Today I spend a good part of the morning with the Contractor-Engineer who did most the building of Mabatini Parish. Mr. Chassa is a very religious man, intelligent and cares much about the quality of his work. The main reason I have returned to him to help him build the Lake House of Prayer is that I trust him. The building industry is very corrupt with hardly anyone one can turn to for some good advice without a price on it.

We went out to the site so I could show him the land. What I’d like to do is build a temporary fence and a one room house so I can start living and praying out there. I have only enough money to do the above but it will be an important step to get me out of the Bishop’s house and onto the Lake House of Prayer land. The living will be simple and yet that is what I am looking for. To live simply, to pray and live like a brother with the people.

I am continuing visiting the ‘kayas'(people’s homes) in the Ibanda area. This exercise is probably the best thing I can do here, period. The expressions on the people’s faces of welcome and joy when they welcome me into their very humble homes. Many are just shacks with corrugated metal roofs, mud brick walls that have the feel that they could fall on you any minute, a very small window, if that to let in some light because there is no electricity.

I am accompanied by the leaders of the Small Christian Community with some of its members. We climb into a small room using rocks as steps. The room is usually packed with a few stools, a bed, containers of all shapes for water and cooking. The room is very functional but not very attractive and why should it be when you making $2 a day?

We talk, tell each other about ourselves a bit. We pray. Sometimes there will be a sick person that we are asked to pray for. I try to make it as comfortable as possible for the people. After all in their very existence there are not very many areas of comfort.

Tanzania is a very, very tough country to live in if you are poor. It is very hard to cope if you have no resources and are just struggling to eat at least once a day(some people can eat only every two days). The climate is right for a earth denying spirituality where people withdraw into a world where they are disconnected to the painful earth. Everything becomes a Satan. Fear is always causing people to run away from Satan.

The Catholic Charismatics and other Pentecostal groups are very big now. People deal with their social and psychological problems through the spirit world of exorcisms. There is no psychological support for growing mental illnesses. People are losing hope in their government (which is corrupt). Where to they turn? To ‘miracle workers’ who ‘drive’ out the ‘demons’ that are oppressing the people, while ignoring the political-social system that is doing the harm.

The challenge is to help the poor deal with their pain by keeping their feet on the ground. By facing their psychological problems in a healthy manner. So much the demonic possession here is from a false sense of evil that is produced by thinking Satan is King. Perhaps the House of Prayer can help people be healed of their struggles in a holistic manner in which Christ heals the illusionary power of Satan.

Many times what you plan doesn’t come out how you hoped. In a poor country like Tanzania one may fail a lot more times that one would in the United States. So one needs to get used to failing. Not a pleasant prospect, but in the long run having a creative attitude towards failure helps your ‘lastability’ here.

Yesterday I met with a Small Christian Community close to the area of hoped for House of Prayer. I prepared and gave a talk on praying the Bible with your family. I thought I gave a decent understandable, even doable talk. Then I ask asked the group what they thought. Blank stares. I looked at one of the leaders and ask her if what I suggested is doable in their family, she just shook her head NO. One gets an empty feeling in one’s stomach like a flat tire.

I took a deep breath and changed the subject. Not the best thing to do but when your low on air, perhaps it is the only thing one can do. A key is to lessen the recovery time from the failure and see how you can improve later on what you failed on.

Perhaps some are wondering what is happening with the building plans. I am waiting for 4 of the missing beacons to be placed showing part of the borders of the property. This involves going through government channels, which can take a lot of time. Here waiting is a must.

This waiting time is beneficial for me for it gives me an opportunity to continue to visit the Christians in the area. It also gives me the chance to reflect and pray on what kind of a house I want to build. One option is to build a small one room mud brick house like most the people have or build a concrete block house with a couple rooms, a kitchen and an indoor toilet.

The mud house would be temporary but it would show my desire to live in solidarity with the people. It would involve a lot of time just doing survival jobs like hauling water. Veteran Missioners in Maryknoll having a saying, “Go local and go home”. One must discern for his or herself how to take care of one’s health and live simply in solidarity with the people. I will never have to face what the poor have to face everyday as they peer into death’s eyes but perhaps somehow I can live in such a way they could authentically call me their friend.

Yesterday I attended the last of four Priesthood Ordinations in the local parishes. I met a Missioner there who worked in West Africa and South Africa who said he was amazed at the generosity of the people in Tanzania, which surpassed anything he had seen in Africa.

It is a local custom with the Sukuma people to give generously to the newlyweds to help them start out in their new life together. The day of the wedding people gather for all parts of the village. Cows, goats, chickens are downed and cooked in various manner. Songs are created, dancing, praising and gift giving are all given in a heartfelt African celebration.

The Church has taken this wedding custom for its newly ordained priests. For a day the young men are treated like Princes, which is well because after being prince for a day their life of service to a mainly poor population is a real struggle.

Living at the Bishop’s House with Tanzanians gives me a unique opportunity to hear the views of different topics when we gather for meals. I’ve always found the Tanzanians great conversationalists. Many times although I understand what is said, I don’t get the humor when they laugh.

Today at breakfast we spoke politics in a very lively conversation about the near future of the country. Tanzania is undergoing the writing of a new constitution and preparations for the election of a new president. The main issue is religion. It appears by listening today at table that Christians will vote for Christians and Moslems will vote for Moslems. A pity. Tanzanians have a wonderful history of religious diversity that is being destroyed by religious fanaticism.

When I started Mabatini Parish I tried to visit every ‘kaya'(home), of course I didn’t make it to all the people’s homes but I got to the majority of them. It took me six months. Today I started visiting the homes of the Christians at Ibanda Outstation where the site of the House of Prayer is. Some impressions.

Even after 25 yrs in Tanzania it is striking to me to see the poverty people live in. I met one old man in his mud shack. He gave me his only chair to sit in as the rest of the group sat on his bed. We left the door open to let in some light since the shack had  no widows. He has one eye, probably lost the other one pounding on rocks for construction. Looking into his face you see a man of deep humility who struggles to live each and everyday. He knows the world is against him but there is an acceptance and strong will to live.

I was touched by the poor people’s welcome to me. I ask them to give me a word of advice and a blessing in my new work. Their words of blessings meant a lot to me. One begins to wonder as I enter one mud shack after another, who is blessing who here.

Mwanza is a city set on the second largest fresh water lake in the world. The city’s many hills are covered with many big rocks that give the place a sense that this whole place used to be underwater 1,000s of year ago. The pace of urbanization here is astounding, areas that were monkeys and hyenas used to live years ago have been cleared by a massive and for the most part uncontrolled building boom.

The first people called to start this building process are the Rock Breakers. These are hardened tough men who come to break these massive boulders. They do this by first creating a crack in the rock by hammering it with different sorts of hammers. Then they put charcoal in the cracks, light the charcoal to let it do its job of cracking the rock. When the rock cracks a bit they use of sledge hammer to finish the job by slamming the rock into manageable pieces. Sometimes a large rock can take two weeks to break apart. One must have a ‘roho ngumu’ (tough spirit) to persevere with such a hard dangerous work. Most to not last long because along with the tough work the pay does not make it worth one’s time.

Today I took two Rock Breakers out the site of the House of Prayer. I hope to give them a living wage for this work. This is a small way one seeks to live in Justice with the people, by treating them with dignity as the Gospel of Jesus demands.

Living here temporarily  at the Bishop’s house I get to meet a lot of people. There is a priest here from the Kilimanjaro region on vacation. One day he asked me if I had any books on Yoga. I told him I had given away most of my books when I left my former parish including my Yoga books. But I told him that I know something of Yoga and I would be willing to show him some exercises if he wished. So we made a date and time to meet on the roof of this four story building for a session.

The session went very well Fr. Ubonyo was a very good student. It was quite a site for me being on that roof surround by the hills of Mwanza with Lake Victoria in the distant, the sun going down, the cows, goats and many dogs moving toward their nighttime shelters. And me teaching Yoga to a Tanzanian priest. Perhaps a sign that the Catholic Church of Tanzania can be open to the goodness of other religions, after all this is what Vatican II called us to: the engage the world, to get out of the ‘basement’ and get up on the ‘roof’ and LIVE.