Day after Jubilee...

As promised last week, here are some pictures from the day after the jubilee. It was sad to see the stage being completely disassembled the day after the celebration after it took some 2 weeks to construct!The MN visitors came to visit my school. (Br. Castor the headmaster of the Pre and Primary school is in the background facing the camera.)


We (Charlie, Fr. Bob, two monks from Hanga, and I) even got to preform the original Charlie McCarron piece, "Hanga Jubliee" after our dinner together in the large dining room on the 21st of August. It was fun to play trumpet again!


One of the monks dressed up and very extravagantly conducted the choir, too. it was the hardest i have laughed in a long time. soo fun to have everyone together for a feast and be entertained by live local music! (notice the head table with our MN guests) glad i wasn't up there with every in the whole room watching me eat :)

tomorrow i will have more with pictures from our adventures this past weekend in Songea meeting some new friends, and helping unload a container of textbooks from Egland!

Celebrating 50

As promised, though one week late now, here is a short recap of the Jubilee celebration from last Wednesday:

Fr. Bob arrived two days before the celebration and stayed for four nights in Hanga. Very short visit, but it was great to see another SJU face around for the celebration.


My whole school sat together for the celebration of the Eucharist which began at 10:00 AM. I did not sit right by them, but when i walked by, they all said, "hello teacher ben!"


Recognize any faces in the crowd from the opening procession? The procession started a little after 10AM, but the opening prayer didn't happen until about 10:20 after the long procession!














during the presentation of the gifts, there was a long line of gift bearers...with offerings ranging from simple bags of beans to hamsters. Yes i said HAMSTERS! (see the right picture close-up)














There were quite a few important people up on the altar con celebrating! Including, the head of all Benedictines, from Rome, the Cardinal, and some other important Benedictines :) also notice the Papal blessings (framed) that all of the monks celebrating their 50th anniversary of taking their first vows, as well as the Abbey itself received.

After Mass, came the feast! one of the best meals we have had here yet. and of course there was beer and coke and fanta...and chemi chemi water bottled by Hanga abbey... all sitting and ready for us on the table. and wine brought from italy. (Charlie is enjoying the feast)

...and afterwards, CAKE! (there was even a traditional "cake" song that all the Tanzanians sang as they were presenting the cake to the head table. I will have to sing it for you sometime.


The other table of guests (Ben and Jean in the back...Fr. Kevin to the right, and Serena (rt) and Claudia (lft) )

After the meal, there was an afternoon full of more celebrations outside in many different parts of the village. right outside of the hostel where i live there was a village rock band playing ALL afternoon with people crowded around and watching. There was a little trade show area set up where different foods and woodcarvings, and jubilee tee shirts were being sold... but the "main stage" was back where Mass was. The kids from my school were walking around all day selling CDs and Abbey history books.


Notice any important familiar face at the head table watching the dances and singers on the "main stage" ? (hint: the white guy in the middle with the smile on his face) it was a full afternoon of programming, but it was a blast!


later that night, there was more of a party inside our dining room with music by the brass band! All in all, it was a full and fun crazy day. celebrations like that only come around every 50 years! more pictures from the day after will come tomorrow. and i might try and see if a video will work to post...

thanks for reading. i do appreciate all your comments, too!

Mbamba Bay

First let me apologize for this post being out of order...the pictures (and hopefully videos) of the jubilee and MN visitors will come tomorrow.

This weekend we (Charlie, Claudia, Serena, Me) took a trip to Mbamba Bay on Lake Nyassa. We stayed at a beautiful guest house on the lake, I did a lot of reading, and the sunsets over the clear freshwater were the most beautiful I have seen in my life. It was also neat to see the fishing culture on the coast! (note the dugout canoes in the picture)


Tommy K, i hope you are reading, because this last picture is for you: passing through Mbinga region along the way the countryside was overpopulated with coffee bushes! beautiful country...very green...but as you can see, the roads were a little slower. 200 km in just about 3 1/2 hours. but we made it!


jubilee pics to come tomorrow. a lot of them.

Lunar Eclipse

A few highlights from the past week:

Saturday night I began my walk back to the hostel expecting to have a naturally lit path under the full moon. When there was little light, I looked up at the moon to find it almost 70% covered in the midst of a lunar eclipse! pretty neat. I spent the next two hours back at the hostel watching the penumbra slowly recede through binoculars with the Italians who have been with us for 2 weeks now.


We have been eating all of our meals in the large meeting room this past week because so many guests have been arriving. It is fun to not be the newest guests here anymore.

Here are some more pictures of the massive projects underway for the jubilee. The most recent pictures are from a day or two ago. I will post more after the jubilee to show the completion of the work!


























This stump was removed yesterday after 2 full days of workers hacking at it with axes and hoes. Eventually a backhoe was used to lift it out...


My kids at St. Laurent's Primary school are becoming more familiar with me. Now when they see me around the village, like here on their walk back from getting milk at the trade school. It is fun to be recognized by the kids. They say..."Hello teacher!" or "Hello mr. ben"



The Minnesota guests arrived yesterday, too! I was pretty excited to just happen upon Fr. Bob on my walk by the hostel yesterday. There was a big meal last night to begin the celebration, and more today when we received the Cardinal. It will be a fun full day of celebration tomorrow.

Sunset Soccer

or football as the rest of the world calls it :)

today i went up to the seminary in the afternoon to practice with the brass band there again to prepare for the jubilee.




























After i was done playing my part on the trumpet, i decided to stick around the grounds until the sunset to get some pictures of the beautiful sunset (per Cara's request). yes, it is this beautiful and colorful every night. wow. there were of course many kids around that wanted to plan football with the mzungu, so i played goalie for a little and let them laugh at me. it was fun interacting with the kids. they love having their picture taken! i had one of the 10 year olds take this picture of me and the kids (top)


it was fun to hear some of the little 4th graders try to speak english with me. they speak about as much english as i do Swahili (these are kids from the other primary school in Hanga (DDC)...it is not english medium like my primary school is. )

still having fun with the new visitors here. i am beginning to feel like my whole time here will feel somewhat like a vacation. i am not sure if that is because of the climate feeling like summer, the fact that i dont have any real "homework" to worry about anymore, or because i still have so much free time. anyway, i am getting better at finding ways to fill my time :)

all for today. goodnight

Month Number 2

Hard to believe that I have already been here for one month. Charlie and I have both agreed, that this place is starting to feel more comfortable. It is nice to have new visitors arrive, and feel like we are the ones who know what is going on here (and be able to explain things such as the hours of the day when we can have hot water, that meals and other things on the schedule wont exactly be "on time," and to show where you can buy some chocolate :)

some more pictures of the school i am still teaching at (the purple uniforms!)
the dining room (now the bigger room because there are too many guests to eat in the normal dining room) with Serena (Italy), Catherine (Uganda), and Br. Theodore (Hanga!)
and some village kids who greeted me as i came to dinner last night. they were pretty happy to have their picture taken.

the 50th jubilee celebration will take place here in Hanga on August 20. There will be Benedictines from all across Tanzania, and the world, present for the celebration. Yesterday Charlie and I had music practice with the seminary students. I was in charge of the brass band, and Charlie accompanied on the organ. we will practice again tomorrow, and more in the week to come to be ready to play/sing for the jubilee.

all for now.

Peramiho

As predicted yesterday, there was no class, or even work today! Nane nane (eight eight) is the national holiday that I was not informed of. So i hopped in the car that was going to Peramiho with Fr. Angelo driving, and my new friends Serina and Claudia from Italy, and Catherine from Uganda.

I got to go through the monastery in Peramiho under the guise of a Benedictine Apostolate...and that was a great experience! It felt like i was in Europe...because the monastery was built there by German Benedictine missionaries! it felt...clean compared to the rest of dusty Africa :) and one of the best parts of the day was when i got to have real coffee in the monastery reefectory! still working on a way to get the real thing brewed here in Hanga...















When we stopped in Songea for lunch on our way back the Olympics opening ceremony was on tv in the bar! I was excited...

the pictures are of the monastery church in Peramiho and their fish ponds! (Catherine on the left, Claudia on the right)

tomorrow i am headed back to Songea to hang out with some Peace Corps people. should be fun.

No School Tomorrow?

I was again reminded of the African way of planning at dinner tonight when I was informed that I wouldn't have school tomorrow! I guess August 8 is something like Labor Dar here in Tanzania. What surprised me was that as I left the school today and said, "see you tomorrow!" no one let me know that there wouldn't be class. I suppose i will just show up a little early in the morning, and if there isn't any class, maybe i can join the Italians and Fr. Angelo on their trip to Songea :)

Here is a picture of my class of 50 6th graders. This week has been better than last teaching them. I think they are getting to like me. and i can recognize familiar faces when i walk into class every morning. The first couple days i didn't really recognize anyone...and had to double check to make sure i was in the right room.

Other than class, I have been spending my afternoons doing a lot of reading...and watching movies :) I am staying busy, though. I am looking forward to seeing if there will be much Olympic coverage here, as the games begin tomorrow. Beijing is just 5 hours ahead of us here. I found out today that Tanzania has 10 athletes competing in the games: 8 runners and 2 swimmers. So cheer for them!

Also pictured below is the progress on the new "stage" that will be complete for the Jubilee celebration. Cant wait for that day of fun! and when i say day...i mean it will last ALL DAY!

all for now.

Computers, and Food

After another morning of teaching, I spent my afternoon setting up 10 computers in the new lab at St. Laurent's. It was fun organizing the computers and making sure the desks were fit into place, and even getting some help from some students. below you can see the before and after pictures. there are still 8 more that we will be able to fit in the room, too.

Other than that, it was a pretty normal day today. Two Italian volunteers arrived yesterday and will be staying for about 3 weeks. They are helping with the farm, working with the cattle mainly i believe.

Very much looking forward to the Jubilee and all of the guests who will be coming for that, including Fr. Bob from SJU! And then they will stop having singing practice for 3 hours every afternoon in the lawn outside of my room. That gets pretty repetitive, even if the kids voices are cute.

Here is one of Charlie and another guest that is here helping prepare for the Jubilee. Charlie spent some time this morning transcribing a song that she sang to him.

per Laura's request, below is a picture of the food. By "the" food i mean this is what i had for lunch today, and it is pretty much the same that we eat at every meal. I am getting used to it, though :) Another day tomorrow...