Thanksgiving in Amatongas

The school year ended in Amatongas this week leaving the place much different with the kids gone for the next two months. The most important part of that news is now we have tons of work to do to get ready for next school year beginning in mid-January.

Last week the brothers finally moved into our repaired and permanent residence, with the highlight being a new chapel. We took the third floor of the old giant Franciscan residence, which was composed entirely of bedrooms, and converted 4 of the old bedrooms into chapel, community room, kitchen and dining room. Another highlight is the beautiful views from both sides of the house. Thanks again to all those who made this move possible and to the parish for allowing us to use the two guest houses temporarily. We now live in a residence closer to the school and closer to our Sustainable Support Projects. We indeed have much for which to be thankful.

Now that we have more rain and sun, we see more flowers in the area including this beautiful orange flowering tree and these lilly's.

One of our many projects for the break is to increase the number of desks for our students next year. Workers spent a few weeks making repairs on old desks and we are trying to raise funds to buy new desks. Our estimate is that we need about 100-150 new desks next year. Each desk cost about $60 and seats two students. If you have interest in helping let us know.

One project we needed to complete before the serious rains come soon is to construct a new roof for the school building. This project was completed just recently and gave us a sigh of relief. We can now begin the work on the rest of the school, installing new doors and windows, repairing electricity, and much, much cleaning and painting.

Before the school year ended the brothers appointed a Dorm Council for next school year. The Dorm Council will be responsible for taking care of the boarders and running the activities of the dorm next year including meals, cleaning, study, recreation, and weekend programs which include club meetings.

Dorm Council with their director Br. Fabian (left)

One final note: If you are one of those who reads this blog regularly you know we have struggled with the internet for 9 months since arrival. Recently, we delayed the renovation of our computer lab because the local telecommunications company could not help us get a connection to our future lab. However, yesterday we met with the director of a new telecommunications company recently approved by the Mozambique government. Movitel is out of Vietnam and has been busy developing their infrastructure including installation of a cable which just happens to run in front of our school. The director not only said that we could get a line to the school, but that the installation and the use of the internet for our school computer lab would be free of charge. I am, of course, skeptical because we all know nothing is free and if it sounds too good to be true, welllll. However, we are thankful for the good news and possibilities.