MY ELEVENTH YEAR IN EAST AFRICA STARTED TODAY

        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 55^th reunion of my Chanute High School class in September since I had missed the 50^th 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 87^th year of life and 61^st 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 19^th), 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.