A Change of Direction

On Tuesday, we went over to the CCS home-base where we all stayed last year to say hello to the staff and see our old stomping grounds. It was weird to be back, it felt like college kids coming back to high school. The new volunteers looked at us with such unwarranted admiration. It was great to see the staff and reconnect with the people there. Mama Grace, the head mama of the house, was able to give us some good insight into what we might be getting ourselves into creating our foundation.

That afternoon, we met with another past CCS volunteer who has a foundation on the ground that has been running for the past six years. It is called The Rau Foundation and is worth a browse. She talked with us for a couple hours about what she does and the several occupational hazards that come with the job. She was a wealth of knowledge and I am very thankful that she took time out of her busy schedule to come and talk with us. It is inspirational to us that another past volunteer has done what we are looking to do. She goes about it in a different way than we intend, but was still very helpful.


Each of the primary schools here in Tanzania cost a different amount. Technically, they are government schools and if you read the laws they should cost nothing to the students. The government however severly underfunds them to the point that every year the parents, teachers, and headmaster have to decide what is needed to supplement the budget enough to even open the doors. Primarily this is money for food for lunch. Primary school in Moshi costs between 15,000 tsh and 25,000 tsh, or about 12 to 23 dollars a year. About 75% of this money goes to the maize and beans given at lunch time. Parents pay this in installments, as they can, which also means that the student can be kicked out of school at any point for not having paid.

Primary school goes from Standard 1 to Standard 7 (about 7th grade) and secondary school goes from Form 1 to Form 4, with the additional option of going for your A levels and attending Form 5 to Form 6. Seconday school costs between 100 USD and 200 USD a year. About 10 percent of the population will attend secondary school, and not all will pass.

We have decided to steer away from the Upendo Orphanage, after discovering a few things about that organization. There are more pressing needs in the community where we can be more effective. Majengo is a very poor neighborhood, where there is a high rate of alcohol abuse. Our hope is that we will take kids from this neighborhood and enroll them in one of two neighborhood primary schools. This will take us quite a bit of time as things are very pole pole here. We will start with a select handful of kids that we can manage and work from there.

Today we are going to take a rest day, to process, and because Meghan isn't feeling well. It will be great to walk around town and enjoy the sights and sounds of Moshi.