I’m fishing a bit here, but are you the Zoe Flanagan who went with her mom to a childrens clinic in Romania four years ago? My wife Ellen Flanagan is going there next month with Global Volunteers, inspired by an article in the Press Democrat, which she carefully cut out and saved all this time. If this is you, could you write back. Ellen would love to speak with either you or your mom. We’re at jsedlander@gmail.com.

By the way, I was just in Tanzania in March/April and we had the chance to visit a secondary school south of town that had just opened. The 30 students who made up the first class were eagerly following their workbooks on a wide variety of subjects,full of hope. My concern is that the school will still be there for them in six years when they graduate. From an American perspective, I didn’t see a guarantee of financial sustainability. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, of course, but this particular venture was built on good energy and faith, dependent on help from the US and England. If it’s successful, it will give Tanzania the teachers, administrators, engineers, medical people that it needs to give hope to its people.

Thank you for doing what you do.

John Sedlander
San Francisco