December
15, 2001
Dear
friends,
Once again, greetings from
Here the hot weather has broken.
Things are somewhat cooler. We are in the midst of our “short rainy
season.” It came much later than last year and so it is unclear whether
or not there will be a successful harvest this go
around. Unlike the
Academically, things are moving
along well. Monday we are beginning week 12 of our semester. Our students seem
to be doing well, although we shall see how the 5 newly arrived Congolese will
do (Jean Louis, Anicet, Paul, Antoine, and Emmanuel).
It’s a very rough transition for them to be taking classes in English
rather than French. And they arrived
just days before the start of the semester. Not much time for orientation.
Our community life is the area with
the most exciting developments. On Dec. 8 we celebrated the diaconal
ordinations of 5 of our men: 2 Tanzanians (Colman and Mukasa)
and 3 Indians (Vinoy, Sunil and Rosario). All in all
it was a wonderful day. Everything went so well...the Mass, the feast, the
food, the guests (all 300 of them), the local drummers and dancers, EVERYTHING!
In addition, this week we will be joined by 5 newly professed Tanzanian
confreres (Tarimo, Sanji, Mwanga, Ndomba and Mmavelle). They will begin a short year of
“pre-philosophical” studies, mostly English, typing, computers, and
an introduction to philosophy. And of course they will get oriented to how we
live in this complicated international house. We are being enriched this year
by the presence of one US Salvatorian (Scott Jones). His openness, his easy going
manner, and his courage to try new things make him a great addition to the
house. He gives us a fresh perspective on ourselves. Insofar as this is his
first trip abroad, I have no doubt he will return with a very different
perspective on himself and on the world as well. Finally, we also celebrated
the accomplishments of two recently licensed drivers (Deogratias
and Dominique)! Personally, I am quite glad to have the driving school closed
for another few months!
The reason I decided to include so
many names of scholastics is to give you some sense of the diversity here. This
year, with scholastics from 4 different SDS provinces,
Recently a friend wrote suggesting
that I change the name of these episodic ramblings from
“Travelogues” to something else. After all, I am living here and
not just traveling. But I prefer to stick with “Travelogues”
because even after more than a year here, it is still not “home.” I
still feel like a visitor, a traveler. The African and Indian people I meet
here, along with the ex-patriots, never cease to surprise me. As soon as I
think I have one thing about this place figured out, something happens to
challenge my perceptions. I don’t think that’s bad. In fact it is a
sign that at some level I am still alive to what is going on around me. I hope
that will remain the case for as long as I am here.
I may have told some of you that I
had my first brush with “Sister Malaria.” As you may know there is
no effective vaccine and no surefire treatment. The good thing is that the mosquitos that carry malaria only bite at night. So getting
in bed early under the mosquito net is the best protection. But
sooner or later... As they say, for those who come to live in
The next few weeks will be very
full. In addition to the holidays and finishing one semester an
starting another, there will be a number of visitors (read: blessings). January
1 we will have renewal of vows for all the temporary
professed; and shortly after that we will have a “general
visitation” from our superiors in
Finally, let me say a brief work
about the “Fr. Dan Project Fund.” I wish I could describe to you
some great work that I am doing with your contributions...building a school or
installing a water project. But I cannot. Mostly your gifts have gone to fund
very small projects, but ones which I think make a big difference in the lives
of ordinary people. For example, thanks to your kindness, 5 children of one
family no longer sleep on their dirt floor but in beds, another child now has
shoes for walking to school. One of our night watchman
who aspired to become a teacher is now enrolled in the local college; one of
our workmen can now pay to have much needed surgery so he could keep his job
and feed his family. Our five new Congolese scholastics were able to buy sports
shoe so they could get out on the playing field; the pre-philosophers will all
receive their own new dictionaries. A local after-school youth program that
teaches English and AIDS awareness was able to run off teaching pamphlets. A
young mother was able to take the bus to her mother’s funeral. I could go
on.
These are all small things, costing
sometimes only a few dollars. These people you help are not by any means the
poorest of the poor, they are just regular, hard
working people, with little or no cushion when an emergency arises. And if I am
able to help them, I always make it clear that the help does not come from me.
It comes from you, through me. And I ask them please to remember you in their
prayers. Somehow I think God may hear the prayers of the poor much more clearly
than our own.
But many of the funds are just being
saved until I can identify a significant project. Currently our Student Union
is investigating “twinning” with a local primary school to help
supply its students with paper and pencils. Primary education in
Once again, please know that I am
fine and thinking of you all. As I wrote above, trouble is everywhere, but
everywhere there is also hope and we must be its heralds. Thank you for being
such supportive friends, confreres and family members, and for being such
powerful signs of hope in my life. I pray that in some small way my work here
in
Love,
Fr. Dan