The site of the present headquarters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Usambara (COLU) at Kwamndolwa (in the region of Tanga in eastern Tanzania) was once a sisal plantation. From 1954 the Sisters been based at Rangwi, but because of its position up in the Usambara mountains it was not easily accessible nor was there sufficient land to grow food for the entire expanding Congregation. So when an abandoned sisal plantation at Kwamndolwa became available in 1979 the Sisters bought the whole 849 ha estate. The original labourers, mainly Moslems, brought in to work the estate had become demotivated squatters, riddled with TB, and barely able to scratch a living from the land. The Sisters immediately gave 200 ha to these people and the handful of Sisters who came to live at the new site set about with their own hands to grub up, carry away and destroy the now wild sisal plants – which are extremely prickly! It took many months to clear acre upon acre. Through their hard work, the Sisters have created and now run a wonderful complex at Kwamndolwa that includes the convent, schools, a health centre, a bio-gas plant (capitalising on their large herd of cattle), a vehicle repair centre (the only place one can see a panel-beating Sister wearing jeans under her habit!), etc. etc. The whole has been used by the President of Tanzania to demonstrate what can be achieved in a rural area. The small medical unit serves the local population, which in the main is still Muslim.