S.M.A. REGIONAL HOUSE OF MWANZA

         Fr. Robert, Jean, Fr. Tony & Fr. Janusz

 

Fr. Robert, Jean, Fr. Tony & Fr. Alan

 

                                                                           Marga, Krystina & Ita

 

The Society of African Missions' worldwide organization is made up of many provinces, districts and regions. Every region throughout the S.M.A. world has a Regional House. Fortunately for me, the Mwanza Regional House is only a 15 minute walk from where I stay. Some of the S.M.A. priests and lay missionaries from our region meet each Sunday afternoon for dinner. Unfortunately, some live too far away to come very often. Many people pass through the Regional House throughout the year. Since my arrival on April 15th, I've met a number of S.M.A. members, some of whom I don't have photos of yet. Shown in the photos above are Fr. Robert from France, who is the guest master of the house, but will be leaving at the end of May for a well deserved holiday back home; Fr. Tony from Ireland, who stays next door to me; Fr. Janusz from Poland, who is the Regional Superior and stays at the regional house; and Fr. Alan, who was en route back to his home in the Philippines after spending 8 years in Ghana, West Africa. For many years Marga, who is from Holland, has been running a program to provide assistance for street boys in Mwanza. Ita is also from Holland, and volunteered to assist Marga with the street children for the past year. She just returned to Holland at the end of April. Krystina, of course, was the Shaloom preschool teacher for the past two years. She returned to the US at the beginning of May. Just before Krystina left, she received a visit from three S.M.A. missionaries who work in Bugisi, Tanzania, which is located about 3 hours from Mwanza; they are Jolanta, from Poland, Monika, from Poland, and Fr. Julieto, from the Philippines. Fr. Jean' Baptiste, from Benin, West Africa, who was pictured in a previous posting playing checkers, and stays next door to me, usually joins us for dinner but had a previous engagement the day these photos were taken. I've also met Fr. Mick, from Ireland, who was passing through the regional house on his way home to Ireland for a one year sabbatical, after serving for over 20 years in Ngudu, Tanzania. Fr. PJ Kelly, who serves in the remote village of Kilulu, also spent a few days at the Regional House after his return from the General Assembly in Rome. It's been a privilege to meet so many dedicated missionaries. I look forward to meeting many more.

 

As you can see by the photos below, the staff at the Regional House is also dedicated to gardening. The gardens at the house are just gorgeous!

 

Gardens near the gate of the house

                                                                 Gardens at the front of the house

 

            Gardens on the side of the house

Small screened in hall on the grounds

 

Close up of one of the beautiful roses on the property

 

 

BUGANDO MEDICAL CENTRE

 

 

Last week I was invited by Sister Adelina Kokubonza to visit Bugando Medical Center. Sr. Adelina studied Accounting at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA) from 2007 - 2013. She was just assigned to the hospital in March 2013, in the Accounting office. I've included a little snippet from the hospital's website, just to give you a little information on the center.

 

Bugando Medical Center is a consultant and teaching hospital for the Lake and Western zones of Tanzania. Situated along the shores of Lake Victoria in Mwanza City, it has 900 beds and approximately 900 employees. It is a referral center for specialist care for six regions, including Mwanza, Mara, Kagera, Shinyanga, Tabora and Kigoma. It serves a population of approximately 13 million people.

Bugando Medical Center (BMC), formerly Bugando Consultant and Referral Hospital, was built by the Catholic Church from 1968-1971, and was officially opened by President Julius Nyerere in December, 1971. In 1972, the Tanzanian government nationalized the hospital and administered it from 1972-1985. In 1985, the hospital was handed back to the Tanzania Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Tanzania.

The hospital is a partnership with the Catholic Church, the Tanzania Government through the Ministry of Health, the Touch Foundation and other partners in making sure that services at BMC are of good quality and that we are training competent health professionals of tomorrow.

 

Within the grounds of the Medical Center is Bugando University College of Health Sciences. The university offers an undergraduate program in medicine. 

Bugando Medical Center

 

After my tour of the hospital, Sr. Adelina and I walked to the university campus for lunch. It was interesting to see a different side of Mwanza. We ate hamburgers at the campus cafeteria; and they were pretty tasty! We waited about half an hour for our lunch to be served because they actually fry the hamburgers at the time they are ordered! What a concept! The burgers came wrapped in cellophane, so of course, I asked Sr. Adelina why. Apparently, there are big, black and white crows who feast on the leftovers of the students. If you leave your lunch unattended, even for a brief period of time, it will quickly get eaten by the crows. I witnessed it myself!
 

 

In September 1990, Pope John Paul II visited Bugando Medical Center. Pope John Paul II's tour during that time was focused on the sick of the world. Fr. Tony Gill, one of our S.M.A. priests, who currently resides here in Bwiru, was assigned to a parish in Shinyanga, Tanzania, during the time of the Pope's visit. Fr. Tony was able to com-celebrate during the mass with the Pope at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Epiphany in Mwanza. I was fortunate enough to have visited the Cathedral during my 2008 visit to Tanzania.

 

"This stone of foundation was put here for Holy Father John Paul II-Sept. 4, 1990"

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Epiphany

 

Altar where Pope John Paul II celebrated mass September 4, 1990



 











My First Weekend Visitor

Mama Rose


 

Cook in training

 

Mama Rose cooks every day for the SMA priests who live in our compound. She is very friendly and has agreed to help me, not only with cooking but with my Kiswahili. She is so patient with me with both the language and cooking. She talks slowly so I'm able to pick up what she's saying, which is most helpful! This past Friday, Mama Rose helped me create a tomato based gravy with cooked beef to serve over boiled potatoes. It was fortunate that we chose that day because my friend, Laurent Mwakakonyole called Friday morning and asked if he could come from Dadoma to Bwiru for a visit. I was so grateful that I would have a decent meal to serve Laurent when he arrived. One of the charisms of the Tanzanian people is their hospitality. I didn't want to disappoint my friend and not have a nice meal prepared. I knew Laurent had left Dadoma about 2pm, so I asked Mama Angela, the cleaning lady for the priests, what time she thought Laurent might arrive, given the amount of time it takes to travel that distance. She told me he should arrive about 6pm. I forgot that the Tanzanian people use a different way of reading time. When I talked to Fr. Tony that evening about 7pm, and explained that I was waiting for Laurent, he said he thought the arrival time would be much later than I was anticipating. You see, the Tanzanian people start counting the hours for the day when the sun comes up, so when the sun rises at 6am, it's 12am. So when Mama Angela said 6pm, she meant midnight in Tanzanian time! That had been explained to me a long time ago but I had forgotten. The meal that I had been keeping warm was transferred to the refrigerator to serve later. Laurent did arrive safely around midnight, after his 10 hour bus ride, and I was able to heat his dinner without causing too much damage.

 

The next day we climbed up the mountain behind my house to see "Jiwe Kuu". Laurent had only visited Mwanza once before so he didn't know much about the area. It was nice that I was able to be the one to show Laurent some of the sights in his country that he hadn't experienced yet.

 

 

 

After our visit to Jiwe Kuu, we took a dala-dala into the city. We visited a really nice Chinese restaurant named Yun Long. Laurent's favorite dish is fish. He said he could eat fish morning, noon and night, and preferred fish to Chinese food, so he ordered tilapia and "chips". I had sweet and sour chicken.

 

 

 



 

         View of Bismarck Rock from restaurant

Bismarck Rock

 

After lunch we did a little shopping and then back to the house. We watched a couple of movies and had a real nice visit. It was nice to be able to entertain one of my dear Tanzanian friends in my African home. In previous years, when I had met with Laurent in Tanzania, we were never able to spend much time together because of other commitments. This was a welcome treat! I look forward to future visits with other local friends.

FRENCH CHECKERS!

 Father Jean' Baptist, one of our S.M.A. priests (in green), the Catechist from the local parish, Venant (wearing blue), and Domy in white, the guard from our compound, were spending a leisurely afternoon playing "French Checkers". Fr. Jean' is from Benin, West Africa, which was a country colonized by the French. They invited me to play a couple of games, too. Rather than only use three rows on each side of the board, as we do in America, the French use four rows. When a playing piece is crowned king, the king is allowed to move diagonally across the entire row that it happens to be resting on, in a single turn, jumping over any playing pieces in that diagonal row. I also liked the design of the playing board.

 

 

International Language Training Centre

I began a Kiswahili language course at the International Language Training Centre in the city of Mwanza on 22 April, 2013. The course is taught by Salalah, a German woman who has been living in Mwanza since 1984. Salalah not only teaches the course, she gives all of the students who are enrolled in the Kiswahili course a tour of Mwanza. She showed me which local markets, restaurants, book stores, electronic shops, butcher shops and groceries stores were the best in the city. She also showed me a nice candy store and ice cream parlor. I really appreciated being given this opportunity by someone who knows the city so well. I will begin my second month of Kiswahili classes next week and things seem to be progressing pretty well. 

 

This stone crocodile is on display next to the school building. The chameleon sitting on the crocodile is real. There are an abundance of these little creatures running around all over Mwanza.

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!

 

View of Lake Victoria

 

 

I should begin by introducing Krystina. She was the Shaloom preschool teacher for the past two years. If you view the May 10th posting, she is pictured in the class photo between Rehema and me. Before Krystina left Mwanza to return to the U.S. she took me up the mountain behind our house to show me the spectacular view. We hiked up the rocky, narrow paths, passing a number of small homes along the way. When we reached the summit, the view was spectacular! It seems that most of Mwanza is rock. Everywhere you look throughout the area, you see rocks of all sizes. But this place was the most amazing! It's been named "Jiwe Kuu", which translates "Great Stone". It's such an understatement! I actually got lost walking around on the rock. It's actually a large number of huge rocks forming a multi-dimensional rock. A different view of Lake Victoria, and the surrounding villages, could be seen from each vantage point. A couple of the families who have homes along the path, who are friends of Krystina's, traveled along with us up to Jiwe Kuu. They are pictured here.

 

Mama Christina & her twins, Mama Dyness with her

daughter & another unknown local woman (I'm in the middle)



Mama Dyness with her three children

standing in front of their home

Another home along the mountain path

View from Jiwe Kuu standing near the edge

View of Lake Victoria & surrounding villages

Another village from a different vantage point



WELCOME TO MWANZA, TANZANIA!

Arrived in Mwanza, Tanzania on 15 April 2013!

• I am currently enrolled in Kiswahili language school.
• Plan to begin teaching at Shaloom Preschool in July.
• We have 21 eager students.
• The class is currently being taught by Rehema, the teacher's assistant, but a very capable teacher. She is a local woman and speaks the language well.

On the Home front

• My home away from home is very comfortable, and I share it with the chameleons!
• I have electricity, running water and a hot shower; which is a lot more than most of my neighbors!
• Right now we're near the end of the rainy season so it rains most every day, mostly during the night.
• The temperatures have been in the lower to upper 80's each day and quite humid. Looking forward to drier weather.