BACK IN TANZANIA

BACK IN TANZANIA,   March 4, 2013  --Kenya Election Day

            I arrived back in Tanzania Friday afternoon (Mar 1) on schedule after 19 hrs in the air and 19 hrs waiting in airports. That evening I was pleased to meet the new Maryknoll Lay Missioners who were all in Mwanza for the week. Three had just come down from the Musoma language school for their mid-term break. The other 4 new ones finished language school last Spring and now all reside in Mwanza, which is a 4 hr drive south on the south shore of Lake Victoria. I also met our two oldest missioners, Liz and Joanne, our 2 Maryknoll sisters, 2 Maryknoll priests and 2 Maryknoll brothers. They had gathered there at the Mabatini parish for a Lenten reflection Friday evening.  I then went to dinner at a nice restaurant on the lake with the lay missioners so I could get to know them a little better. What a nice way to spend my first day back.

            The next day I was picked up by one of our Indian sisters, Teresa, from Kowak Hospital and her driver who had been in town buying drugs for the hospital. The ambulance was packed with drugs so we were barely able to squeeze my 4 bags in. We arrived back in Kowak in time for dinner, thanks to no mechanical problems. I was greeted by many who recognized me now after 7 yrs at the mission. That is always a nice feeling to see a smile on their faces, esp. the kids. This is the warmest time of year (85F) here, so it is still sinking in after leaving some pretty cool and white conditions in Kansas City. I was especially pleased to see our lay volunteer Vikki again, who has been “holding down the fort” while I’ve been on home leave, the last 4 months. I was glad to finally meet the two short term volunteers, Jean and Henry from Utah, who arrived in January and will be here one more month.

            The next day, Sunday, my house mate, Fr Conard had scheduled a nice welcome home party that evening, so it was a great time to say hi to everyone again and enjoy some great food and drink. We even had a special American guest who arrived that afternoon from the Arusha area near Kilimanjaro. She, Lora, is a young Biomedical engineer working in Arusha for Duke University. She had come to see if our hospital outreach program might fit their qualifications for medical equipment assistance in a new project to supply HIV medication to new babies at the very earliest stages. She will be with us for about 4 days and seems to like what she has seen so far. She has been in Tanzania 4 yrs, so has good Swahili skills and traveled alone by bus after flying to Mwanza; impressive.

            Today I delivered the three microscopes and 4 cameras to the secondary school and greeted many of the girls that I have come to know pretty well. They all told me how fat I have become at home. That is a complement hear, but somehow I did not feel that good about it. I will give the 20 girls on our softball teams their gifts later this week and give the 25 teachers and staff the little gifts I brought them tomorrow at breakfast tea. I saw some of them at chai today. I brought the men neck ties and the women little wrist watches. Henry showed me his new seedling tree project which is doing very well. I hope to attend one of Jeane’s English classes for the 120 freshman girls. I did talk to our regular English teacher and he said she is really giving him good suggestions for teaching techniques. We have a serious water problem which I hope to assist with in the coming days but it is due to the failure of electrical equipment on one of our two water well pumps, so I’m not sure how much I can do. This is our main pump because it is run by a generator and is not susceptible to the frequent electrical power outages of the other water well. They have had a lot of outages recently because of damages to a large gas turbine generator in Dar es Salaam on the East Coast. So our school tank was empty yesterday when I inspected it. It’s hard to keep 450 girls fed and bathed with the one pump that only operates part time. Never a dull moment, as usual.

 The bishop is scheduled to arrive next week for a big meeting to discuss the future management of the secondary school, so we are all anxious to hear what that is about. I am hoping to make another camping trip with my friend Liz and our new volunteer Henry during Holy Week. So, I hope that all comes together as planned and I can see the Watatulu tribe again and our elderly priests Fr Dan and Don who work with them. Today I am on my one-day-a-week water only Fast for Lent, so will be ready for a big breakfast tomorrow of pourage (Ugi).

Tom in Kowak