Progress on our water tank

I was privileged to give a retreat to seven Maryknoll Lay Missioners and three Lay Missioners from the Society of Missions to Africa. It was only for a day and a half but a fruitful time was had by all.

My theme was the imperative for Missioners in this age to be people of silent prayer and discernment. Our world’s changes are calling us to be more contemplative within our very actions. To be still in the midst of action.

The Tanzanians have a custom called ”wosia” which is when an elder, before he passes away or leaves a place gathers his family around him to share what he has learned in life. I tired to share what I have learned during my 29 yrs. in Tanzania. The main thing I’ve learnt is for fruitful work one must have prayer.

The past few days we’ve been having morning Eucharist in my living room. Why? Two reasons mainly, firstly, the rains having been coming or threatening every morning. Also, the large trucks bringing in sand for mixing cement are running over a quarter of our outdoor church, ruining as few of our ‘side pews’. Our pristine natural setting under an ancient African tree has changed with construction materials all around.

I’ve spoken with our head engineer Mr. Mbwambo and we’re going to break up a large rock and build a ‘road’ that will pass by our ‘church’. So, hopefully we’ll be able to get our morning Eucharist in again before the work starts in the morning.

The work on the new house continues at a good pace. We even found out that because of the steep slant of the hill we’re building on we have space for a basement. I’ve asked for an estimate for the basement, then we’ll see if the money will be enough.

In does not take much of a rain for the streets of Mwanza to flood. The hills are covered with houses of many shapes and sizes but the infrastructure to support such a growing population is not present such as drainage channels. So the roads become the channels which take the water to Lake Victoria.

Two days ago during our big rain two students on a motorcycle, driven by a young man were  on their way to take their final exam for leaving secondary school. They were in a hurry and did not heed the warnings of bystanders not to try to cross a flooded bridge. The pressure of needing to get to school to take the test moved them to take the fatal decision, they attempted to cross, at some point the rising water overwhelmed the small motorcycle. One of the students was able to grab on to a tree which saved her life. The other two disappeared in the flood.

People, like these young students are under a lot of pressure to preform well academically in order to make a life for themselves. They have to contend with poor infrastructure from lack of books, classrooms, teachers and drainage channels.

This morning just as Mass was starting (we moved inside for Mass) it started raining hard and did not stop for another five hours. Rains here seem to always bring mixed blessings.

Our 10,000/ liter water tank is now full. The electricity went off. Our trees got a well needed soaking. Dirt that was left too close of our water tank hole fell in by the bucket loads and will have to be taken out. A hole in the wall next to my house caused a torrent of water to erode the land by our front door. People with no running water were able to place buckets under their roofs to catch the precious clean water. I had to move my parking space for fear of getting stuck in the mud. Our entrance gate in full of mud and sand (which we are now working on). Our road will probably be impassable if we get another rain soon like today. The motorcycle drivers are not driving their usual fast speeds because of the conditions of the roads. And my mid-afternoon nap was pleasant in the cool post-rain breeze.

People like to use an expression from Job in the Bible, “Mungu ametupa na Mungu ametwaa”. God has given and God has taken away. And so it is with the rain.

I am writing this from the Missionaries of Africa rest house a little outside of Mwanza. I’ve come here to prepare a retreat I will be giving to the Maryknoll Lay Missioners in the near future. Why here? Wouldn’t the Lake House of Prayer do? That is what it is for right? Retreats? Solitude? Silence?

Indeed the House of Prayer will be for all of the above but in this time of repairing and building it is not the most conducive place to listen to the Spirit’s promptings to compose a retreat for others. So here I am.

The major theme of the retreat is the modern call to be a Contemplative in Action as a Missioner. There is so much change and fluidity in our globalized world that one has the responsibility to have a creative and disciplined spiritual practice that gifts one with joy. A joy that takes risks for others in the Way of Christ.

The work continues, in earnest now, on the Core Community House as the builders fill in the trenches of the foundation with large granite rocks. At my house all the toilets and showers are in working order. Next is the kitchen.

In the midst to all this external building activity I continue to meet with our weekly Meditation Group in my house to build, that is to say, the internal structure for the Lake House of Prayer, the dwelling place of the Spirit within us.

Yesterday in the middle of our mediation one of the women fell flat on her back and stayed that way until the end of the session. When we went over to attend to her, her arms were spread out in a cruciform way and large tears were flowing down her cheeks.

I sat with her after the others left to ask her about what just happened to her. She said when she closed her eyes she felt something from outside her come down on her and make her dizzy, so she had to lay down. She had no answer for her tears.

What happened? This is a common phenomenon here in religious settings, people falling(mainly women) and claiming to be possessed by the Devil. What do I think? First, about the tears, Fr. Keating of Centering Prayer fame speaks about the process of ‘Unloading the Unconciousness’ during meditation. This is a poor women, and being poor and a woman here is the bottom of the pit. There are no possibilities for this group to really express their feelings. So they repress them. Perhaps meditation offered her an opportunity to let go of some of the negativity.

About being possessed by an evil spirit. Others meditating in the room were not possessed by an evil spirit, why her and not us? There is a proverb in Swahili that says, “Shetani wa Mtu ni Mtu”, The Devil of the Person is the Person. The Dark Spirit that was possessing her did not come from an external force but from within. The extreme negativity her life is daily subjected to creates, as a modern spiritual writer writes, “a pain body”. As Jesus teaches, the source of sin is internal not external. The challenge is to help her let go of her deep fear of evil external forces, even if they may be present for they have no real power over her. Also to invite her to let go of her ‘pain body’ to Christ’s healing.

In a few days the Tanzanian people will go to the polls to elect their Fifth president since Independence. The campaigns are in full swing as we enter the final days. Last night a procession of music, cars, motorcycles, buses, people walking and dancing down our dirt road came by the House of Prayer singing and dancing the praises of their local political heroes.

What makes this election an historic one is for the first time there is a credible candidate from the opposition party who has a real chance to defeat the ruling party CCM candidate for the first time ever. The  whole country is alive with debate and excitement for possibilities for the future.

At the Lake House of Prayer work continues during this time. The digging of the foundation is finished as well as the digging for the water tank. We continue to make improvements on the house I live in. We have electricity now! We are repairing the two restrooms for guests. We have completed our water system for catching rain water. Next up is the kitchen.

Yesterday I gave an all day workshop to a group of young women from a group called “Lulu”. These young women come from mainly poor backgrounds with little or no education. Some of them have already had children (many of them running around during the day), others struggles with drugs and alcohol. They are a mixed of faiths, Christian and Moslem. The group seeks to empower the women to find self-confidence within themselves (the pearl) and helps with small income generating projects to guide them to self-sufficiency.

I shared with them some spiritual tools such as meditation, Yoga, Discernment, daily reflection of feelings and their relationship to God and Non-Violent Communication.

At the end each one shared what she got from the day. I was amazed at the diversity of responses. But it looked like expressing one’s feelings in a way that brings out the ‘huruma'(mercy) of the other seemed to win the day. I just hope each one of the young women got something of a “LULU”  that will guide her in a very difficult life ahead for all of them.