After breakfast we met Aggrey, the guide Ute had arranged to take us to visit and make a donation to the village of Jogoy.  

We took a short drive on narrow rutted roads past gardens and homes and were dropped off at the office of the village chairman.  In his office we made introductions and discussed the day’s plans with Aggrey as our translator.  Then the headmistress of the primary school, the headmaster of the secondary school, and three village women came to introduce themselves.  The headmaster also spoke English.

Then, as they had arranged, Joe and I each planted a tree in front of the village office and many photos were taken.

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Next we walked through town to the primary school and met all the teachers.  Tons of young uniformed children crowded around the periphery. Jane planted a tree in front of the school, and then we toured the classrooms.  There was no electricity and the classrooms were very basic and some had crumbling walls and floors. Typically a single teacher has 70-90 students in their class.  It was the last day of school so the classrooms were empty, but all the students were on hand to pick up their final report cards.

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Next we visited the much nicer secondary school with better buildings, electricity, some computers and a new laboratory. A dozen older boys and girls were in the computer lab and asked us many questions in good English.

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Returning to the village office, the village women brought us a tasty Tanzanian lunch.  There were two types of ugali, beans, greens, eggplant, tomatoes, papaya, oranges, avocado and bananas.  We were starved and ate plate after plate.  

After eating, the girls went to play outside, Joe was talking to the headmaster and the women turned on some music and began dancing with me.  I responded with some dancing and soon Rahema had me in her dancing embrace!

Joe and I made a $100 donation to the schools to build more desks which was very much appreciated. The villagers gave us gifts of two toy balls for the girls, and a kanga (large rectangle of fabric).

Then they gave us (the girls) a chance to try cutting back weeds with a slasher tool they use.  It is like a long machete with a bent end that you swing like a golf club to cut back brush and weeds.

The people of Jogoy were incredibly friendly.  They helped us a lot with our Swahili. After many goodbyes and pictures, we began our walk back to Irente Farm.  

We visited an amazing viewpoint atop a cliff looking down on a wide flat valley. We took a short cut along narrow foot paths that skirted homes and gardens.  

Aggrey spotted a chameleon and the girls got to hold it.

We spent the couple hours before dinner hanging around Irente Farm.  The girls found some vines they could swing from and then tied them together to make a swing.Dinner was great again.