Last week I was invited to a celebration of the SMA Missioners (Society of Missions to Africa). This is the group who is allowing me to used the their small meeting hall to meet with people for Spiritual Direction and our weekly Christian Meditation Group. It was a wonderful celebration of diversity and community. There were men and women from Poland, Congo, Tanzania, Ireland, India, Holland, Nigeria, Bein, Slovakia and other countries I can’t remember now.
All members of one community in the Church.

I felt like this what the Church looks like at its best, a rich diversity in unity. Whether we human beings like it or not, the world is a very small place now and we need, must find ways to get along with each other. Following the Gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God is a wonderful way to live together. The SMA Missioners in Tanzania are a great example of how we can live in the small global village.

This year and next are critical years for the future of Tanzania. There is the election of the local government officials (yesterday), a nation wide referendum to accept or reject a new Constitution, and lastly the election of a new Parliament and President. If it seems like a lot, it probably is, especially the Constitution. Many are asking that the referendum be held after the presidential election.

Yesterday were the elections of the “Wenyekiti wa Mitaa” (Chair people of Streets). Mitaa means streets so roughly translated these elected people serve that population at the grass roots level. They are important officials because they interact with the local citizens on a daily basis.

There is much dissatisfaction with the ruling party CCM. CCM has ruled Tanzania since independence but a long series of scandals, incompetence and a lack of being with the people has put them in a situation where they could lose the elections for the first time in Tanzanian history. Preliminary results show the opposition part CHADEMA grabbing many local seats. As someone told me today, “tumechoka”. We are tired.

I’ve been getting my haircut at this one barber shop (that has once moved to another location) for almost 14 years now. In the beginning they were a father and son team. The father who cut my hair used to cut the hair of the British colonial rulers in Zanzibar. The father has died a few years ago but I continue to go to the son.

I ran into Ashan, the son barber on the road near his shop. I was to be his first customer. When we arrived at this shop I noticed he still hadn’t put up a sign and asked him why. He point to his skin and said, “When your skin is this color the government gives you a lot of taxes that it does not give to the local African with black skin.” Ashan’s family came to Tanzania many years ago from India to work as laborers on the railroad. Many are now shop owners and business people, some millionaires.

Ashan puts a white bed sheet around me to catch my hairs that looks like in hasn’t been washed since the colonial times. All his instruments for cutting hair also haven’t been clean for a long while. Ashan is not into having everything sparkling clean to impress his customers. But he is a good barber. He cuts as well or better than any barber I’ve ever been to in the States. So, I bear with the uncleanliness but when he takes the razor I watched him closely to make sure he puts in a new razor blade and throws away the old one. As I leave I wish him a Blessed Christmas even though he is a Hindu and give him a tip. Ashan smiles and thanks me and returns to cut the hair of a Chinese man. Ashan’s Global Barber Shop.

Me and Ernest (our foreman) at the site

That’s me at the site…

The site with new fence

You can see our storage shed and outdoor toilet

Sickness is very much a part of life here, especially for people with merger resources. I am amazed at the fortitude and patience people have in the face of chronic sickness. If you want to know what real life athletes of life look like, come here and see the gold meal winners of facing sickness without any safety net.

I’ve been fairly fortunate during my 25 years living in Tanzania. I’ve had my share of sickness but overall have been very healthy. Just lately I had malaria and ring worms(in the stomach). I hadn’t had malaria since 2009. Usually, many people who can’t afford to rest just take the medicine and continue on with struggling to survive. I like to rest when I take the medicine which takes 3 days to finish. It is a good time to slow down and be aware of one’s fragile nature. When one is stricken with malaria one is humbled and thankful for the gift of good health.

We’ve finished the wire fence around our property for the House of Prayer. The reaction from people who pass by is varied: some say the fence was put up by a corrupt politician (there is a major political scandal in which millions of dollars were stolen of public money), others don’t know who it is, others are wondering what is going to be built there, others are pleased to see the development of the land. Hopefully, as our development progresses there will be greater understanding on what we’re doing.

At times I feel the pressure from people to complete the project tomorrow. The people, when they have money, usually, if they are smart, use the money fast to build something because if they wait there are always pressing needs that will finish the money in a flash. I refuse to get drawn into this trap of trying to speed up development in an environment that many times slows development down.

The next step is to start planting some trees and landscaping the site. We also need to get water and electricity so we need to deal with the government bureaucracy which can take some time. Finally, we need to build at least the foundation of my future home (I don’t have enough money to build the entire house for now). But first the trees then the….then the…One step at a time.

Tanzania is truly a land of great and varied beauty that a Missioner can missed out on because of work, work, and more work. In the midst of the struggles and pressures of living in Tanzania it is wise to take a little time to enjoy its natural wonders. I’ve just returned from a 3-day trip to Rubondo Island with a Maryknoll Brother. Rubondo Island is a wonderland of nature with a thick jungle full of elephants and myriad forms of wildlife.

One day we went with a park ranger in a motorboat to explore how Lake Victoria, the second largest lake in the world, impacts on the island. We passed by a floating fish which we thought was dead but Br. Loren called out it was alive so we circled back. The ranger started pulling on a fish line which the fish was hooked on and pulled the fish in. We discovered the line was heavy with Nile perch fish. We pulled in 11 of them. These fish was illegally caught because they were caught within the park confines. The local fisherman come at night to set their lines in the park area since it is a protected area that has a lot of build up fish stock.

After hauling in the fish we continued on our journey of the island when suddenly we came upon what from a distance looked like a rock but as we came near we saw that it was a floating dead body. Lake Victoria is a beautiful lake, but it can be a killer. Many of the local fisherman use small canoes craved out of trees. When a storm suddenly comes in the afternoon the gentle waves become killers. Many a poor fisherman has sunk to the bottom of Lake Victoria where they stay for three days. On the third day, they surface hopefully to be claimed by their loved ones whom they were fishing for.

Last week the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers met in Mwanza for our bi-annual meeting in which all 12 of us Missioners come in from different parts of Tanzania. It is a small but unique gathering of people. Half of the group is over 80 yrs old. One of this group celebrated his 85th birthday on Thanksgiving.

It is amazing to be with these men who are still very, very active in their life and work. One is an assistant pastor, another is building a church and collecting proverbs, another is a pastor of a large parish with a district hospital, another wants to build a primary school along with his many other ministries, and one is working with a forgotten semi-nomadic people in the middle of nowhere.

What amazes me about these men? First, their joy. They’ve seen it all (all of them have been in Africa for over 50yrs) and they still radiate a deep joy that comes with going through a lot of suffering. Secondly, their perseverance. 50 plus years of living in one of the most poverty stricken places on the planet and they’re still here, wanting to help. I don’t know how much longer they will be around. I suppose all of them would prefer to be buried here. But wherever they will end up, I will start paying more attention. It’s not often one witnesses nitty gritty holiness.

An important part of the vision for the Lake House of Prayer is Silence. To be alone (all-one) with the Divine. I see it as part of my responsibility to create, foster and guard the Silence. In a world totally enslaved by noise and frenetic activity we desperately need areas of reflection, solitude and silence.

I’ve started a meditation group of missioners in the area. We are a mixed group of 11 lay, priests, brothers, men and women who are seeking the silence in the midst of a fairly chaotic city of Mwanza. It’s almost like we’re doing this in self-defense, to keep our sanity but it is also a desire for God which the Christian mystics have experienced through the ages as one who only can be ‘found’ in the Stillness and Silence.

We meet once a week for one hour in the middle of Mwanza. We sit in silence and faith of the Risen One Jesus Christ. We sit to let go of our fears and anger. We sit for healing and transformation. Without making one cement block we’ve already started the House of Prayer, for after all the House of Prayer is people, people sitting in silence and faith in the middle of chaos.