We have two sets of rockbreakers on the building site now. I’m trying some friendly competition to see who would be able to break up the rocks without using so much time, energy and money. First an explanation. Our area has a lot of large boulders that need to be removed for future building to take place. Having these large rocks is par for the course in our area, for after all Mwanza’s nickname is ‘Rock City’.

One team of rockbreakers uses big size charcoal and wood(Kuni) to heat the rocks enough so they can break them with their assortment of tools. The other team only uses small size charcoal (chenga) to heat up the rocks. And they get the job done much faster than the first group. Eventually I will have to chose between the two teams to give the ‘contract’ to break the large rocks on our property.

The first group would be the sentimental favorites. They are a couple of old men in their sixties trying to provide for their families in a job for strong young men. The second group is really just one young man(not very big) from the local area. He is doing the more efficient job and he too has a family to provide for.

We have to pay for a large truck full of felled tress to get enough ‘kuni’ for our old men. The charcoal they use is much more expensive than the ‘chenga’. If I keep the older men more trees are going to hit the dirt. Perhaps I can support creation by keeping the young man and saving a few trees. Whatever the decision, as a Missioner, one must always keep in mind the values of the Gospel.

In a way, the House of Prayer has already started, without any buildings though. Yesterday, I gave a retreat to a group of Maryknoll and SMA Lay Missioners. It was a privilege to share some insights with them of being a Contemplative in Mission during our times.

As we gathered around the Eucharist table at the end of the day I was struck by Pope Francis’ words of that the church is a ‘community of disciples’. I saw the people there as my brothers and sisters in Christ. All of us here in Africa seeking to be faithful to the Gospel and needing each other’s support in a very challenging time in Tanzania.

Here at the Bishops house they raise chickens, lambs, goats, pigs, cows and different kinds of food. Two days ago, 7 cows disappeared. Disaster! Thankfully, the Bishop was away so the community had some time to find the missing cows. It seems that the cows disappeared when the hired workers, there were three of them, went on their tea break and let the cows graze on their own. As someone said, ‘cows are not people, you can’t tell them to stay put while you go have some tea.’

The cows were ‘misplaced’ in the morning but the report did not come to the house until evening. A search of the surrounding area was done. No cows seen. The next day early in the morning the brothers were out looking for the cows. Finally, the cows are found quite a ways from the house. Apparently, they wandered into a man’s field and started eating his crops. The man stopped them and locked them up in a corral.

The community had to pay a fine to the man for the damage the cows did to his crops and the cows were herded back home. This is not the first time cows have disappeared from the Bishop’s house. Jesus spoke of ‘hired hands’ that don’t care for the flock. Such is the case here, the three young men hired to guard the cows are in the habit of having their tea and leaving the cows without a Shepherd. Giving them a punishment will only help for a time. What is needed is a commitment to being close to the cows. Not being close to your salary and tea time.

Two days ago we had two land experts come out to measure the boundaries of the plot for the House of Prayer. Why did we have to this if the land was measured and beacons cemented in place long ago? Because a few key beacons were removed by people not interested in having the land fenced off.

This is a major issue in Tanzania, land. With the rapidly growing population and expanding urbanization Tanzania is running out of good land for people to live off of, especially in the cities. Hopefully, we will be able to use the land for the maximum benefit of the spiritual-psychological health of the local population.

The traditional ways of living off eternal spaces of beautiful land are dying. We are learning to live together in very tight spaces. Hence the need for a place like the House of Prayer, to fill the traditional human need to have enough space to be at Rest.

Two days ago a family–mother, father and their ten year old daughter came to see me at the building site. The mother told a long story which I will shorten here. Apparently her daughter, Adida, saw some other young girls stealing mangos from the head teacher’s tree. Adida told the teacher what she saw. One of the girls found out that Adida told the teacher that she stole. She then started to harass Adida and gave her a ‘curse’.
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Adida is having visions of this girl coming at her a cursing her. No one else can see these visions, only Adida. Even when we were talking Adida saw the girl coming to her cursing her in a vision, no one else saw anything. She grabbed her throat with two hands like someone was choking her. She started to cry. The tears rolled down her face into my hands as I comforted her. Later she calmed down.

What is this? The people who live in fear say it is the Devil. I believe that the other girl’s cursing of Adida has frighten her so much that she has these terrible visions. Adida needs prayers and counseling to help her to see that there is nothing outside of her causing this fear. Her source of her fear is within her. This may take awhile because so much of the culture here is based on creating a illusionary fear that comes from the outside. Until one is healed of the inner fear, the world will be a very dark place. Jesus came to bring Light to our dark places. I hope one day Adida experiences that Light for herself.

After putting up a temporary supply shed we are in the process of building a temporary fence. We are able to hire some of the local women and men to give them day jobs for a limited time. We also discovered that some of the beacons that mark the boundaries of the land are misplaced. So, now we will have to go through the tedious process of getting someone to come out from the land department to remeasure part of the land.

Hopefully, by next week we will have most of the fence put up. That remaining part that needs to remeasured. Well, it’s hard to tell when we will finish with that section.

Security is big business in a poor country like Tanzania. Some people are so desperate they steal just to survive. Some are so wrapped up in materialism they steal for the psychological lift. Some are just plain mean and steal to cause pain in others. So, we need guards.

On the recommendation of one of the Christian leaders I hired a guard a few days ago for a trial period. The main thing I want a guard to do is to sound the alarm if there is trouble and not to fight. Guards need to move around the area hiding in different places unseen men looking out into the dark night. A dangerous job with little reward.

Many guards are corrupt and steal from their employers, others are faithful and trustworthy. But it takes awhile to find out what kind of a guard you have. I’ve been blessed during my years in Africa although I know I’ve paid many times for guards sleeping instead of patrolling. This morning when I went to check on the guard before Sunday Mass he was no where to be seen as I got out of the car. As I approached our newly built temporary store room I hollered out, “Hodi, Hodi” which is an African ‘doorbell’ to let people know your coming. No answer. Finally he came out looking a little worn out.

Now, looking back, I wonder if he was sleeping. These are the distractions that take a lot of one’s effort but one must follow up on these small details. There is a saying in Swahili, “Usipoziba ufa, utajenga ukuta” If you don’t fill the crack, you’ll build a wall. Tomorrow my guard and I will have a heart to heart.

Today we have started building the Lake House of Prayer, we were a bit ‘late’ in starting this morning, but we started. It started raining early this morning so it was looking like we might cancel but after Ali the contractor, Ernesti my assistant and I met we decided to chance it and start.

When we got to the site it started pouring. The rain started lightly so we went underneath a tree which did an umbrella imitation but when it started to pour we went a sat the car. It has always impressed me how most people here know how to wait. Patience is still a way of life here. Time is more about events passing than minutes passing. So, if its raining, the event is rain, then one waits until the event of rain is over and move on to the next event, building a temporary storeroom.

As we dug the holes for the wooden poles we discovered termites, another unforeseen item on the budget, termite insecticide. The guard we hired came by to finalized the arrangements for his work. Ali needed some money to pay his workers. We asked the Christians if we could borrow their trap so if it rains tonight the guard won’t get wet. Ernesti comes back with me to the Bishop’s House so I can give him some money to buy some metal sheets that will be the walls and roof of our store. One learns to take a step at a time and handle all that comes the big and small, from a truck full of wood to a raincoat for the guard.

Yesterday I had lunch with the woman whose efforts have made it possible for the House of Prayer to be a future reality. Her name is Aripina, a professional woman who works for the Tanzanian Revenue Service. She is separated from her husband with two young adult men as her children. She is a very pious Catholic woman who knows how to work the system in a way to get what she wants.

She secured a piece of land next to the site of the future House of Prayer and has built two houses on get from a loan she secured at work. She then made inquiries to the vacant lots neighboring her houses and slowly, one by one, started buying them until she was able to buy four plots. These plots usually go to one’s children as an inheritance but when she made it known she wanted to give them to the church, some of the relatives tried to convince her younger son that his mother was giving away his inheritance. But she had spoken over her desire to give the land to the church with her younger son, Gonzaga. He was agreeable, for he wants to be a priest.

The Gospel of Luke shows clearly Jesus’ transformative relationship with women. Women had a prominent role in the Mission of Jesus, in fact, they were his benefactors who made in possible for Jesus to complete his Mission. Women are prominent here in the Church and yet there is still a ways to go for them to receive their rightful roles in the Church. So woman like Aripina work behind the scenes empowering the church to become what it really is, the House of God for all peoples, with equality for all.

There is a saying in Kiswahili, “Mwanzo ni Mgumu”, The Beginning is Difficult. Today I took some positive steps to move toward starting to develop the area of the Lake House of Prayer. I went up to the site with a local contractor whom I’ve worked with in the past, Ali and my number one assistant, Ernesti to walk over the borders of the area and begin to plan.

We decided to build a make-shift storeroom to store all the tools and building materials instead of asking a neighbor if we could store our stuff with them (things tend to disappear that way). We also decided to build a wire fence with wooden posts that we can plant a certain kind of greenery that grow along the wire fence eventually covering it with a beautiful green hedge.

Ali was telling me the other day that the Chinese are taking a lot of the building jobs in the city which leaves local contractors without any work. It’s funny Ali is a Moslem but he has built many buildings that belong to the church including the Mabatini Parish Hall where I used to be pastor. I could have chosen someone else but I want a local guy who is trustworthy, skillful and a hard worker. That’s Ali. I enjoy this decision of choosing Ali, not because of his religion but because of his character.