I was just
reading my last blog from Nov 2 of how it might be my last trip to East Africa.
I wanted to spend the year home with family and friends for a change while I
had good health, but I made the mistake of reading a book called Being Mortal.
I also planned to attend the 55th reunion of my Chanute High School class in
September since I had missed the 50th and some classmates have died
since then. But the book convinced me of the importance of spending time with
the elderly in the last years of their lives and that is the case with our
Maryknoll pastor, Fr Conard, in his 87th year of life and 61st
year of mission in Tanzania. As it turned out I suspect this will be Fr Conard’s
last year in Tanzania.
I was also
attracted to return by the scheduled visits of two new sets of volunteers and
the potential return of one or two former Kowak volunteers. You read about them
in my last blog, I hope. The new
volunteers included a retired couple from Hawaii, the Shannons. They arrived in
mid-July and are scheduled to depart the mission today (Aug 19th),
so I will miss them. I certainly regret that but my return was delayed about
two weeks due to a sudden medical issue the day I was scheduled to depart. That
seems to be under control now. The other new volunteer is a new nursing
graduate that was scheduled to travel with me, so she had to travel alone which
I also regret, but God had other plans. Maranda arrived fine as scheduled. She’ll stay until mid-October, then I’m
hopeful to have a returning volunteer, Dr Jim, for two or three weeks. The
lovely Therese McCarthy has family issues which will keep her home this year
but we are praying for a better year and a visit next year.
It won’t be
the same without Fr Conard, of course and we are all praying he will recover
and return to Kowak soon. He fell during mass in mid-June and injured his back.
But the main problem now seems to be more mental and recognizing that he is
back in America for treatment. His back pain is under control and he is sleeping
well. I’ll be working on his financial reports for this year and his project
reports for Maryknoll project money that should all be spent now, since the
projects are mostly completed. My change of departure allowed me to schedule a visit to Maryknoll in NY to visit Fr Conard which I am so happy I did. He really needed me and others to cheer him up.
I’ve had a
wonderful visit in Kansas and around the country since I returned last
November. In addition to seeing my sons Adam and Kyle in Kentucky and Georgia
and their lovely wives and children, they came to visit me and the extended
family in June. It was a fun week. I traveled to Miami with Sr Barbara McCracken
for two weeks in February as we did the previous year. It was great to see Rose
Anderson and many of her friends again. Rose came to see me just two weeks ago
on her way home from a Colorado vacation so that was a fun surprise for my
going away party attended by 40 friends and family. I also received over $600 in gifts for mosquitos nets for the
new mothers at Kowak hospital.
Last April
I went to visit Vikki Smith in Salem, OR, for two weeks and meet many of her
friends. The scenery was wonderful but meeting her sisters and friends and
getting to visit the Mt Angel Abbey was a special treat. I also got to see our
friend Bertha Haas in Portland and my cousin Joyce and her husband and son in
Portland. A real treat was the fund raiser, Taste of Tanzania, for the handicapped
children’s school in Tanzania and getting to meet one of our former Kowak
volunteers, Patty Murphy, a retired PA in Portland. At the end of April and
early May I made one last two week trip to Utah with my friends the Johnson
brothers, David and Jim, to see several National Parks and visit former Kowak
volunteers, Henry and Jean who live in Salt Lake City. Jean escorted us through
the wonderful Natural History museum at the University of Utah and we three were
given use of their condo for a week in Moab, while we re-visited the parks in
that area. It was a wonderful trip with
a lot of video photography to enjoy when we got home. We topped off the trip
with a visit to the Trappist Monastery in Snow Mass, CO and an overnight in lovely Basalt nearby.
The last
two months of my home stay in June and July were spent at home and at church
with my contemplative prayer group and listening to wonderful spirituality
speakers like Sr Elia Delio who our group sponsored at Avila University in late
June. Most weekends were with family in my backyard swimming, playing lots of
croquet and watching the kids on the new swings and on the old trampoline. The
weather was great nearly every weekend so it made for a wonderful family
summer. Thanks you all.
