We awoke this Saturday morning to some steady rain and grey skies, unlike Friday with a clear, cloudless sky and for those of us who are dawn walkers, a fabulous sighting of Kilimanjaro. I hasten to add that we were not among those dawn walkers, though Jenny ventured out on one of the days, and thought about it on a few others.

By Friday the medical checks had all been completed and all that remained was some cleaning of some of the data, and packing up the materials that had been required for the checks.

Felix from the visitor team here at the school had intrigued us with the story of his education at a nearby government school, and his ambitions to learn English as a path to a better job and secure future. It was a story of how poverty and lack of opportunity become entrenched. He described how as part of his home life, the demands of doing chores meant that he was not often able to get to school early enough to be admitted to class. The teachers would punish him for being late assign him to school chores and keep him late, thus preventing him from doing his home chores: embedding a cycle whereby it was almost impossible to get a decent education. All of this for the chance to be part of a class of 100, with few resources.

Felix’s ambitions have been realised and he got his job at the School of St Jude, first as a driver, so he could learn English from the children, and subsequently, in the office as part of the visitor team. Felix’s story is quite inspiring and the foregoing does not lend justice to him. He tells us he wants to write a book about his life, and Jenny has bravely volunteered my assistance in getting it prepared and published. Thanks Jen!

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit the government school of Felix’s education, at the nearby village of Shangarao. It was a short drive from here, set amid some farms in a quite picturesque countryside. No green playing field though, but a dusty paddock for the children to kick their soccer balls and play games. The school is a cluster of about three buildings with patchy blue paint and some painted educational artworks, showing a map of the world, the human body, African animals, numbers and so on.

We met Anna, the principal in her little office, but an office with no lights, computers or telephone. I think we were all impressed with her commitment to teaching, as well as that of the staff we met. The children were as keen as mustard and were thrilled to have visitors, especially ones that took their photographs. And they loved to sing to us. I think we visited three classrooms where the children delighted us with their tunefulness and rhythm. Listening to these children sing and clap really is thrilling.

Still, many of the old problems remain: large classes (the first must have been around 100 students) and lack of resources. Some previous visitors had arranged for some English language books, and they were very proud to show us their books and read to us. The team was able to provide some stationery and supplies which will be put to excellent use. Of course the cycle of educational poverty still remains to some extent. While Anna said that over 90% of children qualify to progress to secondary school, the system is not really geared for that. Apart from anything else, primary education is in Swahili, while secondary and university education is in English! You can understand why learning English was so important to Felix.

Dr Bob from med check team is keen to see if it is possible to arrange for electricity to be supplied to the school. Apparently this could be achieved for around $1,000, which in the scheme of things, seems fairly modest by our standards. I am sure he will get a lot of support from the team, and their friends…

We had a farewell assembly at the school, where we were once again thanked. A couple of classes entertained us with some singing. We returned the favour with a slightly discordant (if it is possible to be “slightly” discordant) but enthusiastic rendition of “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree”.

Nine of the team are returning home today, by diverse routes. We all had lunch at the Blue Heron, yet another of Arusha’s very good garden restaurants. We mainly had pizzas and bruschetta, which were very tasty. We have had some marvellous thin crusted pizzas here in Arusha. But it is a long way to come for a decent pizza! The travellers boarded the bus en route to Kiliminjaro airport, others went back to the school and Jen and I went into town to acquire some more shillings that we will need for the rest of the trip here in Tanzania.

The city centre is a bustling place and you can’t avoid being hawked. Habana asante, habana asante you say as you try to avoid eye contact. But they do persist, and it is a bit unnerving when they keep trotting alongside. We did actually go into an art and craft stall which had some excellent goods, and it gave Jenny the opportunity to practise some newfound bargaining skills. We probably still paid more than any local would have, but in the end, we get a bargain and the seller makes a good profit. The ATM had an armed security guard which was quite reassuring, and the hawker who had been trailing us quickly vanished. It was also reassuring to have Nathan, an Aussie volunteer, with us and his Swahili was sufficient to keep other hawkers at bay.

A cab home and time to relax, catch up with chores, think about packing and have a quiet night (though I understand a game of Squatter is in the offing – an opportunity to lose my unbeaten record in the game!)

We will be on safari from Monday and probably out of access to internet for some days. Next chance to catch up is 29 March when we will be in Zanzibar.

Till then, cheers.