We left Moshi in the landrover loaded up with the children’s supplies and our luggage and were driven 1.5 hours to our hotel, up in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, the Sekao Kilimanjaro Lodge. Joseph has arranged for our rooms and meals at this comfortable and conveniently located hotel near the homes and schools of most of our children. We settled in and set about unpacking the donated and purchased supplies for the children into 40 bags. Another planning meeting was held to decide on the visiting schedule for the next day, and for the future days here.
So, to bring us up to date on this posting, today we visited the homes of 8 of our children and added our first new child to ABCD: Art Building Children’s Dreams. We visited: David, Rose, Tumaini, Gabriel, Respice, Josephine, Scola and Delivina. When we arrived at Delivina’s home, mom and dad were away working in other people’s farms so Delivina was there with her big brother, Honest. Honest is 13 years old and just finished Primary School grade 7. He was looking very sad to be finished primary school and expressed an interest in becoming a fundi (builder). We are going to visit Ngaruma Vocational Training Centre to speak to the head master about enrolling him in a program for masonry building. This seemed to please Honest very much. All of the children we met today were very happy to see us and to receive the supplies we had brought for them. Robyn captured many smiles from parents and children.