AUGUST 2, 2013 UPDATE

Exciting news for us yesterday here at Kowak Mission. But first --Happy First Friday for those of you that celebrate that. That is pretty big here and keeps our two priests busy. Soon I will be able to say three priests, because the bishop announced yesterday that, Item 1 : we are getting one of the newly ordained priests, Augustino, on Aug 18^th. That is really big news for us. It also means I may be moving next door so the three priests can live together. Item 2: I got more help this week at the bursar office at the secondary school. A young Indian sister, Sr Marietta, arrived Monday and has hit the ground running. She has some training in accountancy and knows Swahili well as she has been in Tanzania 5 years. Item 3: we got a young seminarian, Francis, yesterday and he will be living with us for the next two months. Item 4: the District Medical Officer (DMO) has been transferred and a new one will arrive soon. He has stolen thousands of the dollars in government funds from us over the last two years and he finally got caught and transferred and the money was refunded. Item 5: my nephew, Braden, and his wife, Shanna, are expecting their first child. I just got that news on email today and this will be sister Peggy’s first grandchild. Of course I am expecting a new grandchild (Ryan) in October (Kyle and Chrystal), so this is a really, really big year for our family.

One other minor item but big here is the arrival of our new diesel generator for the school. We have been waiting for the this for three years and finally got the money to get an 18 kw Lister from the UK. It will be installed over the new few weeks. Another big item here last week-end was the baptism of 99 children and students. About 10 of these were from Kowak Girls Secondary and another 12 received first communion from the school. We hope to open the beautiful new children’s ward in a few weeks (54 beds). We are having furniture and cabinets made first. The new beds arrived and are now in place. We got a new Indian sister a few weeks ago to work at the hospital as an x-ray technician and pharmacist, so this has really been a big help. We are expecting another sister in January. That will make 6 sisters at the hospital and 5 at the school.

I have one of my sponsored University students working here, Bhoke, at the school as a librarian and girl Friday. She has been a big help and it is nice to finally get to know her. I am also encouraging her to teacher her young sister, Sophia, English so she can apply here next year in Form I (freshman). We had a very nice visit from 2 German University students last week that I met in town a few weeks ago. They are volunteering at a handicap children’s school in Musoma for a few months. They monitored a few classes and got the usual tour of everything. They were very pleasant.

I think I’ll make this one short and sweet, so good night.

Tom in Kowak