Mach 13, 2020
A day more than a month has gone by and I am reminded of
a saying I heard once long ago….the hurrier I go the behinder I get. Ha. The
past month and a half have been super busy and rushed and beautiful.
Soon after I got back from a beautiful time in Cape Town
(old and not so old friends and comrades—rereshing---still involved in trying
to make the world a better place little by little) I was off to Joburg and
Pretoria (Feb. 18 to 27).
Without going into
detail, a visit to the new Bishops’ Conference to visit old colleagues and in
general to see what is going on especially with J&P. slowed down because
less funds available for projects.
Mostly catching up with old friends whom I haven’t seen for years and
years, and families that I have shared life with and comrades from the
struggle, still struggling, trying to keep the dream alive. It was so soul
refreshing it was like a retreat. My spirit was soaring and my cup was
overflowing.
One dear friend
who has been hospitalilzed for most of the past 3 yrs. Had a setback and was
conscious and trying to follow as we prayed and shared thoughts, …she never
stopped fighting. What a courageous spirit filled woman. Her father-in-law,
whom I knew as Uncle Stan, the
grandfather of her kids, I discovered is a well know academic, studied in
various countries, including the States, has two masters degrees, and a list of
assignments, including at the UN, that boggled my mind. I never saw him in that
context . On top of it all, he is a graduate of St. Francis
College here at Mariannhill and couldn’t stop praising
Mariannhill. You might want to check this grandpa out on Google---Stanley
Skumbuzo Sangweni.Wow.
Another
discovery I made was that the son of a couple I married in exile in Zimbabwe
(the same day that Fr. Michael Lapsley had his hands blown off by a parcel
bomb, compliments of the apartheid regime) whose name is Kwezi, came up for
honoralbe mention with the family I was staying with in Pretoria. The mother
and father with whom I was having a meeting met the family I was staying with
and when the name Kwezi came up, the one family said, oh is that your son?
The family I
was staying with works for the university of Pretoria and the son of the other
family, Kwezi, was a student at UP and was the chairperson of the SRC (student
representative council) and had made it a point to de-politicize the SRC , so
that they were chosen not by their political affiliation (ANC, EFF. DA,
ETC) but by the students they were
representing. What it meant, in effect was that there was peace on their campus
when there was mayhem on other campuses. It was a delightful discovery and
brought two families that didn’t know each other before, together. I was
pleased, of course. We had many scintillating discussions into the night and
tackled most of the world’s problems, topic by topic. Ha. It was soul
fulfilling..
The day after I returned from Joburg/Pretoria, a friend
from Italy, Rome, had come and she wanted to do interviews with people regarding the post apartheid south Africa.
She was a member of a groups of Romans who were anti-aparatheid and I had met them way back around 1980 or so in
Zimbabwe. So I spent a lot of time sharing time with her and trying to organize
people to interview and it kept both of us pretty busy.
When she left to go back to Joburg for a month, I started
to catch up on a few things here. I am back to my routine of Masses: Mon. 5pm,
Sisters of Mother Theresa; Tues. & Thurs. 6am hospital St. Maryu’s; other
hospitals visiting the sick, etc.
I have had two
acupuncture sessions so far and it seems to be helping a bit, but not seriously
making a dent in the spasms. One more session this Saturday, the 14th,
and then I think I will drop it. I was hoping but…..
Anywy, that’s
it for now. I had a cold / flu, but with antibiotics it was contained within 5
days. No coronavirus.
If you need any information regarding the coronavirus,
you can contact Trump. He knows everything about it and tells all Americans how
lucky they are to have him running the country because America is the best
prepared of all the countries in the world and there is no need to fear. Test
kits, he says, are easily available.
With such heartening news I can say goodnight to all you,
my friends and loved ones, and will sleep well and have sweet dreams. Fr. Cas.
