There is a tendency in development projects in Africa to go BIG. The bigger the better, whether it is a farming project, housing project, tourism, or church the trend seems to go BIG. As the Lake House of Prayer develops there is a real possibility of falling into this trap of the BIG. The problem with BIG is the little people, the ordinary people get shut out. For example, in Mwanza there are all kinds of BIG multi-storied hotels going up. For people making two dollars a days these BIG places are not an option.

The important thing for the beginning years of the House of Prayer is Silence and Solitude. BIG places are not into this, they are more into NOISE and CROWDS. It’s not the numbers, it is the contemplative space that the few come into that will determine whether this experiment in contemplation in Africa will bear fruit.

And yet the needs are so great. The people are many. The streets of Mwanza are teeming with crowds of people. Many in desperate need of a place envisioned in the Lake House of Prayer but they don’t even know it. So, it my view BIG is not necessarily better and as the famous book said, “Small is Beautiful”. The challenge is how to be available to all the many people who need us while at the same time staying small enough to let God’s Silence and Solitude do the work.

Today after Mass one of the Christians asked to talk. I usually have to wait for the leaders to count the collections to take to the parish so I use the waiting time to be available to those who want to talk. This man has a business raising chickens for a few years now. He has been very successful, until recently. Now no matter what he does, the chickens are dying.

He has brought vets to see his place and followed their advise on sanitation and medicines but to no avail, the chickens keep on dying. He now thinks perhaps an evil spirit is killing his chickens. So he asks me what to do. I advise that he continue to seek out the cause of the chickens dying in a biological sense.

As for the spiritual, I recommended Psalm 91 and blessed a bucket of water he had. I told him that the Psalm and the water may be more for him to be at peace and to persevere as he seeks the biological cause for his chickens dying. In the end he needs the blessing more than the chickens. The blessing can help him deal with the dark thoughts of failure and despair. If the water helps the chickens get well. All the better.

Today I started visiting the kayas(homes) of the Christians in the small Christian community of Santa Maria. I visited an interesting mixture of home bred locals and new people just coming to the area to start a new life. It is a great area to come to really, away from the noise and pollution of the center of the city.

We visited 12 homes in the 3 hrs we spent. We don’t spend a lot of time in each home. I just introduce myself and tell a little about myself, then I ask the people about their home, whose there, etc. to get a sense of who they are. Finally, we have a short prayer service.

As I was getting ready to get in my car and return home the leaders stopped me aad said, “Subiri, mzigo wako unakuja” (wait your package/load is coming). They wouldn’t say what it was, so I waited. After 15 mins. a woman comes up with a big plastic container full of fish on her head. They pick one out for me and clean it a bit, put it in a plastic bag for me to return with home.

I brought the fish to the kitchen were the cooks were preparing supper. They grabbed it right away, said thank you and put ‘my’ fish away. It’s really not ‘my’ fish now, its the community’s. I just hope they’ll let me have the head when they cook it.

We are into the second week of celebrating Eucharist under a tree at the Lake House of Prayer. The people have responded, coming between 35-40 people the mornings we have mass. Already the liturgy and their very prayerful presence has created the sacred space on which we pray.

I usually get there early so I can set up for mass. It is still dark so I didn’t see the Mayangiwe all around me as I put stuff on the altar. Suddenly I started getting bit and moved off to the side to remove my scandals to see what was biting me. They were large black ants. When these large ants invade your physical space by climbing up your pants, you have to run to the nearest tree and disrobed to pick the invaders off of you. They are very strong so one need to take strong swings at them.

Actually there are different kinds of ‘safari ants’. The ones I know are called ‘siafu’, the people said these are ‘mayangiwe’. Regardless of the name we had our first challenge praying outside underneath a tree. We moved the altar away from the tree and swept the mayangiwe away with a straw broom. I was concerned for the people coming late who had to sit where the ants were. But yet they were late, perhaps next time they would avoid being bitten by the mayangiwe if they came on time. In the end no one else was bitten and we survived the wild mayangiwe. But we’ll be looking under the ground mats before putting stuff on the altar in the future.

I try to offer work to the local community, especially to those in need of work. One of the works we can give is watering the plants and trees we’ve planted. This is done by bucket and hand. We have two young women whom we have given this job. It is not a salaried position they just get the work when it is available and are paid for the amount of hours they work on that same day.

Wilfrida and Salome are the two women. Wilfrida is proving to be a challenge because she is always having questions on the amount of hours and money she receives. She is even disputing with her work partner Salome. So we have to sit down under a tree amongst the rocks and talk it out until everyone is satisfied, especially Wilfrida.

I’ve just learnt that Wilfrida was involved in a serious car accident in which she received severe head injuries. This is one of the reasons she is always forgetting the hours/money. This morning after mass I met her mother. I remember her mother because I visited her home a few months ago. Then the mother introduced me to another daughter(Wilfrida was not there at the time) who was troubled by evil spirits. The mother explained how their life was getting increasingly difficult with poverty and evil spirits oppressing their family.

After meeting the mother this morning I’m thinking perhaps there is more to Wilfreda’s problems than a head injury. The home environment is not conducive to keeping things straight in one’s head.

Yesterday we had our biggest rain in a very long while. January to March is supposed to one of the two big rainy seasons in Tanzania. We’ve had no rain to speak out since Dec 2014, until yesterday. It rained with lightening and thunder in the beginning then a gentle steady rain until the night.

Rain in a city like Mwanza which has very poor infrastructure, is a mixed blessing. It does not take long at all for a big rain to flood the streets. A extremely strong rain can flood the streams running through the city which in turn flood people’s homes. If it rains like this in the day time people have a chance to climb on top of their roofs. If it rains like this at night when people are sleeping, some are taken by the raging water to their deaths.

In my recent visits to the fishing village next to the House of Prayer I saw the corps drying up and dying. The people said this will be at hard year. One does not need to read a lot of the confirmed scientific data to see clearly that human activity is a major factor in changing the climate patterns of the earth. The challenge for the House of Prayer is to live up to its Mission Vision Statement of being a source of ecological friendly life for the people who are already very much affect by Climate Change.

This morning as the sun was just coming up we celebrated the first Eucharistic Liturgy at the Lake House of Prayer. We prayed underneath a big tree overlooking Lake Victoria. To my great surprise 40 Christians showed up. I was thinking that it would be me and our two guards. What a blessing to pray with so many people for the first mass.

I had a small table made which will double as an altar and office desk(after the mass). We spread out ‘mikeka'(hand woven mats) in front of the altar for the people to sit on the ground. Some sat on the surrounding rocks.

I had been preparing the liturgical gear for two weeks. I stuffed the chalice, paten, hosts, wine, candle, Bible, altar clothes in a duffle bag and placed it in the back of my car. But when I unloaded all the stuff I discovered I forgot the altar missal. I apologized to the people and I did my best to celebrate the mass without the book.

I very much enjoyed being outside and I think the people did too. They sat on the ground for the entire mass, like they do at their traditional feasts. And why shouldn’t we have enjoyed it, we were going back to the tradition of the first Christians, we were going back to the Old Africa.

Yesterday, I visited the homes in the Small Christian Community of St. Bruno as I continue to make the rounds of all the Small Christian Communities to introduce myself and get to know the people and the land better.

This area was, and still is to some extent. a poor fishing village. But that is changing and fast. The area is in great demand by people with a lot of resources. It is a picture postcard land of rocks, rolling hills with fantastic views of Lake Victoria. The poor fisherman here are not here because of the views, they here to survive.

As the area develops one gets a curious mixture of poverty and ostentatious wealth. Perhaps someday this poor fishing village will be totally bought out by the new money that is flooding into Mwanza. It the face of this possibility what can the House of Prayer do?

Firstly, it can be the place the marginated can have access to and feel at home at. They will not be able to even go inside the big hotel that is planning to be built in their village but they will be welcome to come to the House of Prayer to rest, reflect, pray and discern what they will do about their future. The House of Prayer is about Transformation in Christ which teaches the Contemplative Way of Being. A way that creates the space for the saving power of Christ which creates free people who can face the future challenges in their lives with confidence and peace.

This is Masumbuko (means trouble) who has been breaking big rocks to prepare for building

Some good news: I met with the Bishop a few days ago and he has agreed to buy the neighboring plot and house that is adjoined to the heart of our property. I will now be able to move into the house and live. Of course there is still a process of completing the deal. I hope it won’t be too long but things look good. I will be using all my funds from my personal donors to contribute to buying the house.

There is still a lot of hope to getting some financial support from Maryknoll. I have completed the steps to get government permission to build the staff housing. If and when this help comes through I can be living at the site to supervise the building. The goal is to build the foundation and a room with bath that I can eventually use.

The Bishop was also supportive of my desire to start celebrating Eucharist outside underneath a tree. Today I did some shopping for liturgical gear to be ready for the first Eucharist at the Lake House of Prayer on 16 Feb. I hope it doesn’t rain. Some say many will come, others say only a few. It doesn’t matter. We’re not about numbers. We’re about Transformation in Christ.