Jeannmarv's Africa 2013

Retired missionaries with the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) who worked in Tanzania, East Africa for twelve years, Jean Wahlstrom and Marvin Kananen returned to Africa for three months (and three weeks in Ireland, where they came down with malaria brought from Africa). Their 188 blogs and 69 pictures detail their adventures, insights, and learned lessons. Thomas Wolfe may have been right when he said "You Can't Go Home Again," but that doesn't mean you can't have fun....
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Retired missionaries with the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) who worked in Tanzania, East Africa for twelve years, Jean Wahlstrom and Marvin Kananen returned to Africa for three months (and three weeks in Ireland, where they came down with malaria brought from Africa). Their 188 blogs and 69 pictures detail their adventures, insights, and learned lessons. Thomas Wolfe may have been right when he said "You Can't Go Home Again," but that doesn't mean you can't have fun. Jean and Marvin (jeannmarv.wordpress.com) spent their final twelve years in Africa working at the Maasae Girls Lutheran Secondary School in Monduli, Tanzania. When the school opened in 1995, it was reported that only 24 Maasai girls were in secondary schools in the country with 400,000 Maasai (and 700,000 more in Kenya). The school has now graduated 1,500 students, with two medical doctors, one pilot, ten lawyers, hundreds of teachers, nurses, etc., and more are completing their education every year. These are mostly bush kids, most are Maasai but include other tribal groups including the Hadza, Barbaig, Dorobo, Sonjo, Iraqw, and others. Educated now, they are proving themselves to be the new breed of African warriors: Educated Women.Jean and Marv were more witnesses (she taught religion, he taught English) than protagonists in the development of the school. Lifelong teachers, they both claimed these final twelve years were the best years of their teaching careers. They returned after an absence of three years and recorded what they found, saw, and felt with joy, sorrow, frustration, and thankfulness.