Apologies

Sorry for getting so behind in posting here.

The trip to Nairobi was remarkable. I did no site-seeing, but I was engaged in an extraordinary meeting of Jesuits working in the Eastern Africa Province. We gathered at the request of our provincial to discern the apostolic agenda of the Jesuits in this part of the world. It was a marvelous experience.

That was followed by a few days in Morogoro, where I worked on some matters in my other capacity, assistant to the provincial for education and chair of the education commission. It was a good place to think and write.

I returned to Dodoma on Sunday. I was pulled over twice by the police. The first because the officer saw me go in one direction, turn around, and return an hour later. (I had forgotten my luggage in Morogoro and received a call an hour into the three hour trip informing me of that fact.) The officer was very pleasant and appreciated my attempt at Kiswahili. The second time, the officer asked where I was coming from, where I was going; asked to see the car's registration, etc. Finally, he said, "You know it is very hot out here. You could give us a 'jifty'." It took me a second, but I figured out he meant a gift. I had a 1.5 litre of water, unopened, so I gave it to them.

I just go back from our site and here are some of the sights -- you can see our progress!

(Well, after two hours of trying to upload, it seems you'll have to wait to see the progress)

In Nairobi

I left Dodoma on Saturday morning, spent Saturday evening in Morogro, Sunday and Monday evenings near Moshi, and arrived here in Nairobi yesterday. I've visited more schools than I can recount and continue to learn tons about Catholic schooling in Tanzania.

I was delighted to find four of my companions on the shuttle from Moshi to Nairobi. The trip is not so long re: distance, but the state of the roads makes it an exhausting one.

I'll be here in Nairobi for the next several days -- nice to have such cool weather as Nairobi's.

Upepo Mkali

I was at the building site this morning. There was a very strong wind (upepo mkali) whipping across the site, which is very open, given our semi-arid climate. The dust was horrible, filling ears and nostrils, scratching eyes.

The good news is some of that will change in a few years. Brother Vincent has hundreds of seedlings of trees appropriate for our climate ready to be planted as soon as he's sure the young trees can properly be tended -- and in fact, has planted quite a number of trees already. The trees will be well-irrigated. How? you wonder. By means of recycling water using our ecological sanitation system about which we had a meeting this morning. The system is not inexpensive, but in the long run will save us money. And the local health official assured us that we'll be a model for the region.

I head out tomorrow on a trip that will take me to Morogoro, Moshi, and Nairobi. I won't have easy access to Internet over the course of the next two weeks, but will post as able.

Work

"Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying." ~Studs Terkel

The footage would make an OSHA officer wince.

Progress

Here is a video of the roofing up on the matrons'/patrons' (dorm moderators') residence -- a small sign of a little more progress.

A Star is Born!

Or will be.

My friend Fr. Eddie Siebert, sj, will becoming to Dodoma 11-15 May in order to shoot some film about our project. The film will be used for two things: (1) a promotional dvd to help us get the good word out about this important project, and (2) a documentary on how the notion of "misssion" and "missions" and "missionary" has changed in the last decades. You can check out the work of Eddie and his colleagues here.

Digital autographs will be available upon request.

Mabati!

That is one of my favourite Kiswahili words. I just like the sound of it. What does it mean in English? Corrugated iron sheeting.

Mabati is the most common roofing used here. Ours arrived on Saturday from Dar-es-Salaam. I'd expected -- and thought we'd agreed on -- maroon, but the color is more brown than maroon. It will look good, nonetheless. As soon as it starts going up, I'll take some snaps and post.

I missed a trip to Rome by this much (shows index finger millimetres away from thumb). Our contractor thought it would be good for one of us to join a representative from the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference on a trip to determine whether a proposed deal on tiles is as good as it seems. Alas, the originally proposed dates conflicted with an important meeting -- and the ultimate date chosen is this week, which I can't manage. Only slightly disappointed.