January 28 — Off to an early start today as we were going up the hills to find 4 schools. The roads and trails never seemed to end as we plodded our way into higher altitudes…granted it afforded some beautiful scenes of Mount Kilimanjaro and the air was sparkling fresh and clear.
Finally we arrived at Mlang’a Secondary School which is only 3 years old and a government school. Three of our students achieved high enough marks in Grade 7 to be allowed to go there! The Head Master was happy to welcome us and called the whole school outside for a welcome assembly and we had to say a few words to all the students! Then we left there for another hike to Uomboni SS where we renewed the contract for Honest Peter and a student named Jerome who is sponsored by a group in the United States.
After a brief break in a field for a snack, we set out for Kitowo and Napaku Primary Schools. We had to negotiate a deep valley, over a river and up the other side. These are very poor schools and the teachers were very happy to see us, not to speak of all of the children swarming around us! Not too many mzungus (white people) get this far up into Marangu West. We paid for the lunches of Oscar and Amedeusi for the year.