01 January 2014

Susan, Judy and Fr. John Garry

Greetings to all on this the last day of 2013.
     I was very fortunate to spend two days with two very good friends at the Sunbird lodge.  For those who know me, you know I love birds and a fire in the fireplace when it is cold.  This year I am missing the cold of Illinois where I was with my birth family last year. But this year I am still with family in front of a fire place because Naivasha is much colder than Mombasa!
     As I spend these last few moments of 2013 in reflection I am thinking of family. I know how blessed I am to have you as part of my extended and world wide family.  I have all my basic needs met and far more than I need.  My calender from the Sisters of St. Joseph of LaGrange has a quote for today, "I am restored in beauty", from a Navaho prayer.  Our sharing of a meal around a table in front of a fire place was full of beauty, laughter, good food and we restored one another for another day on the journey.  I hope that each of you can be restored by beauty as we move into a new year.
     But our world is often full of pain, suffering and the farthest thing from beauty.  Such is the case with S Sudan, the newest nation on our planet, born on 9th July 2011.  On 15th December fighting began and continues until now.  It looks to me like civil war and genocide but I don't hear others using those words.  Maybe I am wrong.  I hope so.  I worked in the Catholic Diocese of Torit, in what is now S Sudan, from 1991 to 2003.  I still have many friends there and we all had such hope for the future...until two weeks ago. So, if it is possible, I ask that you help to show solidarity with our family in this new nation by signing on to the petition below:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Leaders_of_Civil_War_in_South_Sudan_stop_random_killings_of_civilians_in_South_Sudan/sign/?aSplydb

I clicked on the link and was the 308th person to sign up.  It was easy even for me who finds these things challenging.  Tomorrow is the International World Day for Peace and it would be a small thing each of us could do to work for peace.  It is also the feast of Mary, Queen of Peace.  Let's join our prayer with her, and all mothers everywhere, who know that when we forget that we belong to one another... that we are part of one family...it is very hard to find peace.

Peace of the glow and beauty of the flickering flames to you!  

22 December 2013

This is a special posting.  For those of you who don't know, fighting has begun again in S Sudan and the fragile peace has been broken.  Below is a message my friend, who is a doctor in the south, just wrote to me:

My guys are so bummed - so depressed, so dispirited.  We were finally starting to make progress and now - even if there is peace tomorrow, it will never be as good as it was last week.  No one can forget.  The targeted killings…  I've a post paid thuraya (phone) - and every day there are people who come with a tiny piece of waste paper with a telephone number scribbled on it - just a quick call to hear the voice…  Most are still alive.

But so many hopes are shattered.
They said, we will not have Christmas this year….

On the home front, yesterday I sat down with Martha (not the real name of the woman who helps us clean in  our home).  I wanted to pit some dates to make cookies and asked her to help me.  For the hour we were together she started talking about her children.  Her oldest daughter who is in University got pregnant and isn't coming home for Christmas.  Martha is afraid the girl won't finish school and will bring the child to her to raise.  Martha is trying to support two other children and a grandson who has HIV/AIDS.  (His mother, her daughter,  died of AIDS many years ago).  Her husband long since left the family.  Martha is the sole bread winner and can hardly make ends meet. 
     Next, two weeks ago her younger daughter age 14 was moving with a bad crowd of people. Martha told the daughter to stop associating with those people and the daughter started yelling and wailing.  This upset Joseph, her son who is about 20 and has brain damage from a motor vehicle accident.  He picked up a kitchen knife and went after Martha and stabbed her in the chest and back four times.  All were superficial but she had to go to the hospital for treatment.  The government health workers are striking so she had to go to a private clinic and had to borrow money for the bill.  Because of all these problems Martha was unable to sleep and started drinking alcohol.  Last week she found herself awakening from a drunken stupor at 4am outside her house.  She said she has no one to talk to about her problems.  When she talks to her neighbors they laugh at her.
     I thanked God that I had asked her to sit down and help me pit the dates.  I prescribed some medicine for her pain which will help her sleep at night.  I told her if she felt like drinking again to call me and we would talk.  I gave her her pay, her Christmas presents and told her we would increase her pay starting next week.I called her this morning and asked her how she slept last night.  She said she slept better and her voice sounded less strained.  

This morning I wanted to make more Christmas cookies but asked myself how I could do such a superficial thing with S Sudan at war and Martha struggling with such problems.  Then the thought occurred to me that I could pray for them while making the cookies.  So I started cooking.  I wonder why some people must suffer so much and what my role should be in addressing their suffering.  At the very least, and perhaps most importantly, I can listen to them.  It was the Christmas cookies that led me to sit down with Martha and listen to her.  And they gave me the opportunity to pray for those in need.  I guess baking Christmas cookies is not such a superficial thing.  Thanks to you for listening to me.  Merrcy Christmas.   

01 December 2013

Bethany, Rehema, Coralis, Judy, Susan, Anita, Curt
Maryknoll Lay Missioners Mombasa

Dear Family and Friends,

     This has been quite a year of ups and downs. The Kenyan presidential elections were held on March 4th and because of concerns for safety our travel to the different health units was restricted in February and March.  Fortunately the process was peaceful, despite long lines that caused people to wait up to 11 hours in the hot sun.  Kenyans are to be admired for their patient determination to perform their right to vote.  The men chosen to be President and Vice President are both charged with crimes against humanity for violence that occurred in the elections in 2007.  Currently the Vice President is on trial in the Hague and the President will be tried next February 2014.

     In July my 20 year old nephew, Alex Vitalis, drowned of cold shock syndrome in a tragic river accident.  I was able to arrive in Minnesota for the wake which gathered over 1000 people.  He was a wonderful young man and we are grateful for the time we had with him.  Still, we are trying to adjust to the reality that he is no longer with us here on earth.  The family asked that donations be made to my mission account in lieu of flowers.  People have been extremely generous.  With those gifts we have already completed renovations to the pharmacy at Giriama dispensary and have begun to renovate the lab.  I will give a full report early next year.

     While I was in Minnesota I also had an unfortunate accident and fractured my sacrum (tailbone).  In order to recuperate I had to extend my stay in the US but I have healed completely.  I returned to Mombasa in October.  This allowed me to spend more time with family, especially my parents.  I am very grateful for all the support I received from Maryknoll and the Archdiocese during these difficult months.

     Kenya has been beset by numerous problems.  In August the arrivals hall at the International Airport in Nairobi burned to the ground.  In September a large shopping mall in Nairobi, Westgate, was attacked by terrorists and closed down for four days.  At least 70 people were killed and over 200 were injured.  In October a Muslim Sheikh was killed in Mombasa along with three people in his car and four bystanders. Each incident increases fear and it becomes more difficult to know who to trust or how to make plans for every day activities.  As Sr. Pauline, our health coordinator said, "We are all traumatized".

     Lastly, our beloved Archbishop, Boniface Lele, retired on November 1st for health reasons.  He is a caring, pastoral man who has been at the forefront of ministry to people living with AIDS.  The door to his office was always open and we rarely needed an appointment to meet him.  He welcomed all with a gracious smile and genuine humility.  We were blessed to have him as our shepherd these past eight years.

     As we wait for the birth of Jesus I have my own mother and child story to share.  In April Asha brought her one year old son, Seif, to the clinic for vomiting and diarrhea.  He had stopped growing six months earlier and could hardly sit up, let alone stand.  I was afraid he had some type of muscular dystrophy but wanted to check his thyroid function too.  I sent him to the provincial hospital and told them what I suspected and what tests needed to be done.  Ashsa tried her best but the first time she went to the hospital the doctor wasn't there.  The second time the doctor didn't have time to see him.  Someone wrote for lab tests to be done at a private hospital which would have cost two weeks of the father's salary.  The third time she went they were angry that she hadn't had the tests done and refused to examine the child.  So, when she brought him back to me I just took the mother and child to a lab that I know well and paid for one test to check his thyroid.  It was abnormal and we started him on treatment for low thyroid.  In just two weeks he was starting to get stronger.  The Sister at the clinic continued to treat him with my advice by email while I was in the US and he continued to improve.  The Sister also encouraged the mother to keep breast feeding, only to find out the mother was pregnant.  She delivered another child in September!  As you can see from the names, the family is Muslim and the mother wore the traditional long black robes.  We had no idea she was pregnant.  Seif continues to improve and now he has a little sister. 

     So, let this season of hope for new life encourage each of us.  God came into our world to live among us.  No matter what our challenges, struggles or sorrows we are never alone and God is with us...Emmanuel.

PEACE OF THE NEW BORN CHRIST
CHILD TO YOU!!!

A tree that blooms in December
 Called a Christmas tree here!
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

SUSAN 

01 November 13

Giriama Pharmacy Completed

Happy Feast of All Saints  

Greetings from Mombasa!!!  

     I arrived on the 18th of October after a long but basically uneventful trip.  I met with Sr. Veronicah of Giriama dispensary and she has completed renovation of the pharmacy and all the medicines are off the floor!  I gave her more money from the memorial fund for Alex to begin renovation of the laboratory.  Again, she asked me to convey her gratitude on behalf of the staff and all the patients for this assistance.

     On my trip back security was tighter. During my absence from Kenya the arrivals hall at the airport in Nairobi burned down.  The Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi (very large and often frequented by expatriates) was attacked by terrorists and 67 people were killed.  A Sheikh in Mombasa was killed along with 3 people in his car and 4 bystanders. There have also  been reoccurring incidents of violence in Mombasa, sometimes thought to be hooliganism, taking advantage of terrorism and unrest in the country.  The Vice President is in the Hague attending his trial for crimes against humanity.  The President was to due go to the Hague for his trial on Nov 12th.  His trial is postponed until Febrruary at his request.  Prices for everything have gone up, especially since the value added tax was raised from 14 to 16%.  Our salaries stay the same and those who live on the edges are falling off more frequently.

New Orbis Book about Mombasa

                      But there's hope!  Pope Francis has been talking about wanting a poor church for the poor.  Here's a new book written by one of our lay missioner's, Coralis Salvador and a Franscican lay missioner, Susan Slavin.  I highly recommend it as it will give a good picture of our ministries in Mombasa.  Coralis currently administrates Kikambala Primary Health Care facility where I do a clinic once each month.      
                      I've also just finished reading a new book Pope Francis Untying the Knots by Paul Vallely.  Towards the end it quotes a speech by Cardinal Bergoglio given at the conclave before the elections began.  He said, "The Church is supposed to be the mysterium lunae - the mystery of the moon is that it has no light but simply reflects the light of the sun.  The church must not fool itself that it has light of its own; if it does that it falls in to what Henri De Lubac in The Splendour of the Church called the greatest of evils - spiritual worldliness.  That is what happens with a self-referential Church, which refuses to go behond itself.  Put simply, there are two images of Church; a Church which evangelises and comes out of herself or a worldly Church, living within herself, of herself, for herself.  The next Pope should be someone who helps the Church surge forth to the peripheries like a sweet and comforting mother who offers the joy of Jesus to the world.               
                                                                             After that speech Cardinal Bergoglio was the person chosen to be our next leader.  The moon is waning at the moment but it will be full on 18th Nov.  Keep an eye out and let's head for the people on the edges and be mysterium lunae.

                         Peace of the Harvest Moon to you and Happy Thanksgiving!                                  

01 October 2013

Staff at Giriama Mission Dispensary

     Greetings from a beautiful fall in Illinois. Last month I described how the donations given in memory of my nephew Alex would be used.  When I wrote to Sr. Veronicah to tell her that we could do all the projects she had requested for Giriama Dispensary she said they had already begun and sent some pictures which are attached.  They have started with renovation of the pharmacy as that was the most urgent.  We couldn't have medicines and supplies sitting on the floor. She asked me to express her gratitude to all who helped make these improvements possible at the oldest mission parish in the Archdiocese.

                                                                                  

Sr. Veronicah - Administrator

Renovating the pharmacy

     Today I attended my fifth funeral in ten weeks...this one for one of my high school classmates who was diagnosed with lung cancer in August.  In addition to these deaths there was the terrorist attack at a mall in Nairobi in which 67 are known dead, hundreds were injured and 61 are still missing. As one Kenyan wrote to me, "We are all traumatized".  After that Pakistan had 78 people killed by suicide bombers in a church and over 500 killed in an earthquake.  I am wondering how new life will come from all of this death and destruction.
    I am doing well myself and planning to return to Kenya the middle of October.  It was definitely the right decision to improve my health before traveling and I am very grateful to all who gave me support to do this.  I draw a lot of strength from those who have faced adversity, like the men in this picture...the common person struggling to put food on the table.  If they can do it we surly can continue on with courage and hope.

Peace of the falling leaves to you!

01 September 13

Ali, Susan and Jim - St. Patrick Parish Urbana, Illinois

Happy Labor Day tomorrow!  Summer is ending and the leaves are beginning to fall.
     This picture was taken at the Time and Talent event at my home parish in August. The Justice and Peace group had displayed an article that was written about our ministry in the LAS Alumni News from the U. of Illinois as well as the Maryknoll Book Lives of Service from Maryknoll.  As always, it was a homecoming for me as these are the people who have nurtured my faith and supported us over so many years.
     I saw my doctor yesterday and I am doing fairly well with my recovery from the sacral bone fracture.  However, she recommended that I postpone my return to Kenya for six weeks and so I will arrange to return in midOctober.  I realize that I received excellent care.  The CT scan didn't show the fracture but they could do an MRI and that was diagnostic.  If I had been in Mombasa there is only one place that does these two exams and the MRI machine has been 'down' for weeks and months at a time. I am so grateful that I didn't suffer a permanent spinal injury and should recover fully.
     There has been over $12,000 donated to our ministry in memory of Alex Vitalis, my nephew.  We are very grateful for this generous tribute to a wonderful  young man.  I have talked with the family and we will use the money to make renovations in Giriama dispensary to the lab, pharmacy, staff house and install a soak pit.  We will also provide the salary for one nurse for one year at the new maternity room at St. Patrick's Dispensary in Bangladesh informal settlement in Mombasa.  I would like to place a remembrance plaque at each site to honor Alex.
     With all the difficulties in Syria and more talk of war let us redouble our work and prayer for peace.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

15 August 2013

Greetings from Urbana, Illinois.
     Mom and I drove back from Minnesota and arrived here yesterday.  We are both tired but happy to be 'home'.  We went to the river with Carol before we left Minnesota and had a lovely prayer service to remember Alex on the fourth Monday after he drowned.  We read from the scriptures, dropped some dying cut flowers that friends had sent into the river and Carol sang a lullaby that she would sing to her children before they went to sleep.  We are learning to live with our new reality and now we will try to move on...just like the flowing river.
     Today is the Feast of the Assumption.  It is also the 38th anniversary of the beginning of the Maryknoll Lay Missioner program and the 19th anniversary of the founding of the Maryknoll Mission Association.  It is also the feast of Loa Parish in South Sudan and the Diocese of Kitale, Kenya...both places where I worked in the past.  So, it is a day for me to remember many good things that have happened to me on my life's journey and so many of you have have been so supportive and encouraging along the way.  The gospel in today's liturgy is Luke 1:39-56.  Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth and sings her song...the Magnificat.  She gives me, as a woman, the example of how to meet challenges and think of others...to serve where there is need and praise God for everything.  With gratitude I remember all of you too.