The concept of class-size reduction -- an important measure taken to improve student achievement in the U.S. -- isn't really an option in Bacho, a small village in Tanzania where Santa Cruz students built four classrooms for 250 children this summer and plan to return next year.

Marianne Kent-Stoll, assistant head of school at the Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School, and husband Don, a teacher at the private school, are planning follow-up trips next summer that will be open to the public. The pair will lead an informational meeting Oct. 14, where interested students, educators and families can learn more about the project, which the Kirby crew described as "life-changing."

"It was just overwhelming, beyond our belief," Kent-Stoll said, describing the joyous welcome the group of 25 received when they arrived in four-wheel-drive vehicles after a six-hour ride over pot-hole ridden dirt streets from Kilimanjaro. "The villagers were a model of generosity and kindness."

Villagers were singing and dancing with children waving branches as the group arrived. Though the 14 students, five staff members, four parents and other travelers were exhausted after two days of air travel, they couldn't help but join the celebration.

The crew then worked 10 days straight, hauling wet cement, rocks, sand and water in shallow pans and buckets to help villagers build the classrooms and teachers' work space at the Ufani Primary School. Next year, Kirby wants to help build two more classrooms, another teacher work space and modest housing for teachers -- a key amenity needed to attract teachers to the area.

The village has no running water, toilets or electricity, but Kirby students said they didn't mind roughing it because villagers were so appreciative of their work. Village children often held tight to the students, who played Frisbee and jumped rope with them.

"To them, it was, 'These people are here to help,'" said 17-year-old senior Shelby Eisenberg. "If I don't do anything else important in my life, they believe I did something important."

Kirby's bookkeeper, Laura Huff, said she believed she got more out of the trip than the villagers because of the constant thanks villagers lavished on the volunteers, who stayed nearby at an agricultural institute that had basic amenities. "They kept saying they don't know how to thank us," she said.

The Stolls, who the villagers refer to as bibi and babu, or grandmother and grandfather in Swahili, came up with the idea for the service trip after visiting the country on a cultural safari last year. Through a nonprofit organization they formed upon their return, the Karimu Foundation, the Stolls sent money this spring for a work crew to begin constructing the structure of the classrooms.

The couple is planning next year's trips for 25 travelers each on June 15-30 and June 30 through July 15. The estimated cost of $4,000 per person includes lodging, meals and a safari. This year's trip-takers paid for the trip themselves with help from a school fundraising dinner and other activities.

On Oct. 28, 30 percent of all proceeds from dinners at the Shadowbrook restaurant, 1750 Wharf Road, Capitola, will go toward the Tanzania trips if diners mention the Karimu Foundation.