Slowly but Surely

Hello again family, friends, supporters and followers,

Here we are one month in and very busy preparing for all current and upcoming projects. Unfortunately, as African Time promises, everything is running very slowly but we are making sufficient progress. The shelves are being built in the library as we speak, the ELA Paint Project will be finalized tomorrow and the ELA School Bus will be up and running by the start of school on July 4^th. As founder of The Tanzanian Education Project it is extremely rewarding to see our donors money morphing into the much needed projects I’ve been yapping about for the past year. Most importantly, I have been able to accurately evaluate the severity of old and new problems. To my dismay the problems with students’ inability to pay for school fees, untrained teachers and a non- existing budget is threatening our schools’ survival. Worst of all, since I was here last year, the hopes to drill for a new well has been crushed as water levels are lower than ever. Since arriving, clean water has been our biggest, unforeseen challenge.

Since the start of the TEP, the focus has always been self-sustaining initiatives in order to empower the school and the students to take care of their problems with their own solutions. It is great to see that we have unconditional support for such projects by our staff, friends and family here in TZ. Although I am personally committed to our mission of self-sustaining projects, it is clear that we need to address some basic concerns like water before we expect these children to utilize their education. The three of us have put together numerous proposals for upcoming projects that unfortunately our budget this time will not cover. We hope to launch the Hydrate to Educate (H2E) project as soon as we arrive back in the USA. Of course we won’t stop there as many existing and new problems still need our attention.

Over the weekend we went to the home of Albert (Fanaka’s and Bibi and Babu’s driver). We are very close with Albert and his family so it was good to see where they live. Over the past few years Albert and Mama Sophie would save about $15 USD a month from their paychecks to build their home brick by brick. After Lena (a previous volunteer) and I left Bunju A we donated money to their building efforts. I learned that with our help they were able to connect to the generator for power. This gives their children Sophie and Donny the ability to study at night. It also better ensures the overall safety of the environment for the family. It feels good to see how a small donation to such a deserving family can make such a positive impact.

This week Teresa and I visited an old student of mine named Allen. I taught him as a Form 3 but due to his inability to pay school fees he had to move to a different school. I was able to contact him and set up a time over holiday to see him. We ate lunch with his family and shared stories about his new school. I have missed him very much as he is a very unique, clever character that made many of my days at Fanaka brighter. Hopefully we will be able to see him again in the next few months.

On Friday we will be visiting Olof Bethsaida Secondary School and Orphanage, the third school the TEP supports. There I will be completing some work for our partner African Children’s’ Haven Girl Science Scholarship Program. It is great to work with such a great program and organization. We are excited to learn from Olof’s successful Garden Project, Chicken Project and the Eye Glass program thanks to the hard work of previous Olof volunteers.

Plans for next week: Finalize budgets and proposals for Garden Lunch Project, Chicken Project and Eye Glass program. We will also be visiting other secondary schools to learn from them and develop more contacts in the education field. Implementing decisions made during our teacher/staff meetings. And hopefully unloading the sea container (new delivery date is set for June 24^th- keep your fingers crossed).

As always thank you for reading and your continued support!

-Cassie