Things are changing here. It is the high season for climbing, so there have been a lot more westerners roaming the streets of Moshi in large groups. Also, a lot of my close friends have been leaving recently, which has been a little sad. I've met new people, but I of course miss my friends that have left. At WEECE, things also feel different. Last week the students were only there for half days because they were unable to come up with school fees. I had no idea the school fees were so high until Jenny, the young sewing teacher who was once a student there herself not too long ago, went around my classroom asking for them. It costs about 138,000 tsh every 6 months. That's a little bit less than $100, and that includes lunch, bu that is a ton of money for a Tanzanian family. Especially for the families of these girls, who are very poor, some living in villages on the outskirts of town and inaccessible by car. WEECE students came there because they could not afford secondary school. Some have not even gone to primary. Most of them could not pay Jenny, so this week not all of the students had fabric and could not go to sewing class. Instead, often times at the last second, even if I was doing something else, I was asked to teach. They also could not feed them lunch until Thursday, so the students had to leave at 1 instead of 4pm. I should explain how schooling works here. First and foremost, it's expensive. Taxes are supposed to go toward schooling, but at least in this past year, 85% of that money went to redecorating the minister of education's office, sending him and his workers to Europe for “educational seminars”, and other similar expenses. At least that is what a former teacher and member of the strongest opposition party up for election in the upcoming vote. Government schooling is much less expensive then private schooling, but after primary school before advancing to form 1, the equivalent to middle school, they have to take 1 exam on almost everything they've learned. If they don't pass, there only choice is to take it again but then, they can only attend private school. Let's say they pass and move onto form 1, after that, before what we would call high school, they take another huge exam. Much fewer pass because in primary school students are taught entirely in Swahili and have one English class a day. Then, they get to secondary school and everything is in English. Classes aren't interactive, mainly because they are so huge, but if a student doesn't understand something, they usually won't voice that. Instead they copy from the board and memorize. It's a complicated system with complicated problems. Anyways, it was weird for me that they were being asked for such high school fees for only a vocational degree certificate.

With changes in company, changes in the mood at work, I feel strange. I feel as if I have not been here long enough for so many changes. I leave two weeks from tomorrow, and I look forward to what these last weeks bring. So far, I have learned so much, experienced so much and have enjoyed a lot of my time here. I'm starting to reflect on my experience as a whole, and I'm looking ahead to when I come home.