October 14, is a National holiday as the country commemorates the death of its first President. This October 14, 2009 was special as it marked the 10th anniversary of the death of President Nyerere. The students needed to leave the school at 6:30 a.m. to walk to the Butiama Catholic Church where the day's festivities started with a Mass concelebrated by two Bishops and many priests. The former First Lady, Mama Maria Nyerere, and many of her family members were in attendance, as well as government dignitaries, villagers and parishioners. Prayers were offered for the Beatification of the Servant of God, Julius Kambarage Nyerere. After the Mass, all the people went in procession across the road to the Nyerere Family Compound to gather at the tomb of President Nyerere. The current President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, attended this ceremony as well.

On October 13, the Freedom Torch (Mwenge wa Uhuru) came to our school for the first time. The ceremony of welcoming the Freedom Torch was combined with the official opening of the new dormitory for students. It was a very happy day for our students as they sang and danced forming an honor guard for the Freedom Torch and its bearers from the school building to the dormitory building. Many dignitaries from the government, the village and other secondary schools were present. See photo gallery...

The ribbon to the entrance of the dormitory was cut by Fr. Godfried Maruru, representing the bishop, the Honorable Nimrod Mkono, the Member of Parliament, mainly responsible for the building of the dormitory and Dr. Lori, from the Tanzania Japan Food Aid Counterpart Fund, who made a very significant donation for the building of the dormitory. On behalf of the Sisters of the Resurrection, Sister Stephanie thanked all those responsible for making the dream of a dormitory a reality. Some more information...

On April 18, we had the ceremony of our beloved Sister Stephanie's farewell. Father Andrzej Duda CR, Father Wojciech Koscielniak, Father Gregory Helminski CR and Father Godfrey Maruru celebrated the Mass. The Mass was offered for her intention. Our Form 1 students danced and sang in the procession bringing the Lectionary at Mass. Then Safina Ahmanda, the school's head girl, began the Thank You. Sister Stephanie said "good-bye" individually to each girl and one of the students held the basket for all the home-made artistic cards and letters that they gave her. All our teachers and students had a hard time during the farewell. The ceremony closed with the singing of the School Song. Some more photos...

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. One milestone was the signing by Bishop Michael Msonganzila of a five year contract between our Congregation and the Diocese of Musoma. 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. Some more photos...

We tested 606 for Form 1 (first year of Secondary School) and had about 50 + more come asking for their daughters to be accepted into our school. They cry, they beg, they plead, they try all kinds of tricks, but we have to be firm in that we can only accept 110 at most. We will have 3 classes of Form 2 next year and so had place to take about 10 new students for Form 2. 75 tested for those 10 places! Most of Christmas Eve, we had girls trying to test into Form 2! Now we have parents crying and demanding that we help them in some way. Others storm out angry when we tell them that we cannot take their daughter. Wherever we go in town, we keep being asked about places for students. It is wonderful that we have this great reputation but it is emotionally exhausting to keep saying no when people are begging. Some more...

On October 26, we had a wonderful parish celebration of the close of the year of the Beatification of Blessed Celine. Mass was for the intention of our Sisters throughout the world and we put the picture of Blessed Celine right in the center in front of the altar. The leaders of the parish choir had come for four afternoons of singing practice. You should have seen the girls singing and swaying back and forth with all kinds of hand and body gestures for the Mass. A group of girls danced as they led all the processions of entrance, of bringing in the Lectionary just before the Gospel reading and with the Offertory procession. Obviously, our girls did the readings and the Prayer of the Faithful. It was a grand celebration. When they sing their song to Blessed Celine in several voices, the entire church rocks! Some more...

It has been good to also have the presence of the Nyerere family. Mama Maria, the widow of the Servant of God Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania, stays in Dar es Salaam most of the time these days for health reasons and to avoid the constant flow of guests who want to see her when they come to Butiama and the National Nyerere Museum there. She was in for the National celebration of Nyerere Day on October 14 and then on another day came to our school for a visit. She walked to the construction site and through the dormitory building currently being built. Fr. Gregory celebrated a Mass for her intention with our girls doing some singing and dancing. Madaraka, her son, came to spend over 3 hours with our girls showing photos and talking about his climb of Mount Kilimanjaro as a fundraiser for our dormitories.

A big joy has been our girls receiving and preparing for the Sacraments. On October 12, fifteen of our students received the Sacrament of Confirmation. It was a wonderful celebration in the parish church with the new Bishop's first visit there and a program in the new parish hall that was blessed and used for the first time that day. Our girls provided most of the entertainment with their singing, dancing and drama presentations. It is truly wonderful to see the sense of community that has built up among our students. They left for the church at 8 a.m. and did not get back until about 5 p.m. for lunch! That evening, Sister Stephanie and Sister Beata were involved in a meeting with Bishop Michael and the Honorable Mkono at the parish. The girls waited until they got home after 8 p.m. to put on this whole program of dancing and singing for the newly confirmed. Much of this celebration was lead by girls of religions other than Catholic and yet they had such a high regard for the sacrament received that day.

Every morning at "parade" which is the assembly outside at which we pray together, sing the Tanzania National Anthem and make announcements, we celebrate anyone's birthday that may be on that day by singing and the presentation of a small gift of school supplies. Whenever one is celebrating something special, they put these Hawaiian-type leis on the celebrant. Well our girls do not have the opportunity to buy any of these, so they made them out of different colors of paper for Sister Stephanie. It seems, just about every girl made a homemade card with greetings in English. They each received a package of cookies at "chai" time - which is their breakfast at about 10:45 after they have had 4 periods of class. It was a good day. Some more...