Keanes in Tanzania

While Susi, Emma and I were off planting trees my mom was able to make a return trip to Pito Village to check in on baby Anna. The family lives in a thatched hut in a desperately poor area, but when Mom asked the new mother how she was feeling her translated response was "Overjoyed".  Overjoyed to have visitors and to have a new baby who was healthy thanks to the staff at the Pito Village Dispensary funded by St Thomas Moore.  Anna's grandfather seemed particularly glad to spend time with Mizungo who cared enough to know his family.  Mom was able to drop off some simple gifts for Anna and the new mom.  Dad accepted his, by now customary, live chicken in response, which spent most of the ride home pestering Maureen in the back of the truck. Baby Anna safe at home Anna's Mom and Dad with my Mom & Dad

After Leaving the Secondary School, Sister Scholastica took us to an orphanage she runs with her sisters.  There are 40 orphans here most have mother's who died in child-birth or can not take care of them for other reasons.  The Sister's take care of them for up to five years while attempting to reunite them with their extended families.  There are also a lot of Pre-K kids who use the orphanage as a day-care.  No real explanations needed here, this was just a joyful visit, the orphans are well cared for and the orphanage has some solid funding sources, including the Rotary Club in Edmonton Canada and Kevin Welch's parish in Oregon.  Cute Kids and Maureen finally got to hold a baby! Love This Guy The Simba of the Orphan Pride Dad showing his honest spirit for Sumbawanga Karibu means welcome in Swahilli.  This face says Karibu We should all be so thankful to have children such as these.

This school was on our schedule to visit today, which was a blessing and a curse.  St Theresia's Secondary School is an all girl's boarding school overseen by Sisters from the Order of Mary, Queen of Africa.  The mission of the school is to grow women into active participating members of society on an equal footing with men educationally, socially, and economically.  The place is run by the very formidable Sister Scholastica, who is also the Mother Superior for the Order.  The school is a model for a well run educational institute and the focus on women's rights is sorely needed in this area. We intended to visit to see how their new kitchen was working out, but unfortunately they had a fire the night before we arrived and two dorms were destroyed.  Luckily the fire happened during the school day so nobody was hurt, but the financial burden of losing two dorms could be a very difficult challenge for Mother Superior.  Despite a mind-numbingly challenging day...

After our celebration in Mtimbwe Father took us to the catechist center.  Because the pastoral needs in the villages are so high the church has established these centers to train lay people to perform duties normally reserved for a priest.  The students here, some 300 in all, train at the center for 2-3 years with their families.  They are then sent back to their village with a new mission to preach he gospel and help their people through pastoral care.  The Marian Stove team used this center as a testing ground for the new stoves.  Over 30 Marian Stoves  were installed two years ago and we visited to ensure they were all still in good order.  Everything seemed great and the few families we met seemed pleased with the stoves.  It was fairly quiet when we visited as most of the students were on a break when we toured. Goats eating at a termite mound.  They do not eat the termites but for some reason they think the dirt itself taste good. ...

So after a very emotional day we drove for a bit of sightseeing.  We ended up driving on a half-built 100 mile new Tarmac road, courtesy of China and their One-Belt One-Road Initiative , to the shores of Lake Tanganyika .  This was mostly a sightseeing trip so what will follow is some great shots of us on the shores of this beautiful great lake of Africa enjoying a lunch and hanging out together.  For those more serious about the details see the bottom of the photos for the history of this place. Our Guide, Ernest Lugalla, enjoying the view to the Lake Susi and I tried hard all day to get our anniversary shot. Dad after a long day of Stove building on the shores of Lake Tanganyika Emma, looking across the lake to the Congo. Sunset on a great day. Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika from space, June 1985 Lake Tanganyika map Coordinates 6°30′S   29°50′E Coordinates :  6°30′S   29°50′E Lake type Rift Valley Lake Primary inf...

This morning Father Pontiano took us to Mtimbwa, which is another region that is supported by my parents home parish in NC, St Thomas Moore.  Mtimbwa is a clean village with amazing people and a very active church community.  Mtimbwa holds 6+ services on Sundays in their small chapel because the community has outgrown their building.  Through dedicated support from St Thomas Moore the villagers of Mtimbwa are about 80% complete  with a beautiful new church that can support their growth plans.  Funds from St Thomas Moore were used to complete the walls and the roof structure,.  The structure you see below was actually designed by Gabriel, who is also a key member of the stove team and, by the look of the new church, a talented architect.  As you will see in the photos, additional funds are needed to install the windows and doors and pour a floor.  Regardless, the people of Mtimbwa are grateful for the support they have received thus far and were p...

This is a special place for us.  Kizunugu is a small village about 13 km outside of Sumbawanga.  It consists of 307 families whose main occupation is farming and beekeeping.  Kizunug was selected by the stove-team to be the focus of our efforts.  Prior to Kizunugu stoves were built randomly around the area and it was difficult to conduct training and complete repairs as needed.  Now that our efforts are focused here the adoption of the stove and its proper use has been much improved.  To date the team has built 32   Marian Stoves  in this village and they have materials to build 30 more.  The stoves have been incredibly well received and the celebration of our arrival and the gratitude for our continued efforts in this small part of the world seemed heart-felt. The entire visit was amazing, after the speeches, dances, and introductions we were able to tour the installed stoves and speak with the families that are using them.  This...

Our total visit and the background on Kizungu Village will be in the post that follows, but I wanted to get a short video of Ed's Speech to the village and the celebration afterwards up quickly.  This clip is just the end of a much longer and very moving speech my dad gave.  We should all be so blessed as he clearly was today. After the speech, Ed and Nancy were presented with presents, thankfully no chickens this time, but two hand-made stools and a large portion of the local honey Kizungu village is famous for.

This is Father Chomba’s Home Parish but it is also the site for the Malangali School for the blind.  These kids have it rough, about a third of them are blind and 70% suffer from Albinoism.  As Albino’s they are outcast from much of society, even their families.  The center needs better Acces to water, shoes, and hats for the kids and special skin cream for the complications of Albinoism.  We did what we could while we were there but they need much more help than we could provide.

Third stop blew us away and deserves much more explanation than I can give it tonight.  Pita Village is a small Dispensary where medical care is given to people from the surrounding villages.  The distance to town is too far for medical care at the larger regional hospital so most villagers use the dispensary for routine care, especially mother and infant care.  St Thomas Moore has contributed to this Dispensary and recently provided them funds to complete a badly needed extension to the medical facilities.  Unbeknownst to us, Father Pontiano had arranged with the local priest to treat us to a celebration in honor of the new building.  We were welcomed with traditional dance, Dad was presented with a Chicken, and the baby born in the Dispensary that very day was named, Anna, in honor of mom. (You read that last sentence right, all of that really just happened!) Did I forget to mention we also met the 92 year old mother of Father Pontiano and his two sisters,...