Here is a little update from Matt about the organization he is serving with, and more specifically, the Teachers College God has called him to serve at this summer-Emily

Village Schools International (VSI) is a rapidly growing Christian missions organization that is centered around building high schools in villages where there are no high schools so that kids who would normally never have the opportunity to go to high school are given that chance. Six years ago Emily and I taught at one of these high schools, Bukimau Secondary School in the rural village of Bumilayinga, Tanzania. This time around I have a unique opportunity to teach at the newly opened Teacher's College. This is a game changer for VSI because one of the biggest problem's with starting high schools is finding adequate teachers to teach at all of these schools. Often the teachers have never been to college or their experiences at college did not adequately prepare them to teach. By training their own teachers VSI can then have their own qualified teachers filter down into their schools.

Currently the Teacher's College has been open for two years. I have the task of preparing year one students to teach pre-form English. In two months students will go out to various VSI schools and teach pre-form to get on-field practice with teaching. They will then return for their second year of college. There are only 12 students in this class, but literally every week we get at least one new student.

Meanwhile, when I'm not teaching the year one students how to teach English, I am helping to prepare the 25 year two students for their college exams. They are required to take an exam in English, Math, Physics, Chemistry and Computer. This involves working with them on practice tests and a lot of one on one tutoring.

VSI's teacher's college is small at only 37 total students, but it's also new, and if it's anything like any of the schools that VSI has been a part of building, it will grow rapidly. And the founders of VSI truly believe that this school will grow as evidenced by the already built library, professor's quarters, multiple classrooms, several large dormitories, cafeteria, administrations building and many other buildings. Though some of these buildings currently lie empty, they display the belief that VSI has that soon the number of students will grow into the hundreds.

I am honored to be a part of VSI's Teacher's College. I'm honored because I've seen the work of the leadership of VSI (made up mostly of Tanzanians) and I've seen them time and time be led by God to overcome impossible odds. I'm honored because I have the opportunity to teach young people who want to learn and who genuinely appreciate what a great opportunity this is for them. I'm honored because I get to work with Americans and Tanzanians who are just as passionate as I am about education in Africa.

-Matt