School Visits Today


January 19 — Today we set our on a long uphill hike to 3 different schools to pay school fees. First we arrived after about a half hour at Kyalla P.S. to pay for the school lunches for Robati who is in his last year of primary school. I think the school officials are pleasantly surprised to see us return every year for the benefit of their students. We also were invited by the local priest into his study at the church for a cup of tea. Last year we met this very friendly and young priest and left with him some soccer balls. He organizes a daily football match for about 50 local youths and says he gives them their training in ‘morality’ on the football field as they don’t come near church. We discussed the possibility of organizing some shipments of soccer uniforms, and shoes and balls for the boys in the future using our contact with the generous Aurora Youth Soccer League at home.

Carrying on our hike we ended up at Makomu Secondary School which is a new school for us…Joven, our new addition is attending there and we made arrangements to pay his school fees when we next go to Moshi town. Contracts were signed and school reports arranged to be sent to us.

Last stop was Kilaremo Primary School. We have 11 children attending this school so the whole place was as excited as we were to be there! In every classroom we were treated to welcome songs by the children. Robyn is right on top of the photography and is being kept really busy. Our children at this school are: Adeline, Arini, David, Delivina, Gabriel, Godfrey, Joseph, Rose, Tumaini. I think they are used to getting their photos taken by us every year but some are still very shy and have to be asked to smile “cheka”! We also added two more children who are attending Kilaremo PS to the program: Paul (Gr.4) and his sister Dativa (Gr.6). We had met their mother last year and heard something of their difficult story, and when we saw the poor condition of their uniforms at school it is evident that the family needs help.

So, at this point on the trip we have added 4 new children to the program! If there’s anyone out there reading this post who isn’t supporting one of our children and would like to…just contact us and let us know.

On the way back home, we stopped at a local market and met Rose and Tumaini’s mom who is selling fruit there. We were hugged and welcomed by all and were able to purchase some fresh mangos and bananas.