THANK YOU!

Wow! First off, I want to thank everyone who has emailed me in the past few days and pledged to help Steven’s school. Already I’ve raised $3650 towards the school when all I needed was $2000 for the improvements. Steven has talked about building a third classroom down the road, but perhaps his dream will be realized earlier than he expected! We’re watching to see how everything goes before making any promises to build that third classroom, but I think I just might be back next fall to continue with the school. I’ve told Steven that I’ve now managed to raise “Enough” to finish all the renovations, but I haven’t yet told him that I’ve exceeded those goals.

I have been totally impressed by how quickly and efficiently Steven has gone ahead with the improvements. By 10am the morning after I handed him the first bit of cash he had 3 workers at the school plastering the walls. By the end of Day One, those men had finished the walls of the first classroom. Over the past few days they have also finished the walls in the other classroom, the central room which functions as a teacher’s room for marking, and the utility room at the back of the building. The floors are in progress now, and they’ll be finished with a smooth, level, concrete soon. Steven asked me to choose a colour for the exterior paint, so I chose a pale Robin’s-egg Blue and he hired a painter to begin work on the front of the school this morning! I can’t believe how fast everything has gone ahead and I really believe that the only thing that was holding Steven back from making the improvements before was just the financial funding. When we visit on Monday I doubt if we’ll even recognize the place! I’ll be sure to take lots of photos of the work in progress.

I’ve also been happily surprised by how honest and transparent Steven has been about the money. When I mentioned that I’d like to see a log of where all the money is going he told me he had already began filling in an account book, then produced a piece of paper on which he had copied a detailed list of all the expenses paid for thus far. He claims to have been shopping around for the best prices too, so I feel like I’ve placed your money in the right hands and everything will be accounted for properly. I’m also happy about the way this project is going ahead because Steven is hiring local workers, putting that cash back into the hands of men who have families to raise. When Danielle and I were first talking about helping the school we thought about how great it would be if we could bring all of our handy guy friends out here to do the work, but I feel better knowing that we’ve created jobs for at least a handful of workers and that money will be circulated back into the local community.

We’ve only got about 5 days left in Tanga before we have to head home, and already those days are booking up fast – We’ll be helping out at the Kindergarten and hopefully getting some cooking lessons from Mama Lewis on Monday, having lunch with Joel and taking Saumu back to school on Sunday, having a girls day with Saphia and Faiza on Tuesday and then saying some very tough goodbyes on Wednesday. Steven has offered to travel with us back to Dar es Salaam on Thursday as he’ll be staying there for the weekend to attend his younger sister’s wedding. We are very grateful to have the company as we hate taking the bus and dealing with all the scams at the bus station on the other end. Now that we’ve started working with Steven and I’ve fallen even more in love my little Saumu, it looks like I’ll be back here again before I know it!

I just met Steven now to pass on a bit more cash to buy fencing and more paint and he said, “Please tell those peoples in Canada which have sent the money that I say Thank you so so much. I am so so happy, and my family too, we all say thanks so much and God bless you!”

And I want to sincerely Thank everyone who has donated too, because watching this project evolve and being able to tell one of my good friends here that I am able to help him has felt pretty great! I know that those 40-60 little students who will show up for their first official day of school on Monday will have a significantly nicer environment to learn in.