I’ve been away for the past six weeks on vacation, so the lack of blogs. Yesterday a mother and father brought their teenage daughter for counseling.

They explained that at school she is forgetting what she learnt in class when taking various tests. I’ve heard this before and wonder what’s going on. So, I asked the girl, Rosemary to come and see me the next day.

She related that she understands everything in the classroom but forgets everything when she is tested on the classroom information. What’s going on?

After listening to her I think two things are contributing to her forgetting. One is the extremely heavy emphasis on test taking and memorization. The second reason is anxiety and fear going into the test (she told me of these feelings before taking a test).

Perhaps the first reason for Rosemary’s forgetting during testing could be solved by a renewed Education vision-policy that would empower young people to grasp knowledge and retain it. The second, dealing with fear and anxiety is a psycho-spiritual question. Hopefully the House of Prayer can be helpful.

Last Saturday we played host to 26 Christians from my former parish Mabatini. Our guests live a hard life, of constant noise, no privacy, constant threat of crime, a hard life of daily struggle to get enough food to live.

One thing that happens in this environment is the traditional goodness of culture, the  basics of human living get twisted and lost by overt or subtle brutality.

To meet these challenges I am trying to form a teaching that renews the goodness of their culture so that they may guard themselves in the very midst of their hard lives.

They are hungry for this kind of teaching that focuses on health for body, mind and spirit. So during the retreat we meditated, prayed with scripture, exercise outside using movements that released the stresses in their bodies. We also slept, resting their tired bodies, ate in silence and offered prayers for each other during Eucharist.

The needs are great in creating a Good, Simple Life in the midst of a Hard, Hard Life. But God’s Love in Christ can overcome the human-made hardness with the gentle breeze of God’s Love renewing this Good Life in Africa.

Last week a researcher for the “Medical Research” department of the government asked to come for a quiet reflection day. I met with him once in a session which he shared his desire to deepen his spiritual search.

He told me the results of some of his research when I mentioned ‘desolation’ in the spiritual life. He said an alarmingly number of adults are suffering from high degrees of anxiety and depression. This concerned him. But he was even more alarmed at the same very high degrees of anxiety and depression in schools, that is in primary schools and secondary schools. This condition in schools was unheard of in the past.

What is happening? The pressure to past exams in great, one’s future depends on passing and continuing one’s education. But even if one succeeds to the highest level the pressure then becomes finding a job. There are other factors such as the speeded up rhythm of life and the distracting nature of daily existence.

What can we do to help at the House of Prayer? We can provide the Space in Silence, Solitude and Simplicity to help people to come back to themselves, selves created in the image and likeness of God. Then from that Sacred Space in freedom and peace one engages the world creatively.

Rafaeli died yesterday. He used to come into the early morning meditation with a flash light because his eyesight was so poor. He loved to sit in the silence. Still as a rock. Silent as a gentle breeze. Poor as the mud house that was his home.

He was probably ill for awhile but the illness finally made its appearance within this short period. My guess is he faced his death the way he meditated, still, silent and gently.

Our bishop has been transferred to Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam to be the next Cardinal for the Tanzanian Catholic Church. We will miss him (Bishop Ruwa’ichi) for his support, like vision for the House of Prayer and his friendly pastoral presence.

The last couple of weeks has seen a steady increase in overnight guests, day groups and inquiries. It appears the word is getting out and more people are hearing about us. This development is very welcome and yet it comes with its own challenges, the main one being how to keep things small and contemplative.

When I first started working here in 2014 the very first thing I did was dig and build an outdoor ‘pit’ toilet. Well, after 4 years of use it is full. Time to build another one. This one will not be a ‘pit’ toilet but will have the modern style of pipes leading to two septic tanks. Development of a sort.

We have a night guard named Athmani who is going blind. For months now he has been taking medicine from a local hospital as he seeks to  cover-up the fact that he is slowly losing his eyesight. When you call him from just a few feet away he responds by trying to hear the sound by looking in the opposite direction from where you are standing.

Like many of the disadvantage here he would just endured this situation until he went blind, then he would just endure a worst situation of being blind. Well, as a night guard being three quarters blind on the way to be totally blind just doesn’t fit. A blind guard?

So Athmani got tested and discovered his problem is cataracts. Two days ago he got the first eye operated on and after two weeks he’ll have the second one done. Then he will actually see. Then he will be our night guard who  can see. Then he will have ‘new eyes’ to see the world for the remainder of his long life (he’s around 68 yrs).

Yesterday we hosted 100 youth from a neighboring parish who made an all day Pilgrimage through the streets of Mwanza, dancing, singing, praying and walking with joy.

As a policy we don’t accept more than 25 people in a group retreat; so four times more the usual number is quite a jump for us. And yet large groups are very much a part of Catholic and local culture for such a communal culture as Africa has.

They stayed with us for only 4 hours which involved a talk, opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and a closing Mass. The youth were very respectful of the Silence and chance to Rest and Reflect on the day. We used our new outdoor patio overlooking the lake that provide enough room and a prayerful setting.

So, a new possibility has opened up for us at the House of Prayer: large group retreats of up to 70 from 2pm-6pm. And why not? This is another way to truly make this an AFRICAN House of Prayer.

One of the core values at the House of Prayer is simplicity. We seek to simplify some aspects of people’s complicated lives while they are with us for a short or long stay.

One area we seek simplicity is food. For our day retreats for small groups we always serve a beans, rice, spinach, watermelon and bottled water. Not fancy or diverse but good, simple and healthy.

What matters is not so much food but our listening relationship with the Lord. Food must not be an distraction. The focus is not on our cell phones, what we are wearing, our problems or what we have to eat, instead we are focusing on our relationship with the Lord.

I mentioned this because a couple of groups have given us feedback that we need to diversify our diet, i.e. add meat. But we will not  accept this feedback because if we do, we will be moving away from the simplicity of a small moment in our lives just to concentrate on just ‘tasting the goodness of the Lord’.

By the way, we serve a diverse diet for our overnight guests of chicken, meat, fish, cooked bananas, brown/white rice, potatoes, cabbage, spinach, carrots and all kinds of fruits. With the above we focus on the ‘Desert’, withdrawal. With this we seek the ‘Sabbath’, resting in the goodness of the Lord (in this case food).