Returning Home to Tanzania: Sr. Pia's Reflections on "The Best Years of my Monastic Life" Part 4

On May 15, I was overjoyed to be the guest of honor at the “Form VI” graduation (the equivalent of a General Equivalency Diploma in the United States) at our congregation's Peramiho Girls Secondary and High School. The 21 young women who finished their basic education now can look forward to a bright future.

When I arrived in Peramiho as prioress, I was aware of the importance of education for girls. But because I had always worked in a hospital pharmacy, I had no experience in leading a school. This school in Peramiho was entrusted to me, and I had to meet many challenges from the first day. I put a lot of time, energy and love into this ministry, fully aware of the saying: “If you train a woman, you train a nation.”

It was my great joy to learn that our school ranked 21^st among more than 3,000 Tanzanian schools that administered the Form IV nationwide examinations in December 2013. The school received a special award for this achievement from the president of Tanzania as well as from the regional government. During the Form VI graduation ceremony, this achievement was celebrated with gratitude for all the teachers, their efforts and their motivation. I was so happy and grateful that I could see this day and this achievement.

  

 

My visit in Tanzania, especially in Peramiho, was a homecoming. Besides my fellow sisters, I was able to visit again with some friends, former students, priests and bishops. Talking Swahili had become natural to me during my many years in Tanzania, because only by knowing a nation's language can one fully come to know its people and culture.

I listened to the concerns of my friends and colleagues – and I heard their repeated invitation to return to Peramiho. They assured me that even though I can no longer work as hard as I once did, my presence would be important to them. I am not sure about this, but I am ready to leave my future plans to God, who has always had different plans with me.

I only can look back in gratitude for all the beauty I saw and experienced in my short visit.  Once again, I say: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his faithful love endures forever.”

Returning Home to Tanzania: Sr. Pia's Reflections on "The Best Years of my Monastic Life" Part 3

Along with my fellow sisters, I believe that the best possible basic education gives young people their best chance to pursue further studies. I am proud of our sisters who continue this work.

Only two or three sisters were assigned at first to Mjimwema to help in the parish and the hostel of its secondary school. The four sisters who work there now live in a small house built for a family. But a gift of land from the archbishop of Songea has allowed the Peramiho priory to build a beautiful two-story house, five minutes from the new orphanage, as the sisters' future home: the Good Shepherd Convent.

The new convent includes a spacious chapel with access from the outside so neighbors and children may join the sisters in their prayers. The new convent will have rooms for 10 sisters. Again I experienced how a small seed sown in faith can become a strong tree. Mjimwema will become an important ministry of the Peramiho priory, serving the people in this fast-growing city by taking care of the orphans and providing good education for their future. 

 

 

I learned that the Tanzanian government has been imposing more and more regulations affecting students' advanced studies. Some sisters are studying to meet these demands, but they pose big challenges for our congregation's young Tanzanian-born community. I had begun training many sisters to teach professionally during my time as prioress, and this work continues. The sisters must have confidence in themselves in order to teach others.

Returning Home to Tanzania: Sr. Pia's Reflections on "The Best Years of my Monastic Life" Part Two

The joy of my reunion with the community in St. Scholastica Priory was mutual. I met many new faces among the younger generations – new postulants and novices and new temporary professed sisters. European-born sisters were predominant during my years as prioress (1995-2007), but now a majority of the sisters in Peramiho come from Tanzania. I also saw that they have been joined by sisters from South Korea, Kenya and Uganda.

On Sunday, May 11, most of the sisters traveled by hired bus to Songea to witness the blessings of MBS' newly built Good Shepherd Orphanage, Montessori preschool and kindergarten, as well as the new Good Shepherd Convent of the Sisters nearby. I was deeply impressed and very grateful for what I saw. A big dream has been accomplished on the three pieces of land purchased by the Peramiho priory in 1997 for our orphanage's new home.

 

I remain aware that the responsibility for children orphaned due to the deadly impact of HIV-AIDS has been left by the Tanzanian government to the charity of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) as well as to the orphans' extended families. I am grateful that the Peramiho priory was able to find generous benefactors to enable our sisters to serve these children to best of their ability.

 

The new orphanage's three family houses – each of which can house up to 16 children – offer a new home in a different style for the orphans who were under our care in Good Shepherd Orphanage's original home at a former “leprosy camp” in the the village of Morogoro-Peramiho.

Children in each house will live like a family under a house mother. The houses are built strong and well and are equipped with all that is needed, such as food, water and electricity. The kindergartners and preschoolers will be taught on the same property, which also contains four large classrooms ready to accept students for the English-speaking Montessori school. Primary-school (elementary) children will be integrated into the local primary school in the suburb of Songea, while secondary-school students will attend the school assigned them by the government. St. Scholastica Priory, however, plans in the future to expand the orphanage's Montessori school to include primary grades.