Tom and Pat McCabe of Brunswick will offer a presentation entitled “Village Life in Tanzania, East Africa” at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 8, at the Freeport Community Library. The McCabes’ appearance at the library will be followed two weeks later by the showing of the 2012 PBS documentary, “Stealing Africa: Why Poverty?” on Friday, Jan. 22.

Both free events are part of the 29th Camden Conference, this year focusing on “New Africa.” For the first time, Freeport Community Library will coordinate Camden Conference-related events with Merrill Memorial Library in Yarmouth and Falmouth Memorial Library. The conference culminates on Feb. 19-21 at the Camden Opera House.

The McCabes retired in 2012 from their jobs in Brunswick – she as a teacher, he as a lacrosse coach at Bowdoin College – to serve with the Peace Corps in the East African country of Tanzania. The country is known for its wilderness area including the plains of the Serengeti National Park, and Kilimanjaro National Park. The couple spent 27 months in Tanzania as community health volunteers.

The McCabes hope the audience will gain a greater understanding of the Peace Corps, life in rural Tanzania, and insight into the people who touched their lives.

Betsy Mayberry, southern Maine coordinator for the Camden Conference, said she had been in charge of community events at mid-coast libraries for years when she moved to Portland, and came up with the idea of bring the Camden Conference to southern Maine.

“This year I’m working with eight libraries,” Mayberry said. “We inform people – we have events related to themes. They libraries get a list and get to identify speakers for themselves. They’re all related to the ‘New Africa.’ I think it’s very exciting that in southern Maine, libraries are doing seven or eight events. Freeport was very excited to come forward.”

“Freeport Community Library is very pleased, and honored, to be hosting Camden Conference events for the first year,” Belinda Stewart, events coordinator at the library, said in a press release.

The Camden Conference began in 1987, when a few midcoast residents launched the idea of “bringing the world to Camden.” By February 1988, they had managed to attract big-name speakers and approximately 70 like-minded people for an intensive foreign-affairs weekend, according to the organization’s website. Today, 800 or so people now sign on to listen, learn and question at the annual conference.

Funding comes from individual gifts and memberships, business memberships, corporate sponsorships and grants. Past topics have included American foreign policy, U.S.-Japan relations, global politics of food and water, and a number focused on specific regions of the world.

A CLOSER LOOK

“New Africa” Camden Conference events at the Camden Opera House on Feb. 19-21 will be live-streamed locally to Lee Auditorium at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. For more information, see www.camdenconference.org.

Tom McCabe, left, and his wife Pat McCabe, right, are pictured with the Tanzanian family who hosted them when they arrived there as members of the Peace Corps.