November 23, 2017 (Thanksgiving Day)

I started updating my blog on the 21^st 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 25^th 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.

26^th, 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.

27^th. 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.

28^th. 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.

29^th. 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.

30^th. 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. 2^nd, 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.

11^th—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 12^th to the 17^th 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 4^th 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 20^th 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.