to go and do a moot court competition, I would have said you were crazy. I made the decision when I decided to go to law school to put myself out there and try things that scared me. Public speaking definitely scares me!

We started out our day at the Tumaini University Makumira Law School. We received a brief tour of their law building and then made our trek to the Moot Court Classroom. Unlike the states, Moot Court is an actual class that students take here in Tanzania. When we walked into the classroom we could see close to 400 very well-dressed law students staring at us.

The panic began to set in and I could instantly feel regret for volunteering to speak in front of that many people, but there was no way of backing out. We had been under the impression we would have all day to prepare our argument so I was trying to remain hopeful that I would be more comfortable later in the day to speak in front of all of those students.

Like everything else here, TIA. Francisco and I were pulled out of the classroom and told we had 30 minutes to prepare with two Tanzanian students and then we were up in front of all of those 400+ students. Then the panic really set in. I used every last second preparing my argument with my partner Matthew, who was the student I was paired with. Right before we were to go on stage we had to dress up in the traditional Tanzanian court room robes so that we would get the full experience. 

During the argument we had to continue going with the flow and organically change our arguments in the moment. Matthew and I were the proposers for Tanzania to ratify the Hague Convention and dispose of the 3 year in country living requirement for intercountry adoptions. Matthew and I came in second place but had given it our best effort.

After the argument, our class broke off into small groups with a handful of Tanzanian Law Students and received a tour of the campus, the living quarters, and sat in on a criminal law class. For my group we saw many offices, classrooms, the two libraries, the hostels, and some old Maasai homes that students used to live in on campus, but they are no longer in use. Throughout the campus you could hear students playing a variety of instruments as the university had a large music program.

When we left the university we had invited the students who hosted us and some of the faculty to join us for dinner. At dinner we all compared the differences in the Law schools in Tanzania and in the United States.

Nearly all of the Tanzanian students were interested in attending school and/or practicing law in the United States. It was shocking to me when I had a conversation with Tumaini University Makumira students, John and Mike, that last year out of 600+ law students, only 23 had become lawyers. No wonder so many students want to come to the United States! We think our passage rate is bad sometimes, but to Tanzanians it is amazing.

I was very appreciative of the opportunity to see the law school and work alongside some of their students today. The growing and stretching that took place today was good. I definitely went outside my comfort zone but felt so welcomed and supported by the Tanzanian students that it made the anxiety very minimal. Matthew was a great partner and really went with the flow with me as we made our points of our argument on the spot. 

Allysa Browne