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Day 6 - The Road to Geita

Today we will travel to Geita, to the Diocese and have dinner with Bishop Kassala.

I rose early, 4:30, so it appears that I am back on my normal sleep schedule.  It has been warm so I decided to go for a walk and take advantage of the cool air.  I was amazed to see the students arriving at their classroom at 5:00 a.m. for a study session before reporting to mass at 6:00 a.m.  I have learned that the students weekly schedule is basically 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.  The standards are high and the school here has become well known nationally for its academic achievement.

I woke our travelling teens at 5:40 to give them some time.  We made it to mass at 6:00 a.m. and Father George thanked us for our visits and contributions as well as the participation of Matthew, Tiana, and Tatyna.  After mass you could see the friendships that had developed between the student, staff and kids.  Matthew developed a strong relationship with the economics teacher in the short period of time that we were here.

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Fr. Salvatore and I went to do a final inspection of the work that had been done for the stoves.  There were a few that had helped and they were quite proud of the accomplishment.

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We departed at 11:00 for Nyakaliro, the home of Fr. George to have lunch with his mother and family.  We stopped at a small restaurant upon just arriving to have a cool beverage.  If you have not been to Tanzania before, most items are served at room temperature.  In our situation it seems that Fr. George communicated well in advance to have a selection of cool beverages.  We learned that the place was run by Fr. George's brother-in-law Anania?  We then went to enjoy a meal with Fr. George's family and meet his mother, Lawrencia.  Father George is one of 7 and only one Sister.  The meal was extremely delicious.  Tatyna had started to develop some stomach pains on Thursday evening and they were starting to increase about the time we arrived for lunch.  She though that Tums may help her and Fr. George sent some one for magnesium tablets.  We hope that this will improve.  After Lunch we posed for ome pictures and continued our journey towards Geita.

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Pictured in the picture is Margaret, Regina, Magdalena, Devota, Alfred, Lawrencia, Monica, Florida, Suzanna, Dumi, Anania, and Colleta.

Next we drove for about and hour and stopped to meet Fr. Erik  a priest who was ordained with Fr. John and did his pastoral year at Fr. George's Parish.  He was assigned to this Parish in October and there was no church or rectory at the time.  It is impressive as you can see from the photos what has been accomplished.

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At 4:00 we continued our journey to Geita, and along the way we saw a priest that Fr. George recognized and we stopped to greet him.  Fr. Topias who is the pastor of Zenza Parish.

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We then go back on the road and arrived at the Bishop's house in Geita around 7:30.  Of course Bishop Flavian was very welcoming and we spent some time visiting and then enjoyed a nice meal, some post dinner conversation where the children shared some of their experiences.  Fr. George departed at 10:00 and we left at 10:30 for the hotel.  The children we elated that we were not getting up at 5:00 a.m.

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