Holy Spirit Church and Shanga House in Tanzania

Holy Spirit Church

Our Volunteer House Manager, Aichi had told us the St. Joseph's church in Arusha had an English mass. We thought it was pretty cool to be going to a church half way across the globe with the same name as our church in Belleville.   Aichi had gone to the school that was attached to the church.  We found out the school was called St Joseph's but the church was called Holy Spirit church,

Although it was quite a large, it was a modest church in comparison to our churches at home.  It seems to have a lot of parishioners as their were 4 masses, only one in English.  They reported their collection totals from the week before and it was just over 3 million Tanzanian shillings, which is about $2,000 Cdn.  The masses are full but for such a poor country I was surprised by this amount.  Although the people who we saw at our mass and the mass in Swahili before our mass seemed to be more affluent looking then most of the people we had run into in our day to day travels.

They had a shrine for Mary set up by the side of the church.

Holy Spirit Catholic Church

Our Shanga River House visit.

Shanga River House is located just outside the city of Arusha. It was two Dala Dala rides and a bit of a walk to get there.  It was well worth it.  Arusha is a very very busy, noisy city.  It is not a clean city, there is a lot of pollution.  When you walk up the lane-way and enter the gardens of the Shanga River House you enter a very different world.  

The Shanga River House was created by a Dutch woman in 2008.  She made necklaces with beautiful beads for a large Christmas bazaar.   Her necklaces and brackets we're quite popular so she decided to expand.  Her husband ran a small coffee plantation, where he had one woman who worked with him from time to time, who was a very good worker.  She was also deaf.  

It is extremely difficult for people with any type of disability in Arusha to find employment.  The Dutch woman hired the deaf woman to be her assistant.  The owner decided she could help this woman and other people from Arusha with disabilities to gain long term employment and learn a skill.  

The owner is helping the environment as well.  Her organization now employs 50 people with various disabilities.  They recycle bottle from restaurants and use them to make their own beads for their jewellery.  They now do glass blowing and create their own glasses, bowls and pitchers.  They have 4 looms used by their employees to weave scarves, blankets etc.  They recycle aluminum  cans and melt it down to make jewellery,  Also, they now have seamstresses making some clothing and jewellery.  

They also have a restaurant and shop. The restaurant helps carry them through slower sales cycles.

The grounds are beautiful and has a peaceful feeling to it.  Although they do have armed guards patrolling the grounds.

I was intrigued with the wine bottle wall.  I think with the help of a few friends I could have one built in short order!!!

The coffee plantation is across the road from the Shanga River House.q

Not only have they created employment opportunities for people with disabilities they have started the Pink Ballon program to fund several schools for children with various disabilities.