Below is an abridged report from our CEO Jan Hansen, Ph.D. from Karagwe, Tanzania. For the full report from the groundbreaking you can click here.

Dear Board and Officers of ETI,

Groundbreaking for KARUCO could not have been more festive, enjoyable or more
meaningful. What a day! I have been trying to email you but service is spotty
and today there is no electricity.

Highlights
The program included 12 dignitaries and ETI was one of the three ‘main’ ones.
The other two included the Honorable Minister of Agriculture for
Tanzania, the
ELCT, and ETI which included Kjell (Hon Consul to TZ). Kjell Bergh and I were
given a tour of KARUCO including a formal guest book signing at Tower Point,
seated in places of distinction, given gifts, and invited to speak. All went
well.

The most moving part for me was the unveiling of the KARUCO stone marker. The
ELCT made a 3 sided triangle (like a 3D triangle) about 4.5 feet high
made from
field stone. The inscription honoring Kjell and I was on one side; the
2nd side
the ELCT; and the third honored the Minister of Agriculture for Tanzania. In a
formal way, we ‘three’ were asked to unveil the stone. The bishop, the
minister, Kjell and I went to the marker in front of our audience of
300 or so.
It was covered with satin cloth draped with yellow ribbon around it. We
each had
a scissors and after some profound words (in Swahili so I am just
assuming) :-),
cut the ribbon. We then lifted the cloth and exposed the stone. My eyes
immediately went to the 24″x18″ gold colored inset with the following
inscribed:

THIS STONE MARKS THE GROUNDBREAKING FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF KARAGWE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE, LAID ON TODAY, 11.10.2012 BY HONORABLE KJELL BERGH (HONORARY
CONSUL OF
TANZANIA IN USA) IN COLLABORATION WITH PROF. JAN HANSEN (CEO-EDUCATE TANZANIA,
MN, USA).

I teared up. The ceremony itself and the stone represent so much –

Second highlight: The bishop asked me to present the ‘touchstones’ we
brought so
after my speech (which went well and was interrupted more than once by
applause), I presented those to the bishop. I started with the Oswald Family
Foundation and told the story of how Julie believed in us and in this project.
The bishop, other leaders and the people were very moved and applauded. The
concept was that these are touchstones for the donors and supporters of KARUCO
to have something to touch when they come to Karagwe (huge applause). I
presented the Jaqueline Nolte Jones stone in a similar way and that was well
received and greatly appreciated. I gave the ETI stone, was careful to say we
are not honoring ourselves but instead are honoring the 450 supporters of
KARUCO in our data base who give what they can to support this cause. I
reminded the people that there is a growing group of supporters in the US who
love them and want to see them propser. They loved that.

There were about 300 people in the audience. Much signing and dancing. Lots of
food. All good. It was an exciting day!!!!  Wish you could have been there.

MORE DETAIL

I sat next to the Honorable Minister of Agriculture, Eng. Christopher Chiza, at the meal. Great connection. He invited the curriculum team and me to his office in Dar es Salaam when the curriculum team works in Tanzania in January. He also donated 10 million schillings to the project during his speech similarly, a member of  parliament, Gosbert Blandes, donated the same.  In a few minutes KARUCO had 20 million tzs ($12,500 USD) more than it did before. The ‘air’ felt like an emotional shift from ‘how will this dream all happen’ to ‘this is going to happen’. I felt the emotional shift.

More to come…

Live from Karagwe,
Jan Hansen
Roving Reporter