Back in Kansas City

     I did not think my next blog posting would be from Kansas since I was headed to Tanzania for 8 months at that time. But my brother Jim's poor heath made me decide to spend a little more time at home with him and my siblings. It has been a beautiful summer so far and we are just now getting some warm weather (> 90F). Jim's health is a little better than I had anticipated but we did spend a couple days in the hospital on July 4th and 5th due to breathing problems. That seems to be resolved and he did start chemo therapy a couple weeks ago which is going well. He also had a gout attack which was not expected and was very painful but he is now on medication to control that.
     I have had my own share of problems with my teeth (crown and root canal) so it is just was well that I was home for that. I have been having lots of family visitors every week-end to enjoy the nice weather and pool in the yard so that has been fun. I've recently started riding my bike for exercise and weight control so that has also been fun. I'm trying to learn how to make a website for our high school in Tanzania and then for the hospital there in our village. This has been a goal for a long time and our pastor is now encouraging it since his donors need a little more accurate information about his construction projects than they can get from the existing Maryknoll Fathers website. I got a quotation to have the websites made for me by professionals in Nairobi, but I was encouraged by friends here to try it myself to save some costs. It's going slow but there is hope.
      I was pleasantly surprised to see some friends from Maryknoll Lay Missioners during my two week stay in Nairobi in June (Mary Oldham, Fr John Eyble and Cindy and John Korb) so that was a special week-end treat to get updated on their busy lives. None of them live in Nairobi but were just passing through, like me.  Of course, it's always nice to see the Maryknoll priests that are in that area. I had several meals with Fr Joe Healy and Fr John Conway but most of the others were out of town. I did a little business while I was in the city to get a new generator order processed. I think it finally arrived at our hospital this week. So at least I got a little accomplished.
      Fr Eyble was also headed to Tanzania so I saw him a few days later at our village where he came to visit Fr Conard, our pastor. I gave Fr John a tour of the school and hospital and introduced him to our Discipline Master, Mwl Saronge. I was shocked to learn of Mwl Saronge's death a few weeks later, so I'm pleased I was able to see him one more time. He has been a close friend while I worked at the school and has been very helpful to me and many other volunteers. He has 7 children and the youngest is just 6 weeks old now. A very sad event for our school and the surrounding village where was born and raised. He was our most tenured employee and taught English as well as be the Second Master recently, 

BACK IN NAIROBI

        Well, I just made it back to Nairobi after 7 wonderful and eventful months at home in Kansas City. I hope to be here until late January before returning to KC via a short stop in Zurich.

       My brother’s health is pretty stable now and I’m so glad I was able to spend these last few months with him as he started dialysis. We had a great 70^th birthday party on Memorial Day week-end with lots of family and old friends in my backyard. I flew out two days later. Our sisters and nieces did a wonderful job in organizing everything and our two elderly aunts even made it; Francis is 90 and Mary is 100. My sons from Texas and Atlanta were also there with their families. We had about 70 in attendance.

      I got some of my hardwood floors finished in May and three rooms painted so I feel like I got a little accomplished this time. We also replaced the liner in the pool just in time for the party week-end. I had a wonderful 10 day trip to three National Parks in Utah (Arches, Canyonlands & Capitol Reef) with my close friends David and Jim in early May. I was amazed at the number of tourists from Europe & Japan.  We got lots of exercise on those trails. It was a perfect time to catch the cactus in bloom. I then introduced David and Jim to my friends Jeanne and Henry in Salt Lake, who so generously allowed us to use their condo in Moab for the week. We got a nice tour of Salt Lake and met a few of their friends after there parish mass at the University. One was a young lady from Ghana who had just graduated in sociology.

      As always I really enjoyed my weekly visits with out contemplative group at the Catholic church in Westport. I made closer friendships with several and even made a few new friends through that group. It continues to be very popular and has grown to over 50 members now. I will miss them and all the activities they have planned; esp. the retreat and speaker (Fr Meniger) coming on June 6. I did get to see my friends Tom Chitta and Dr Getha from India at a church dinner in early May and that was a pleasant surprise. They run the FCN group that I visited in India in 2011. It seems to be doing very well now.

     This will be a hard year to beat. Yes, I even enjoyed the little snow we had, and I especially enjoyed the many baseball games which Jim and watched nearly every night. At least the World Cup is just around the corner (June 12) and you know that will be on all TV’s here. I will also miss the weekly golf with the Johnson brothers. That was fun. 

SPRING PARTIES 2014

       Yes, I’ll still in the US but I did make my flight reservations this week. I depart for Tanzania May 27^th, the day after Memorial Day. Boy, there has been lots of fun stuff going on the last few weeks. My son Kyle married his childhood sweetheart, Chrystal Martens, on March 1. They flew back to Houston for the wedding from their new home in Atlanta. The weather was absolutely beautiful (80F) all week-end and the venue was excellent, since it was on the water at a small family yacht club just 30 minutes from my old Friendswood home. Six of us came in from Kansas City. I drove with my brother-in-law, Phillip, who was the preacher of yet another family wedding. My sister Janice could not make the trip due to her recent back surgery. But my sister Peggy and her husband were there along with their daughter, Marisa, and niece, Natalie. The wedding was wonderful and the food was great all week-end. Phillip’s son, James, and his family also drove in from Austin along with many old family friends.  Everyone was amazed at Kyle and Chrystal’s beautiful son, Ryan, and how much he has grown these last 5 months.

      This week-end was Phillip’s 66^th birthday (Mar 14), so lots of family and friends came in from out-of-state in addition to many local family. Nephew Braden and Shaina are expecting their first child any day now, so they were not able to make it.  But my son Adam and his family drove if from Houston. Adam was able to spend a few hours with Braden playing Frisbee golf Sat. morning. James and his family drove in from Austin. Phillips brother, Joe, drove in from Florida and nephew Paul and his family drove from Denver. So we had lots of small children and that made for a wonderful week-end. Of course the beautiful weather and the St Patrick’s Day week-end made it a cause for additional partying on Saturday. We started with the annual Snake Parade in North KC. Then we all gathered at Eddie’s lovely country home near the airport for a fun day of food, drink, kites, croquet and two more birthday parties. One of them was a surprise party for my granddaughter, Audrey, who just turned 9. It was especially fun to see all the kids enjoying themselves in the tree house and all around the wooded property. Eddie even had a children’s parade by pulling the kids behind his rider mower. The two 8 month olds rode in their own red-rider wagon. The food was wonderful with Irish stew and corn-beef and cabbage to start things off.

     We had a little accident at my house the night before which dampened things a little bit. Phillip’s old friend David Rothgeb was staying in my upstairs bedroom and fell down the stairs early Saturday morning. The X ray confirmed that he broke his left forearm. What a shame. This is the second time one of my guests has had a similar accident, so I have a serious design problem yet to be resolved. It was very embarrassing. When my nieces live in my house they have slept there for years without this problem, but I guess they don’t need to pee at night.

       A few days ago I got the sad news that my old friend in England, Susan Seed, passed away suddenly last Sunday. I got an email from her daughter, Jane, who was just 3 years old when I lived with the family in 1973/ 74 while I was working for British Nuclear Fuels. I have visited the Seeds several times over the last 40 years and watched their children and grandchildren grow up. It’d been fun to read her beautiful granddaughter’s postings on Face book now that she’s in college. Suzie was still in her 60’s, so what a shock for that family.

      On a more pleasant note, I’ve really been enjoying my weekly “sits” with the  Mystic’s contemplative group in Westport. It is an amazing group and I will really miss them when I return to my mission in TZ. I have made several good friends and the Johnson brothers have asked me to join them on a short trip to some of the National Parks in Utah. I’ve wanted to make that trip for many years, so I’ll try to squeeze that in in late April, God willing.  One thing that may affect that trip is my brother Jim’s health. He has been doing very well on dialysis these last 2 months. He is even driving himself to and from the three sessions each week. But his hemoglobin is still low due to a bone marrow problem (MDS). He had to have another transfusion this week so we pray that this is not a sign of more frequent transfusions in the near future. We have a big 70^th birthday party planned for Memorial Day week-end and I depart the next day for Africa.  Both of my son’s and their families hope to be here for that week-end.

       This is exciting times (March Madness) for college basketball, which I normally don’t get to see. I’m also enjoying the start of the pro Golf season on TV and Spring Training for baseball season. Spring seems just around the corner but we woke up to another inch of snow this morning after wonderful warm weather these last few days. We need to replace the leaking pool liner in my back yard pool in the next few weeks and may even add a pool heater if the family decides it is affordable. It would double the swimming season. 

Kansas City Winter Update

        It’s been a busy two months since my last update. The main event, of course, is the  health of my twin brother, Jim. You may recall in my last update he has kidney failure. After many doctor’s visits and blood transfusions and out-patient surgeries and blood tests and epogen shots and bone marrow testing and lack of sleep he started dialysis 5 weeks ago. Thank God he is now starting to get some energy back. Today was a big day because he was able to drive himself to and from the dialysis clinic for the first time. I have been living with him and driving him for the first three weeks to each session, three days a week.   

        On Feb 1 I flew to Miami FL to visit my friend Rose for 12 days, as I have done the last several years. We had a great time. Rose and I met at Maryknoll and attended language school together in Tanzania 8 years ago. Rose was raised in Miami so she really knows the restaurants well there. She took two weeks of vacation from Camillus for my visit. The Caribbean food options are wonderful but so is just about everything else we tried liked Peruvian and Irish, Italian and Mexican. The timing of this trip could not have been better as the weather in Kansas went from bad to worse while the Miami weather stayed around 80F every day. We got in a picnic while listening to blue grass bands in the park. We got in a couple rounds of golf at a nice little public course. Rose rented me a Harley so I could ride with her friend the Archbishop on his 2^nd annual Poker Run with 125 other bikers for fund raising. We spent a day driving down to beautiful Key West and touring that area. I got a tour of the new Camillus House for the homeless and we then attended a lecture there by one of my favorite religious speakers, Fr Lawrence Freeman from the UK on meditation and addiction. We talked by phone with our old Maryknoll classmate, Jason Oberfeld, as he was passing through Miami airport on his way back to Bolivia. We had a nice Superbowl party at Rose’s house. We attended a celebration at St Thomas University one evening. I spent some time with Rose’s brother Tim on their grandmother’s water well. I also spent a few hours putting her financial data into Turbotax, as I did last year. I toured the Barry University campus while Rose was teaching nursing classes one afternoon and got information on enrolling African students. Maybe most enjoyable was seeing Rose’s many good friends again, like the archbishop. And I even met a few new ones like her old classmate from Houston who came in one weekend on nursing business. We also talked about maybe visiting her friends in Haiti or Cuba next year, God willing. She has done several medical mission trips to Haiti and one trip to see the pope in Cuba.

        I just signed up for a Lenten course on the mystics with Sr Teresa at Guardian Angel parish where my contemplative group meets each Tuesday morning. That starts right after I get back from my son Kyle’s wedding in the Houston area on March 1. Kyle and his future wife, Chrystal, moved to Atlanta in mid January to start his new job with eVestment, so they will be arriving about the same time I do. His uncle Phillip will be riding with me and will be presiding at the marriage service at a local yacht club. It should be fun. Of course, it will be great to see the grandkids again and hear how my son, Adam’s, new job is going in Pearland, just down the road. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

I had a lovely Thanksgiving (3 weeks) with my sons and their wives and children in Texas. I especially enjoyed spending time with Audrey (8), Roman (5) and Ryan (6 weeks). They sure grow up quickly and are doing so well with home schooling. I am continued to be amazed by how well Adam and Kyle can cook. Of course Pam's gumbo was up to it's delightfully high standard. Adam and I did a few repairs for her during this visit. I also visited my old friend Lynda in Centerville, again.  Then I spent Christmas here in Kansas City with my twin brother and two sisters and their families. Last night we capped off the holiday season with a fun night at my house with my brother, sisters and brother-in-laws. It was a great way to end the year and begin a new one. I used my computer and projector to show them old family pictures that I had recently scanner and digitized. Then I showed them my pictures of Tanzania for this year, including my son Adam’s visit and our Serengeti animal photo’s which are always fun.

That was just the beginning. We then ate a delicious gumbo made by my brother-in-law, Phillip, and some super beers and wine while watching Texas A&M come from behind to defeat a very good Duke team. We finished off the evening with a movie on the DVD. It was just nice to be with family, even though we are together almost every week-end. With several visiting family members we have gotten out of our normal dining routine.

This past month has been a little more challenging than usual due to health issue as we all get into our late 60’s. This will only increase in January with medical treatment starting for my brother and one sister. Janice will be having back surgery in mid Jan and Jim will be having out-patient surgery soon to install a fistula & enable dialysis for his failing kidneys. Fortunately, I passed my two physical exams which will allow me to return to mission work at Kowak in Tanzania, God willing. The heart doctor said I can delay my valve and aneurysm surgery another year and my cancer doctor said the cancer has not returned since I finished chemo 3 years ago. I had originally planned to return to Tanzania in late May after my birthday with family, but that return will now be delayed until we see how my brother is affected by the dialysis.

The year is really starting out nicely for my two sons. They have both been blessed in December. Adam finally found a job after many months of looking and Kyle and his wife and new baby will be moving to Atlanta in a few weeks to start his new job with eVestment, a small investment software company in Marietta where Chrystal’s parent live. I will see them all again in late February for the wedding in Texas. In early Feb I will be visiting my friend Rose in Miami for 10 days of fun in the sun. I think we will visit some Tanzanian sisters in Key West that we met in my visit last year to Miami.