One Last Update on Kilimahewa

To all of those who were willing to listen,
I apologize for the lack of communication on my behalf over the last few weeks. The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind of hellos, goodbyes, near disasters and redemption. all without any real access to the internet. I am currently back where I started in Nairobi. Opportunities for international communication here are better than anywhere else in Africa, but still not very good. So please bare with me through the occasional typo.
I want to get the message out to everyone that took an opportunity to help me with my project at Kilimahewa school. Our efforts to provide an opportunity for a better life was an astounding success. Together, we were able to raise close to $8000 US. All of the credit should go entirely to all of those who were touched and chose not to ignore my pleas for help. The money is enough to send all eight kids back to school! Each student has signed a contract and will submit their grades to my partner in the community after every term.They know that they will be taken care of for their entire degree if uphold their end of the bargain and continue to excel academically..
I had a tearful goodbye when we said goodbye almost 3 weeks ago. It was a mixture of joy and sorrow that I have never felt before. On one hand, I was seeing some of the sweetest kids I have ever met for probably the last time. On the other hand, we chose the same day to announce that were successful in finding sponsorship for all eligible students. I wrote some more thoughts and posted pictures on my blog. Feel free to check them out at indulgingthewanderlust.blogspot.com if you are interested.
Here is a brief rundown of exactly what will happen next. I had initially expected that my pleas for help would fall on mostly deaf ears. Call me a cynic, but I knew that most of the people I would be reaching out to share a similar socio-economic status as me. Basically, it is hard to part with money that you do not have. Thankfully, I have never been more wrong in my life. Within 24 hours, I already had received more almost $2000! That number kept on growing with each passing day. The other side of this coin is the positive relationship between the amount of money we would be contributing for the students and the responsibilities associated with it's distribution. I was left with all new hurdles to jump over.
Perhaps the most important problem that I was confronted with was how to enroll these kids in school without them knowing that I was the one who was responsible. There is a fragile relationship between the volunteers in Africa and the people we serve. If my students knew that I had raised the money for them, they would expect other volunteers in the future to do the same. I would be hurting the program that I owe so much more than I was helping it. My solution was to create the Moshi Scholarship Fund and have all of the eligible students apply for an academic sponsorship. I still think it was pure genious! We helped them write a little about themselves and also try to articulate why they wanted to go back to school. Here is the a little information about the students that you have all helped to support. As a side note, There is a lot of confusion at my school about students' surnames. I have omitted them in the following summaries:

Tumsifu-
Tumsifu is 17 years old. He is the eldest of the students that are returning to school. We literally had to beg the director of education to allow him back in. Apparently there is a strict age limit for starting secondary school. Tumsifu has lost both of his parents, I did not have the heart or stomach to ask how. He lives with his grandmother and spends every afternoon working on their farm. He was forced to stop attending school after his parents died because there was no longer any money to spare. His dream is to someday become a teacher.

Baltazary-
This boy is one of the most amazing people that I have ever met. We became very close during my stay in Moshi. He was always waiting at the school when we showed up in the mornings. I discovered after a few weeks that he has been writing out his own Swahili-English dictionary. He has over 800 words writin in his notebook. There were times during my six weeks of teaching at Kilimahewa when we were very short handed. Baltazary took over as interpreter, tutor, manager, whatever we needed from him.
Baltazary is lucky enough to still have both of his parents, although he does not live with them. He is actually from a village far outside of Moshi. Kilimahewa is the only informal school within 100km. Baltazary was so desperate for an education that he moved in with another family so he could be closer to us. You may notice that he is in a disproportionate number of my pictures. He is the boy in the green shirt.

Edward-
We almost lost this one and I still have my concerns about Edward. He is smart and quiet. It took me a while to get him to feel comfortable around me. I was able to learn that Edward lives with his mother. She is disabled and I hear that she is very sick. Edward never mentions his father. He is either dead, or a deadbeat. Regardless, he is not a part of Edward's life right now. We had to search all over town for this kid to tell him that we could send him back to school. He was at home taking care of his mother. I worry that he may not make it through all of his education because of his living situation. But, he deserves a chance.

Josephine-
I probably know the least about Josephine. She sat in the back of a large class and did little to distinguish herself from the rest. I looked up all of her previous grades after we learned that she was eligible to return to school. She had quietly scored almost perfectly on everything that we could find. As a side note, I have a newfound empathy for teachers in public schools. I can see how good students can go unnoticed in crowded classes. It was hard for me to probe for more info without giving away my role in her scholarship. It would have been easier to probe for more information if I had already developed an academic relationship with her. So I chose to let her remain in anonymity. I did learn that she has lost at least one of her parents, but I do not know how or why. Although, she was one of the most visibly happy when we made the announcement last Friday.

Christine-
Christine is 14 years old. She lives with both parents in Moshi and is one of nine children. She has one of the most captivating smiles I have ever seen. You can judge for yourself on my blog. She is the one with the clean white shirt and blue skirt. Her clothes are less tattered than the other students because she was in public schooling until very recently. Her parents could not afford to continue. The timing is perfect for her to return to school because she has only missed one semester. It is like she was never gone at all. She will once again be among her peers of similar age and I have no doubts that she will stick it out until the end.

These are just four of the eight kids whose live we have touched. I have already told you about Felista. The others I have actually never met. They were former students at Kilimahewa who had already enrolled in school at the time of my arrival. A previous volunteer had worked hard to get them back into school. Their funding had just run out, however, so our efforts were very fortuitous for them.
I apologize for the length of this email and again for it's tardiness. My life has been consumed in this project. I want to thank everyone of you with all of my heart. Together, we have given 8 street kids a chance for a better life. the rest is up to them. please feel free to contact me with any questions and I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible.