Jan Hansen

Our St. Thomas team waited for the strategic meeting with the bishop that was to begin at 9:00. We got rolling about noon but were delayed again when the bishop escorted Kaye to the bank to exchange money. The bishop introduced the General Secretary, Erasto Kamihanda, as the new contact for our team. It was this first…

I love this place. During the night there was growling and barking right outside my door! Surprised me. I kind of wanted it to be a lion. Breakfast at 7:00am and ready for George, our driver, to pick us up for church.  Picked up at 8:00am and got into the truck which already had four…

I can hardly wait to get to Tanzania. The smells are so earthy. Dirt, compost, animals, vegetation. The sights are so contradictory. Women dressed so impeccably – a cow roaming the street. Rise and shine at 6:30am. Dressed, packed and ready to meet our driver. We arrived at the diocese at 7:30 and had breakfast.…

Highlights include: 1) Landed in Amsterdam and went through customs; 2) Grabbed coffee and relaxed; 3) Put water in my camelback then dumped it when I realized that we couldn’t bring it on the plane (duh)!; 4) Took off sitting next to a linguist living in Uganda and translating the Bible into area languages. What a…

Headed to Africa today. Highlights included 1) Packed and repacked 3 times the backpack and the roly-poly suitcase named “Elvis” for all the rock and roll; (2) cleared out email and finished chores at home; (3) Steve took me to the airport around noon and we met up with all the others going; (4) Was…

Introducing “The Team” Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, coordinated a J-term trip in 2008 for five engineering senior students and two advisors to travel to the Karagwe District of Northwestern Tanzania. The purpose was to install two solar-powered water pasteurizers. The seniors had majored in a combination of ME and…

This blog contains excerpts from my hand-written diary from five years ago. Since that time I have been to Africa mutliple times and therefore have shyness about some of my perceptions and ideas that I no longer hold. But that is growth so I will leave those embarrassing things in. The purpose of my university’s…