Africa in Stuttgart, Germany
It was father Beatus's second visit to our home in Stuttgart, when he presented us the plans to relocate an unfortunate little vocational school from Karanzi in the barely reachable hinterland of Sanya Juu to the busy main road between Moshi and Arusha, where more repair business could be generated to sustain the teaching operation, which currently is not the case and the school project may have to be shut down. This looked like a project, I thought I could oversee, and I promised to help financing the project with the »second half« of what funds are needed. This I wrote in a letter »to whom it may concern« and gave it to Beatus. The first commitment came from the Vincentians in Cologne. Which I doubled, and this is how work got on the way.
When Father Beatus returned to Stuttgart the next time, he had with him the plans for a vocational training center, to be built on 10 acres of land the government has given to the ALCP. The plans were impressive - and intimidating from a financial, fund-raising point of view - but foremost motivating and exciting. The ALCP had elected Father Beatus to be their superior for the Province of Africa and he would contribute funds of the organization to the project too. These funds are mainly contributions from those priests who serve in Germany or USA and who sacrifice a good part of their salaries to their community. First pictures showed the construction of the new workshop building. My wife and I had to promise to visit him in Tanzania.