Peramiho Printing Press

On Monday I went back to Peramiho with Br. Kastor, Anne, and Lennart to visit the printing press. This printing press is pretty famous throughout all of Tanzania. They print a lot of Catholic books, the Catholic magazine called Mwenge, and also private projects such as the one that we came for! Our task was to design a wall calendar for 2009. It will be only one sheet about the size of a small poster. It is, in effect, an advertisement for St. Laurents. It was fun to be a part of the design process, particularly because a lot of the pictures we are using for the calendar are ones that i took myself! We did an initial design on Monday, and then returned again yesterday to add captions to the photos and decide on a final layout of the pictures. It was a fun process! The calendars should be printed in about a week. I will bring quite a few of them home with me, so if you would like one to hang on your wall, please let me know!

They were very happy to have visitors at the printing press. So happy, that they decided to give us an impromptu tour! This printing press has been operating for almost 75 years! All of the machines came from Germany. 

Here is Br. Kastor holding up a sheet of postcards that was recently printed, as well as the labels for the bottled water that the monastery owns and runs (Chemi Chemi). 

I was in awe walking around the floor and seeing all of the machines at work. For one thing, all this modern technology seemed pretty out of place here in southern Tanzania! Also, I loved just seeing the process of how a book is printed! I felt like i was in the "picture picture" on an episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood...

Perhaps the most interesting machine that we saw still in use was the Linotype machine. I cannot accurately explain how this machine works...but i would recommend googling it if you are interested :)  Basically, you type out one line of the book you will be printing on a keyboard, and the Linotype uses molten aluminum to form that line of words on a block. Maybe the pictures can give a better idea of what I am trying to say...

Here is my name formed by the machine! Pretty neat. They are able to print books faster and more efficiently using computer duplication now days, but they still use this machine, to. A piece of the past...

We also ran into our friend Brigeta who worked in the hostel for the first few months we were in Hanga. It was good to see her again and say hello.

I think there will be a feast tonight. And of course celebration all day tomorrow. It is hard being away from home during this season, but also good to have these new experiences. 

Next time: pictures from Christmas in Africa!