November 23, 2017 (Thanksgiving Day)
I started updating my blog on the 21st and
got almost finished a day later when, by some freakish thing, I deleted the
whoooole thing. Ugh! So I am starting all over again. Can you imagine starting
thanksgiving day by updating my blog.
Oct. 24---I started my trip to Mthatha with several
tasks in mind. Fr. Macarius backed out at the last minute because he feels more
and more unsure of himself as his eyesight fades. On the 25th I saw
Nomaza, NOmonde’s daughter, who has started a school for the autistic. She had
a sheaf of papers to fill in applying for help from the government and asked
for help. Holy Moses. You would almost need a lawyer to go through all that
stuff. Then it was off to Landsend to bring a lot of (a whole trunk full of)
used clothes, some still brand new. She was happy. Also saw Sinovuyo, the
tailor, who is happy as his business in doing well, he feels. Next, friends
Sandra and Phemeza, working for Mike McNamara, who helped Guy a lot. Sandra
even bought a ticket for the dinner dance to raise funds for a new church at
Savannah Park. Visited Graeme who collects the rents for our project at Bedford
who explained some of the ups and downs of that job but now most of the flats
are occupied. Hooray. He also gave me a give of some wild game meat (which is
being prepared as I type, for a Thanksgiving surprise at our table. It will be
a mince curry for lunch and some sausages for breakfast. We are spoiled).
We had a home blessing for one of our friends who had
been our insurance broker for many years. Nice family.
26th, Visit to the sisters CPS and a trip
to Sabelani Home to tell Mona that because of his continued drinking the
bursary will be canceled. He has been given a new start so often and lots of
money has been wasted on him when he continues to go back to his drinking
again. Also visited Nomanyano, an activist in the local parish and saw the
parish priest for about 10 seconds as he was just off to say mass for the
sisters. Then had supper with Liz and Raj, old friends from way back. Raj now
has his PhD and has been promoted at the university.
27th. Saw Sr. Nokwanda, teaching nursing at
the school where Mona was to go. She pleaded for him and said that all had
already been paid for for the whole year by Fr. Winfried, so I had to relent. I
will have to tell Mona that he has been given yet another reprieve, but
Fr.Winfriend will cut off his bursary and supplies if there is the least reason
to do so.
28th. The BOM meeting (board of management)
at Sabelani Home. Big discussion about what to do about the money from a grant
that Fr. Guy had organized before he died. How it is to be used, and that it
must be faithfully reported on, openly and transparently, every penny. It was
decided to take on 5 new boys to live in the house and be mentored by those who
are still there and to find five young women and see how they can be helped,
but without living at the house which is only for males. We will see, after
Christmas, how that is going. I joined them for supper after the meeting and we
had a toast to the ancestors to close the day (Uncle Jack Daniels). We also had
some ordinations of new deacons that day but because of the importance of the
BOM meeting I was unable to attend.
29th. I left Mthata at 4 :30am to get back
to Mariannhill in time to do a lot of things. I stopped to see Fr. Kim at
Coolock house, our retreat house near the sea, and had breakfast with him and
discussed our formation program for our young members in training. I spent the
afternoon and evening pushing tickets for our dinner dance and wound up having
supper with friends Ernest and Mala, who also bought two tickets.
30th. I had decided to have a wheel
alignment for the car since it hadn’t been attended to since after the accident
and repairs. Ha. When I checked to see if I had used any oil for the long trip
to Mthatha (it is only a 1.1 litre engine, and I don’t slouch) I discovered
that the oil cap was missing. So that gave me another important thing to do for
the day. The same day, Rose Mene, the wife of Wally Mene, an environmental
activist who passed away suddenly, came to ask if I would take a service for
him at their home with mainly members of the family and some close friends. She
had been told to ask me by a friend from the Grail, a group that tries to
uplift women wherever they are. I surely agreed. It was Monday and it was to be
on Wednesday.
Nov. 1—Most of the day was taken up for the memorial
service for Wally. He was well known as a passionate defender of mother earth
and was an intrepid foe of all who would dare to desecrate or abuse our
beautiful mother earth. It was a pleasure to be able to lead such a meaningful
service. He didn’t belong to any church but was a deeply religious person, as
is his wife Rose, who is the CEO of Biowatch here in South Africa.
Nov. 2nd, of course, all Souls day, so we
remembered all of our deceased relatives and friends. ( I still have Mass every
morning at St. Mary’s hospital, even though it is now a government hospital. A
few nurses come in the morning at 6am. Sometimes they are quite late but I
still give them communion because it is not their fault. They have to depend on
public transport and that means you just have to wait. It is no like just
jumping into your car when you feel like it. Again, we are spoiled.
Nov. 3 We held
a bigger service for Wally at the Botanical Gardens in Durban where members of
many organizations were present that had worked with or benefited from the
wisdom and support of Wally. Several organizations were given the opportunity
to pay a tribute to him and I was asked to say a prayer (many people are not
church goers but are deeply religious) and the service was closed by Toko
Makhanyo, a now retired member of the Grail, who also knew and benefited from
Wally who gave a final blessing.
Nov. 6--- a visit to Dr. Khewa to get help with a very
itchy rash on my left upper arm. He decided that it is an allergy of some sort.
Gave me stuff (ointment and lots of pills). It is gone now. Thank the Lord.
Nov. 7---Class with the novices. The Spirituality of
Justice and Peace. A power point
program. One of them fell asleep. What does that tell me? I have the novices
for all of November on Tuesdays. This was the first class this month. Hmmm..
Nov. 9—visited a friend at Parklands Hospital. She had
just had a hysterectomy and the removal of a cyst that had caused here to fill
up with liquid, 8 litres. Wow, that’s a lot. She was still in ICU. I noticed an
African lady in a bed across the aisle who looked in not too good shape so I
went over and prayed for her in Zulu and she responded, expressing thanks for
the prayers. I mean, what else was I supposed to do.
Nov. 10---After breakfast I took one of our house keepers
to a school for kids with special needs. She wants to see about getting her
child in. It is quite far and out of the way. I don’t know how, if the child is
accepted, the child will find transport to get there. After that I visited an elderly lady
(Indian—95 yrs. old) the granny of my eye doctor, who thought that it was time
to anoint her as it looked as though she was not going to make it. However, we
found her bright and chipper. The only problem was that her hearing is about 1%,
so you have to shout into her good ear. Not too good for conversation. Lots of
hand signals. We prayed but no anointing.
On the way back I stopped at the Catholic schools
office to greet people. Lourdes, the secretary, has had both breasts removed
because of cancer and is really down. Hard to think positively. Lionel, the
director, reminded me that I was on the roster for next year to give a workshop
on Laudato Si again. I can pick the date that suits me. I am sure that there
are other workshops waiting in the wings.
11th—I finally got around to making my
financial report. Each month I make a copy of my income and expenditure and
give it to Br. Tendayi, our bursar, along with the bank statement. He handles
my pension money. If he thinks I am squandering
money or misusing it, he can let me know and make me pull up my socks. It is
usually between $200 and $400 a month, most of it being for petrol as I move around
a lot.
I also made photocopies of my The Joy of the Gospel
presentation to be given to the Novices for reviewing later and also gave them
a few other handouts regarding J& P.
Nov. 16---This was the day when the fund-raising team
got together to see how far we had gotten with the tickets and what had to be
organized for the night of the dinner dance. Mark, the owner of the venue, and
the one who is sponsoring the whole thing, said that there would be a full
complement of 250 people. At R150 a person, That’s R35,700. He is putting it
all in the kitty for the future church. He is very generous, as are all those who
are offering their time and their skills, as well as some financial help.
I spent a good part of the week, from the 12th
to the 17th going around and collecting for the tickets that were
still outstanding. I got them all before the meeting. I had sold 41 tickets.
One of my doctor friends also kicked in R500 as a donation towards our new church
( We need about R900,000.00 at present rates, which comes to about
$65,000---can you build a house, much less a church, for $65,000 these days.
But, I am sure that by the time we have enough money to begin the project, it
will have gone up to over a Million Rand. Will I ever see the day when the church
will be completed…. Only God willing.
It was also a good week in that I was able to track
down people in the States, in Germany, in Switzerland, in Zambia and Zimbabwe,
since I had lost information when everything was stolen. Hooray for making
fresh contact.
Nov. 21---I had to get Br. Tendai to help me to get
the DVD, An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore regarding climate change, able to
see and hear it. I was able to get the picture going but couldn’t get sound. He
solved the problem by organizing the TV room in the monastery that has a
machine that takes DVD’s. I still want to know how to get sound out of the
projector I was using.
Nov. 22… This day was the funeral of Sr. Kathleen, a
wild Irish Cabra Domincan with whom I lived and worked together with her colleague
St. Carmel, in Tsolo for several years. It was a great experience and
adventure. Among other things, they wanted to be independent so they were
teaching the taxi drivers who wanted to finish grade 8 at night, and I was the
one, when they were teaching (from 8 to 10 pm on certain nights), to cook the
supper. It was total teamwork. One day someone came and wanted to talk to the “superior”.
We looked at each other and asked “are you the superior”. Ha. No superiors or
inferiors in our house. May the Lord give her a warm welcome and a place of
peace.
Nov. 23---today is Thanksgiving Day in the States. I
announced that at Mass this morning at the hospital, and invited them to give thanks
for whatever they felt they needed to thank the Lord for. After Mass, I visited
a sick man, Mr. Malinga, and anointed him with the sacrament of the sick. He
has 4th degree cancer and needs a bit of help and encouragement to
get out of his negativity. I had, earlier, gone to the store to get a cake and
some ice cream, for our Thanksgiving lunch. Then I went to the home of Mala
Gabriel, to whom I had brought what I thought was a roast of some wild beast
that had been given to me by a friend when I was in Mthatha. It turns out that
it was mince (hamburger) so she made a mince curry. Delicious. I picked it up and brought it back home in
time for lunch. It was a hit. Between the Mince Curry, the wine, the cake and
the good company, I can say that “ a good time was had by all.”.
I just finished printing out the handouts for next
week of Laudato Si and have now almost finished the entry into the Blog. I
always wait too long.
In between, I have Mass every morning, except Saturday,
at the hospital, and bring communion to the sick there in the hospital as well
as, on certain days, to sick people in their homes, who can’t make it to church.
I do a good bit of visiting in between time and am busy every Sunday with one
or two Masses, usually in Zulu. I also help out at different parishes sometimes
during the week and on Saturday nights or later on Sunday. I also had a service
on the 20th of November at Diakonia, an ecumenical group trying to
respond to needs in a Christian way, as, for example, when people were experiencing
Xenophobia and being attacked by stupid South Africans (I say stupid because it
is the people in the countries who are now exiles in South Africa, who helped
us and gave us a place to stay and helped in many other ways and this is the
gratitude we give to them). I keep in touch with Diakonia, because I want them
to know that the Catholic Church gives them full support. I first met them in
1967 in Durban.
But that is more than enough for now. I am getting
ready to hit the sack. I have a Mass a the hospital at 6 and another at 9 in
the Pinetown Parish, so I want to have a look at the Scriptures to see what
they are telling me for tomorrow.
I hope that you all also had a good thanks giving if
you follow the American custom. Love and peace, And good night. Cas.
