Regina Beraldo Kihwele went to North Korea's Songdowon International Children's Camp aged 16 and 17. Kihwele, from Tanzania, said she enjoyed every minute of it, including that there was no internet. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Regina Beraldo Kihwele, a 25-year-old artist in Tanzania who, in 2015 and 2016, attended North Korea's Songdowon International Children's Camp, which some Russian children are set to attend this summer .
The following has been edited for length and clarity. When I was 16, I attended the Laureate International School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where I followed the British curriculum. I played sports, and my coach used to organize trips to North Korea.
I was 16 the first time I went in 2015, and 17 the second time I went in 2016. The camp was very accommodating. All the time, we just felt special.
They were always on our case: "Do you guys need this? Do you guys need that?" Also, as Africans, we usually tend to have very different traditions and cultural choices. But out of all the countries that I've been to, North Korea is one of the few that actually has a linkage to our culture. Linkage to Tanzania I remember we spent two days in Pyongyang and went to the war museum and found out that our first president, Julius Nyerere, was actually friends with their first president.
It was a shocker to learn that because we live how we live, they live differently, like they are in their own world. It was interesting to go there and hear .