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Giving Thanks-Asante-Urakoze!!

On this lovely Thanksgiving Day, I would like to give thanks to everyone who has made Project Wezesha a great success over the past year.  Lucas and I had a simple plan when we sat at the Sun City Cafe in Kigoma in July 2009.  We just wanted to give out scholarships to a handful of children who wanted to go to secondary school, but couldn’t afford it. 

Now, only a year later, we are happy to be supporting 12 children in secondary schools in Mwandiga, Bitale and Kiganza villages.  We also have three young students awaiting test results who hope to join the program in January!  In addition, we are so happy to be building Amahoro Secondary School with the village of Mgaraganza.  So much went into making this all possible – and I give thanks for all of it!  Continue reading “Giving Thanks-Asante-Urakoze!!”

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September Update on Amahoro Secondary School

Welcome back for another quick update!  For those of you who are new to Project Wezesha, make sure to browse through the July blog entries as I spent three weeks in July 2010 working in Mgaraganza village and Kigoma town – making this happen – with my in-country director, Lucas Lameck.
I spoke with Lucas twice over the past couple of months.  We have a plan to chat with each other every other Sunday.  Thank goodness for Skype Mobile on my Droid!  Now staying in touch is easy!  (That sounded like a commercial, but I swear no one is paying me … or this school would be finished by now.)  Continue reading “September Update on Amahoro Secondary School”
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August Update on Amahoro Secondary School

I left Tanzania exactly one month ago! In that time, so much has happened on the school front. When I returned to Salt Lake City, I sent Lucas another large sum of money from the Project Wezesha account. I couldn’t leave the money in our shared Tanzanian account because I was pulling it out daily from the ATM – limits enforced. Now, I am happy to be able to wire large sums as they come into Project Wezesha, for the building progress to continue.

Lucas reported through email and with photographs on progress since I left. The foundation for the four classrooms and the headmaster’s office is complete! Two truckloads containing 13,000 bricks have been delivered to the building site and the walls are going up as I type! I am so excited to see those images and hope that we will see a few completed rooms by the year’s end. Here are some pictures of the work that took place after I left one month ago.

Continue reading “August Update on Amahoro Secondary School”

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July Update on Amahoro Secondary School

Well – as I suppose you may have surmised, progress was a little slower than I was hoping it would be, but not by much. In fact, in the 3 weeks that I was there, I never imagined that as much would be done.

First, Isaya (the builder) had architectural plans drawn up in about one day. With the plans we also got the building permit. Having that out of the way, we met with the land office and the ministry of education and confirmed with the village government that the land was ready for building and it had been approved by the villagers.

Next on the agenda was the big materials shopping day. I gladly handed over almost 3 million shillings so that Isaya could take care of this on his own. He bought aluminum, wood, tools, 100 bags each of lyme and cement, nails and other odds and ends for the initial phase – four classrooms and two offices. The transport of this material alone – in car part of the way and on the backs of the men up the final stretch of steep rocky path – was quite a feat!

Continue reading “July Update on Amahoro Secondary School”

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Amahoro Secondary … Coming Soon!

My good buddy Carter Jensen has arrived in Kigoma! I thought it would be a long lonely road for me from this point on – after saying Kwaheri to my girls on July 5th, but now Carter – a good friend from SLC, UT – has arrived! On his first day in town, Carter had to endure a day heavy on the business for Project Wezesha. This was our tick list: open a post office box, open a joint bank account (Lucas and I), register Project Wezesha in Tanzania, meet with the architect for school plans, meet with the Kigoma Ministry of Education, meet with the land officer. Continue reading “Amahoro Secondary … Coming Soon!”