A Library arrives in Hanga

Last Friday the container of books and other donations finally arrived in Hanga after months of journey from Wisconsin, USA! I just happened to pass by the entrance to the Abbey when I saw this semi that had just arrived from a long two day travel from Dar Es Salaam.


After the container was cracked open, the novices were called to help unload all of the donations. I called Charlie and he and Lennart came to help, too. In the container there were blankets, clothes, a bike, a computer, a printer, and most importantly, BOOKS. There were just over 600 boxes of books. Our nearest estimate for the actual number of books is right around 18,000 to 20,000! What a great project. These will be distributed to all of the schools in Hanga.


We used the outdoor walkways of the new monastic residence for temporary storage of the books.Some worked to stack the boxes while others continued bringing them out of the actual container. For a while, the container didn't seem to have a back to it. There were so many boxes!



Finally, we reached the back of the container, and all was unloaded.


Here Br. Cassian checks the master list to make sure nothing big is missing...he will be in charge of all of these donations in Hanga and their distribution to their final destinations.


On Monday afternoon we began sorting through the books to get them ready to distribute to the many different schools in the area. We had piles for: Primary library books, Primary text books, Secondary library books, Secondary text books, seminary/religious books, and teachers resources.

To sort the books we opened every box, took out the school supplies and/or clothes that were packed around the books (supplies such as notebooks, loose leaf paper, pens, pencils, and art supplies) and then put the box of books in the most appropriate pile.

Here Charlie is gathering the many volumes of encyclopedias to attempt to piece together full sets.


Thank you St. Scholastica Academy in Chicago! your donations, along with those of so many other schools in your area, are very much appreciated here in Tanzania. They will be put to good use.

And thank you Colleen, Tory, and Julia! I am not sure what school you are from, but it is true, you guys truly R Ahmazing :) Thank you for your help with these donations, and thank you for your note on this box.


We continued with the work Tuesday morning and afternoon with the help of a wheel barrel to transport the heavy boxes from under the outside awning to a large room inside the new monastic residence where we were sorting.



And we are not done yet! We will continue with the initial sorting tomorrow, and then the real work begins. Luckily, the school year is just ending here in Tanzania, so us teachers will have plenty of time in the month of December to oversee the building of shelving for the different schools, and beginning to organize the books in each school's library. Look for more progress there in the upcoming months of posts.

thanks for reading. be sure to check back soon to see pictures from the completion of the sorting stage.