The Eucharist under a large tree on the Lake House of Prayer land has been full of blessing. We usually get around 30 people, mainly women who come just as the sun is coming up(one of the reasons we start at 7am so we can see to read). The small table which is also used for breakfast and office work is the altar. The people sit around the small altar on grass woven mats, some men sit on rocks. I seek to set a quiet contemplative tone for the mass with times of silence for reflection and prayer.

A few days ago it was St. Joseph’s feast day. This year will be the Year of the Man in our diocese. The hope is to reach out to men to involve them more in the church and family life. As the mass went on I got the idea that the women should bless us men at the end of mass. After receiving communion I told the people how just before I was to return to Africa from vacation with my family I would kneel before my mother and she would bless me. I also shared a famous Swahili saying, “Hakuna Mtu kama Mama” (There’s no person like Mama).

I suggested that the women stand up in front of the men and the woman catechist lead the blessing of the men (there were 5 of us). They were a little shocked and very embarrassed to be asked to do this. Women don’t usually bless priests here. But with a little encouragement they gave us a fine blessing. As I watched the Christians slowly walk away after mass talking about what just happened I thought that this is the way things change. How life gets transformed. By asking for the unusual in the midst of the usual. Women blessing the Men.

Mwanza City is a very crowed place. What used to be a very small sleepy small town on the shores of Lake Victoria has become the fastest growing city in East Africa. The city’s infrastructure is the size of a town of 25,000/. Mwanza has 2 million people.

When it rains hard the streets get flooded. The major road has only two lanes, even four would not be enough now. The “Machinga”, the people who walk around carrying things to sell, everything from forks to computer accessories, put their stuff on the sidewalks so one must walk in the road to by. There is just no space.

The worshipers of the main Hindu temple downtown closed off a much used alley to keep the growing crowd of Machinga away from their temple. The people pulled down the wall immediately and a small riot followed. The multi-cultural richness of Mwanza is getting challenged by many reasons, one being there is not enough space.

We all need space, inner and outer to survive and even thrive. The Lake House of Prayer’s vision is to provide the exterior space so that the guest can re-enter his/her own interior space and find peace. Contemplative Space is not only for monks. It is an integral part of living a full life, even in a city such as Mwanza.

Tanzania’s economy is getting very good press in the newspapers. By certain kinds of economic criteria its economy is one of the fastest growing in East Africa and in all of Africa. But according to a recent survey which focuses on the everyday life of the people the rosy picture of the GNP does not translate into much needed social services in their lives. This survey stated that over 70% of the people surveyed saw their lives getting worse.

Indeed there is a lot of money being made with tremendous profits for individuals and some companies. But it does not get translated into improved social services such as sanitation, health, counseling, community outreach programs that are the responsibility of the government.

Yesterday I started again to ask a woman about the prices of food, the lack of rain, the quality of health services, to get a sense of how bad is it really getting for people at the bottom. She answered in a stoic manner, never a tone of complaint, just the facts as she is experiencing them. Life is getting steadily harder. My survey is not very academic but neither are the ‘facts’ reported in some newspapers. So who to believe?

Mwanza is called Rock City, and for good reason. There are these myriad of sizes rocks everywhere. People wanting to build must deal with them. So we too at the House of Prayer. We have already spent a lot of money breaking big rocks but now these rocks need to be broken down to a size we can use them for the foundation and the outer walls of our future buildings.

I’m learning there are rock specialists for breaking down massive rocks and there are specialists who break down these still somewhat big rocks into a manageable sizes to build with. There are also different kinds of rocks and each kind presents a unique challenge for the rock breaker. Some rocks are so hard to break that they just dig a deep enough hole to bury them and be done with them.

After a two days negotiation we hired a rock breaker specialist to get our rocks to building size. He came today with his gang of 4 workers to start a three week process to get our still too big rocks into buildable size. This is very hard work that needs a lot of intelligence for one can spend a lot of wasted time banging on a big rock in the wrong way. A wise rock breaker knows where to put the charcoal to produce a little crack that will spell the end for Mr. Big Rock.

I spoke with the Bishop two days ago and received confirmation that the process of buying the plot and house next door is continuing. This was good news, perhaps in the not too distant future I will be living on site.

I meet with the architects tomorrow to revise downward the plans for building. After consultation, reflection and prayer it is clear to me that we need to start small, not big. The plan is to build the staff housing for the core community first. Second, we would build (if we get enough funding), one wing of the individual guests residence (6 rooms) and one wing of the group buildings (holding up to 20 people).

I will direct the architects to cut out a second parking lot and gate. We are taking too much space with concrete. We need to have ample space for gardens, trees, plants and flowers.

The reason for the changes is to create an atmosphere of Silence, Solitude and Simplicity. Starting too big would not be beneficial to such a vision.

We usually get our water for building and watering our plants and trees from a natural spring not too far from our property. There are two natural springs that the people have traditionally used to get their water. A couple of years ago the Water Department put in a large water tank that draws water from Lake Victoria. But because of corruption the tank was not installed in the proper place so that it cannot deliver water to all areas. Many people still use the natural springs for their water needs.

We made a open cement tank to hold water. When the water gets down we hire 10 local women to bring water to the tank from the natural spring. This morning we discovered that the spring is dry. There is no water. Why? One, because of the very light rainy season we’ve been having. And two, because of the increased building that is going on in our area.

The question comes up–should we be taking water for building and watering trees from this spring when it lessens the chances of the people of getting water for drinking, cooking and washing? We can get water from a tap that gets water from the Water Dept. We have to pay so much a bucket but the water is plentiful. It will take longer and cost more but we won’t be taking water that people need to live.

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.