I am rapidly getting things in order to move into my new home over-looking Lake Victoria. The house we bought is in great need of repair. Extensive work is being done on the plumbing system including a tall tower to hold our 5,000 liter water tank. The electrical system is in disarray. Why all this poor workmanship? What we think is the previous owner did not pay his  workers and treated them badly so they started stealing and doing poor work.

I hope we can have the plumbing system in good enough working order so I can move in sometime late this week or early next. I am eating a lot of canned sardines and fruit for lunch and dinner. For breakfast I have cereal and fruit. I made the mistake of leaving the food out on the floor in plastic bags. Two mornings ago when I came to look at what I would have to eat for breakfast it looked like some kind of animal was making itself at home with the cereal. One of the workers said it was rats! I hate rats! Quickly I found a way to protect the food. Having rats in one’s cereal gets one focused and creative proto.

I’ve only been back in Tanzania a few days, but it feels like I never left. The main focuses are to repair a room in the house we purchased a couple months ago and prepare to choose which contractor we will use to build the Core Community House.

We have purchased a 5,000 liter water tank and hope to have  water  delivered by truck this morning. I am excited about the eventuality of moving into my new home when we get my room in livable condition.

Finally, later on today I lead a short reflection with some Maryknoll guests who have come to Mwanza for two weeks of visits. There is a proverb that says, “Mgeni akija, wenyeji wapone” (when the guest comes the locals get  well). The Tanzanians are well know for their “Ukarimu” (hospitality). After 27yrs. living in Tanzania I hope some of that hospitality has off on me so I can share that “Ukarimu” with our guests.

I arrived from the USA to Maryknoll’s house in Nairobi, Kenya to find our normally empty house full of people. Maryknoll Africa is hosting a seminar on Inter-Religious dialogue. Many of our guests coming for this seminar of one week are either Muslim or Christian.

Last night I spoke with a Muslim educator who is creating a curriculum that combines religious studies of Islam with secular studies. I shared with him my vision for the House of Prayer. He was very excited, encouraging me to continue on with the project because it is really, really needed. It was amazing to hear his views on what I want to do, in many cases that matched my own motivations for the Lake House of Prayer.

Finally, he shared the religious custom in Islam of the “Iikaf” which says that one should spend one hour a day in silent solitude before God. I walked away from our conversation thankful that God saw fit to speak to me through this Muslim scholar. In the Silence and Solitude the Lake House of Prayer miraculously becomes a Home for all Peoples.

I arrived in California after a 13,000 kilometers 20 hours airplane trip from Nairobi, Kenya. My first impressions are the wonderful paved roads and efficiency in which things get done. I am going through my doctor’s appointments and am amazed and thankful for the technology and kind service.

I will visit family  and rest a bit before going to Omaha, Nebraska early next month for the second summer session of the Spiritual Direction Certificate.

Gone are the days when Missioners went overseas and never returned home to visit. Now we live in a Global Village where we are connected much more closely by modern advances. The challenge is to live more from an inner grounding, especially when the outer environment changes, at times, by the moment.

27 years ago today on June 4th I was ordained to the Missionary Priesthood at Maryknoll, NY. I have lived and worked in Tanzania for all these years. I have lived in a tent in the Rift Valley following the pastoral Wataturu tribe. I have lived in the Serengeti in a parish rural setting. I have worked in a big city hospital in a Clinical Pastoral Education program. Finally, I was a parish priest in a poor urban area of a large African city.

All these years of doing have been a blessing to me, I am very grateful. Now as I enter into the ‘twilight’ years of my mission life I feel strongly the vocational call to my second vocation, to be, just to be, a contemplative in action. Whereas before doing was the focus, now Silence and Stillness is the focus that brings me, hopefully, to creative action.

There is a beer commercial here that announces the above, this to sell beers, for after all one gets thirsty travelling. Many spiritual writers speak of “The Journey” from the false selves of the world to the Divine and your True Self. Tomas Merton speaks of the necessity of making the outer and inner journey.

Tomorrow I begin the outer journey to Nairobi, Kenya to the Mwangaza Retreat Center for a 8 Day Directed Retreat. There I will begin the inner journey. Or will I? I’m learning that the inner and outer journeys are really one journey happening all the time, moment by moment.

After the retreat I will travel to the States to visit family and friends, then eventually to Creighton U. in Nebraska to continue a course in Spiritual Direction I am praying for an open Spirit to learn the lessons along the Way.

One of my favorite Swahili proverbs is the title of today’s blog, which means, “Fast, Fast, there is no blessing”. I am still learning this hard lesson after living in Africa for 27 years. And yesterday, I had another lesson.

After months of negotiation we closed the deal on our neighbor’s house/plot. I was hoping it would have been much sooner so we could have worked on repairing the house into a livable position for me to move into when I return from the States from my Spiritual Direction studies  in August. As it turned out the deal was closed two weeks before my departure (it is now  three days before I leave).

So I got into my “Haraka” mode, talking with the contractor, getting estimates, more talking, looking at my finances, etc. Only yesterday I was able to sit down quietly with the figures the contractor gave my for the repairs. The figures were way out of line for the work we want done.   I suddenly  realized that this whole thing is going toooo fast.

I’m calling off the repair work until I return, it may take longer to get the house ready but the more important thing is living united to God’s Will, not a successful repair job. Indeed, once again, ‘Haraka Haraka, Haina Baraka’.

I just got out of the hospital with what probably was a severe case of food poisoning. This was my first time, after 27yrs. being IN the hospital, not visiting. The switch in perceptive is daunting.

The Tanzanians have a cultural-social tradition of ‘huduma’, literally meaning service. In this hospital they don’t serve food, there is no button to call the nurse, if you need water someone has to go to the store to get it for you. That’s where huduma comes in, the family draws up a plan for bringing food two/three times a day, who is going to run chores, what belongings to bring to the patient, and most importantly who is going to spend the night in order to see to the patient’s needs.

One very important task the person spending the night does is watch the IV bottle, many times the nurses don’t come back in time to turn the bottle off (there are no electronic buzzers), so someone has to be watching the sick one’s IV when it finishes because if it is not turned off air can reverse into the heart and kill you.

I had no one who spent the night so I timed how long a bottle goes down and set my alarm to be ready when it finishes. I did not sleep well that night.

Yesterday I walked around my new home to get some idea what kind of a repair job will we have to do to make it livable. It will be a big one. No secure doors, no screens on the widows, no running water, no toilet or shower, the list  goes on.

I will be leaving to return to the States in a little over a week so after looking at the damages we’ve decided not to make furniture  as we had planned while I’m gone but instead we will repair the house. After all one needs a livable house before putting furniture in it.

By tomorrow we should  have the new fence and gate up around this new addition to the Lake House of Prayer. Saturday the live-in guard of the previous owner will have completely  moved out so we can make a complete assessment of the repairs. We might not have enough money to do all the repairs but we’ll make the toilet and shower a priority.

This morning at Mass I shared with the people that the Diocese has purchased our neighbor’s house/plot and that I will be living there in the near future. There were warm smiles and clapping.

Tomorrow we will start building a fence and a gate as the process begins for another new step in the growing of the Lake House of Prayer.

I hope this coming move will be helpful in growing a space of Silence, Solitude and a Commitment to each other.