At 13, Bailey Earle has already spent a summer sleeping in a tent and using a Squatty Potty. She has enjoyed lunch by a hippo-infested lake, planted hundreds of fruit trees and witnessed the majesty of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Shelby teen spent her summer break in east Africa, working on building projects, planting trees and performing puppet shows as part of a missions team.

This is the second time Earle has done mission work abroad, but her first time in Tanzania. Bailey’s mom, Amber, had gone on team mission trips when she was younger, and it was something Bailey wanted to try too.

She said in years past, she’s attended a camp in Florida and last year spent the summer in Honduras where the team planted pineapples for the locals who have to travel long distances to buy food. They also replaced rooves and painted building materials with gasoline to keep termites away.

“It was scary at first,” she said. “But I had the team behind me so I wasn’t alone.” 

Bailey said she was able to choose which country she went to and had originally selected Rwanda, but because of COVID, the team ended up in Tanzania instead.

She said each team has around a dozen to 20 people.

During her time in Tanzania - she left June 12 and returned home Aug. 5 - she participated in building a 300-foot waterline for irrigation, making a sidewalk with hand-mixed concrete, planting banana, citrus and mango trees, digging the foundation for a tabernacle, moving rocks, teaching the locals how to perform puppet shows and talking about her faith at different Sunday school classes.

“It was really fun,” Earle said. 

Her mom said it was a little easier letting her go so far from home this year since her daughter had experienced a trip abroad to Honduras last summer. 

“I learned to trust others more,” Bailey said. “Trust that they’re going to take care of you, and you will take care of them.”

She said the people they encountered were friendly.

Whenever they passed someone on the road, they would be cheerfully greeted with “Jambo,” which is Swahili for hi. 

She said the country was full of interesting experiences, such as seeing a man dressed in a formal suit driving a tractor, or the Masai people wrapped in blankets herding cattle. 

“When the Masai come of age, they’re given a stick to herd cattle,” she said.

She remembers going to a restaurant called Virginia Barbeque where they were served empanadas. 

One day they had the opportunity to do some sightseeing and got to go on a safari and see wild animals.

“It was super cool to see the animals in their natural habitat,” she said. 

A baboon jumped on the truck and stole a bag of chips from one of the team members, and they saw a lion laying on a big log by the road.

“She was laying there, and she was just chilling,” Bailey said. 

One of the interesting experiences she had while in Tanzania was their team’s encounter with the local chairman of the Masai tribe who had conflicts with teams in the past.

When he saw the work they were doing and the impact it was having, he welcomed them to his country and even brought them a goat to cook and eat.

“Now we’re like best friends,” Bailey said.

She said it was a trip she won’t forget.

“At the end of the summer, we could look around and see what we did,” she said.

While in Tanzania, she picked up a few melodic words and phrases in Swahili, such as “hello,” “thank you very much,” “what is your name,” “sorry” and “slowly, slowly.” 

And she brought back a souvenir.

The 13-year-old held up a metal spear with animal hide on the tip and other decorations. She said it can be broken down into two pieces, and she brought it home in her duffel bag, even making it through customs.

“It’s like my most prized possession,” she said.

Her mom said parents would get occasional updates from the kids and one from Bailey simply said, “I’m bringing back a spear.”

And although she’s planning to take next summer off from mission work, she’s now convinced her brother to go.

Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at rsitzes@gannett.com.