Letters from Africa

March, 2009

We are well into our second year of Secondary School here in the newest mission of the Congregation in Tanzania, Africa. Our biggest joys have been the visit of Sister Dorota Zymunt, the Assistant General, and the arrival of Sister Jadwiga Wudarczyk to join our local community at the end of January. We are grateful for the willingness of Sister Dorota to help in every way possible just as we were beginning our school year.

One milestone was the signing by Bishop Michael Msonganzila of a five year contract between our Congregation and the Diocese of Musoma. This happened during our visit with Sister Dorota and the Bishop. The reason this was delayed until now is that the Diocese was without a Bishop for almost a year and a half after Bishop Samba's death.

We were also delighted to finally receive the official registration of our school by the Tanzanian Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. It has been a long and arduous journey to achieve this. There were many, varied school inspections and the completion of much documentation during the past year to achieve this official recognition by the government of our school. Now, our students are eligible to take National examinations during their second and fourth years of school.

In many ways it has been a very exciting and yet challenging school year. 606 girls who finished Standard 7 in primary school took our entrance test on November 1, 2008. Because of a lack of space, we planned on taking only 110 girls into Form 1, which is the first year of Secondary School. Because we expanded our Form 2 into three classrooms, we had about 14 places for new students in that second year of school and over 80 girls took the test trying to get into Form 2. Of course, the only reason we were able to accept any new students for this school year is that we finally have a dormitory building thanks to the generosity of Honorable Nimrod Mkono, the Member of Parliament for our area, and the grants he has received from the Tanzania/Japan Counterpart Fund.

We started school on February 23, a month late because the dormitories were not ready by the middle of January when the Tanzanian school year normally starts. Since that time, the students have been living in very tight quarters with 209 students occupying the space intended for 80 students. They have been very good about sleeping in these adverse conditions without electricity or running water or drainage for the toilets and showers. Hopefully, the dormitories will be completed in the next months.

Honorable Mkono had a small apartment type living quarters made for the Sisters at the end of the dormitory. It has a sitting room, two bedrooms, a very small kitchenette and a washroom. We needed to put some student beds in this area even while the Sisters were sleeping there without a ceiling and without the washroom being usable, as the construction of this area is being completed.