Tarani Outstation on the Feast of St. Francis

On Tuesday, October 4, Fr. Yohana, Br. Michael, Gervas and I traveled to the Tarani outstation in order to celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the outstation’s patron saint.

This is the Tarani outstation. You can see the old outstation church beside this one.

They use the old building as a hall after celebrations in the church. Since the old building is not used very much, some people are using it to store red onions. This is what the newer church building looks like from the side.

I think this might be the closest outstation to the main church. It takes about 10 minutes along the main road (which is dirt and stones and small rocks, but not a bad road) and then after a right turn, about another 15 minutes along a narrow dirt road with many holes and grooves that make for slow and careful driving. We usually take the pickup because it is best at navigating the rough roads. If we have a few altar servers, they will stand in the back of the pickup truck. If we see an older person who has trouble walking, we will usually pick him or her up as well. All of these factors make driving a bit (read: very) nerve racking!

The children sit in the front “wings” of the church. The choir is always in the front.

Some children look on from one of the wings of the church as Gervas prepares the altar for Mass.

We had a bit of a delay before Mass because some of the people to be baptized had not yet arrived. So, we each posed for photos. Gervas found a boy with some “sharp looking” shoes. I think the boy is lucky that Gervas is not his size! Ha, ha!

Meanwhile, Br. Michael and I were waiting patiently for us to get started.