The Grammar School last visited Tanzania in July 2018 with a party of sixth form pupils under the direction of Dr Boyce. It was the third time we have visited the country and our sister school in Moshi.

The very first link to Bishop Alpha Memorial High School (named after the first Bishop of Kilimanjaro, but formerly known as Pasua High School), near Moshi in Tanzania came when the Headmaster climbed Kilimanjaro with his three OL sons, James, Andrew and Henry in 2009.  Sponsored to climb the mountain the £4000 they raised initially went towards funding laptops and computers for the school.

Since that first visit there have been three more major trips involving sixth form pupils who have helped with repainting classrooms and with teaching a range of lessons to the pupils.

The experience has been far from one way as our pupils have learnt rudimentary Swahili but more fundamentally how to live a happy fulfilled life with few material possessions.

The schools catering facility has been very primitive and all the meals for the pupils are based around a diet of Ugali. Ugali is a dish of maize flour, millet flour or Sorghum flour cooked with water to a porridge- or dough-like consistency. It is the most common staple starch featured in the local cuisines. This is cooked in large vessels with wood as the fuel to heat the vegetables that might be available with it. The need for a new cooking facility and dining hall was self-evident and as a result of the charitable fund raising efforts of the school the larger part of £50,000 has been raised to construct this facility. The foundations of the building were dug in 2010 but nothing happened to progress the scheme until the funds from the Grammar school began to move the project forward.

The photographs show how the project is now out of the ground and the walls are under construction. As is the way in so much of Africa, the scheme is now stalled as local bureaucrats argue over the payment of taxes which are said to be due for the construction of the dining hall.  Discussions with the Bishop of Kilimanjaro are on-going and it is hoped the scheme can progress to completion in the near future.