My year in Tanzania has now come to an end
and it may well be my last for any long term work here. It has been a wonderful
10 plus years of mission work and I will miss it dearly. I will especially miss
the daily activities of Fr James who his just completing 60 years of mission
work in Tanzania, most of it at Kowak village parish. We had two wonderful American
volunteers these last few weeks which had made it even more enjoyable and eventful
that other periods; Therese McCarthy a teacher from AZ and Dr Goetz a medical
doctor from NY. We all just arrived in Nairobi on our way home.
Fr Jim went
home to NY and Green Bay again this year in early June to celebrate his 60
years as a priest so I took over a few small jobs of construction in June and
July. I could have done more but Fr Jim so enjoys these construction projects
and is much better at it than I am. Indeed he seemed to kick into high gear
after he returned and had his celebrations here with the local parish and again
with the diocese in August.
I continued
my daily projects of distributing mosquito nets, rosaries and photos to the new
mothers in the maternity wards and miscellaneous financial projects to keep the
money and materials and school fees flowing. I finished with distributing 150
nets and 200 rosaries at the hospital and another 50 nets to the secondary
school. The remaining 100 rosaries from Queen of the Holy Rosary went to people
in the parish.
Our
volunteers also brought many items to distribute and they donated over 700
mosquito bracelets to the secondary school students and staff and the hospital
staff. Doctor Jim also brought 10 home-made children’s dresses and 10 pair of
shorts which we distributed to needy children in the Alala village near Kowak.
They were all thrilled. I gave away several of my books and some reading
glasses to a few families that could read English and the clothes I was not
bringing home were also distributed just before I left.
Therese and
I made it into the Serengeti Park one last time after a stop to visit my friend,
Fr Joel Marwa, a young priest that I have helped over the years. He surprised
us by showing us the new primary school he is building in his home village. That
money came from donations he received during his ordination two years ago. I
helped with a significant contribution along with a Maryknoll priest that
helped him for many years after his parents died. This will be an English
medium school to help improve the education there in his home village. This is
badly needed all over Tanzania and many pastors are starting to do this since
young Kenya teachers are available in surplus at this time and their English is
much better than the Tanzania teachers.
The
Serengeti trip was more of an adventure than usual this time. There were more
than the usual number of animals due to the recent rainfalls and this being the
migration season from the north part of the park. But the real adventure started
when the car broke down about 40 miles from the park exit. The bad roads had
caused the radiator to break loose and start leaking. After it cooled down we had
to refill the radiator every ten minutes for the next two hours. We finally
made it out the gate at 6:30 pm as darkness fell, 30 minutes past the deadline
for closing the park. We went thru over ten gallons of water so we had to stop
twice to refill the water jug from a ditch along the road side. We spent the night at the gate hotel and the
hospital driver and mechanic came the next day to exchange vehicles so we could
drive home (2 hrs) while they made repairs.
A few days
ago Maryknoll sent a driver and vehicle to move us three and our luggage plus a
visiting priest, Larry Radice, back to Nairobi to catch our flights home. The
driver was 3 hours late arriving at the border so we got in pretty late after a
9 hour ride. Another volunteer nurse,
Rosemary Drew, arrives from Maryland on Nov 9 but we will all be gone by then.
I depart tonight and am really looking forward to seeing the family. Therese and
I had a couple days to kill so we spent one of them biking and hiking in a
small national park near just north of Nairobi called Hell’s Gate. It is the
only park that allows you to get out of your vehicle in all East Africa, I am
told.
