From this picture you can’t see the road, but it is there.  This the road from the Kilimanjaro Airport.  Very near the location of this picture New Hope International Hospital is being built (there will be more pictures later.)  Further up the road there is a little village Kikititi, at Kikititi you take the turn to go up the mountain to Sakila.  Once we get to the mountain road I know that I am really in Africa. I have tried  to imagine how many times I have been up and down this mountain road, and also the things that I have seen on this road.  I remember my first time on this road…ask Mike Wood what he thought the first time we turned off the main road into Kikititi on our way to Sakila in 1993.  It was an opening into a very new world

This road and this world are now very familiar to me

Now to the home of Eliudi and Mama Helen  and the many children that will be all around, and also to many long time friends and their families that I have come to know so well.   Back to Sakila, a second home to me for many years now.  Once again I thank all of my USA friends who have helped me get back to Sakila,  and have supported the projects we have undertaken.  It is a dry year this year.  The bean crop has failed once again………………..but “life goes on.”

James R. Smith