tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51305061195568174192024-03-13T14:47:58.956-07:00Fr. Cas. BlogFr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.comBlogger256125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-50178279955799994492023-01-22T06:09:00.002-08:002023-01-22T06:09:39.399-08:00<p> Jan. 29, 2023</p><p>Hi, everyone. Last Sunday, ajn 15, I managed to get up, take a shower, go down for bkfst and then come back to my room to get ready for Mass at am. BUt when I wanted to get up, I couldn’t. I had zero energy. I knew something was seriously wrong. So I waited till after Mss and phoned Fr. Ernest and aske him to take meto s hospital. ( I hane never been on lacking in energy. Among the test they did in Opd at Crompton hosp. in Pinetown, was an ECG/EKG that showed my heart was pumo\ping 50 times a minute and it should have been 70 times. They referred me to Westvillle to a Dr. Kude, cardiologist. Monday I was in High Care, Tuesday was the angiogram which showed that all my arteries are blocked.So he put on a pacemaker and gave some eds for anti cholesterol. I am AITINGG FOR AN APPOINTMENT WITH ANOTHER CARDIOLOGIST for second. We are also looking for a caregiver for me. So things are moving. A friend/comrade. Kanyo paid for it all so far from money hr got from a court case he took against guys who tried to cheat him. Hwas awarded R500,000 which he said will be for my health. </p><p> So now we wait to interview the caregiver snd the appntmnt for a 2nd opinion. The rest is up to you know who. My niece has offered and so have others to help with whatever finances are necessary. </p><p><br /></p><p>So thanks to you all for your prayers and support. Don’t stop now and I pray for you too, .everyone has </p><p>Something. God continue to bless you all, and me too.. Lots and lots of love straight from my heart.</p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-79459715293565721862023-01-22T05:58:00.000-08:002023-01-22T06:06:51.762-08:00Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-35124003657354924362023-01-06T05:55:00.001-08:002023-01-06T05:55:19.121-08:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Jan, 6, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I came across these items that I want to shre
with you as I think they are thought provoking<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Pope Francis’ New
Year’s message is absolutely brilliant..!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">*You can have
flaws, be anxious, and even be angry, but do not forget that your life is the
greatest enterprise in the world. Only you can stop it from going bust. Many
appreciate you, admire you and love you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Remember that to be
happy is not to have a sky without a storm, a road without accidents, work
without fatigue, relationships without disappointments. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">To be happy is to
find strength in forgiveness, hope in battles, security in the stage of fear,
love in discord. It is not only to enjoy the smile, but also to reflect on the
sadness. It is not only to celebrate the successes, but to learn lessons from
the failures. It is not only to feel happy with the applause, but to be happy
in anonymity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Being happy is not
a fatality of destiny, but an achievement for those who can travel within
themselves. To be happy is to stop feeling like a victim and become your
destiny's author. It is to cross deserts, yet to be able to find an oasis in
the depths of our soul. It is to thank God for every morning, for the miracle
of life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Being happy is not
being afraid of your own feelings. It's to be able to talk about you. It is
having the courage to hear a "no". It is confidence in the face of
criticism, even when unjustified. It is to kiss your children, pamper your
parents, to live poetic moments with friends, even when they hurt us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">To be happy is to
let live the creature that lives in each of us, free, joyful and simple. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">It is to have
maturity to be able to say: "I made mistakes". <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">It is to have the
courage to say "I am sorry". <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">It is to have the
sensitivity to say, "I need you". <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">It is to have the
ability to say "I love you". <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">May your life
become a garden of opportunities for happiness ... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">That in spring may
it be a lover of joy. In winter a lover of wisdom. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">And when you make a
mistake, start all over again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">For only then will
you be in love with life. You will find that to be happy is not to have a
perfect life. But use the tears to irrigate tolerance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Use your losses to
train patience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Use your mistakes
to sculptor serenity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Use pain to plaster
pleasure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Use obstacles to
open windows of intelligence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Never give up ....
Never give up on people who love you. Never give up on happiness, for life is
an incredible show.* (Pope Francis).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Apparently, the
White House referred *to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time
this year,* which prompted CBS presenter Steven Levy to present this piece.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The following was
written by *Steven Levy and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">*My Confession*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">I don't like
getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting
pushed around for being Christians. *I think people who believe in God are sick
and tired of getting pushed around, period.* I have no idea where the concept
came from, *that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in
the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat*...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Or maybe I can put
it another way: where did the idea come from *that we should worship
celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?* I guess
that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are
wondering *where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went
to.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">In light of the
many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, *this is a little different:
This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you
thinking.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">In light of recent
events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. *I think it started when
Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago)
complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.* Then someone
said *you better not read the Bible in school*... The Bible says thou shalt not
kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. *And we said
OK.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Then Dr. Steven
Benjamin Spock said *we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave,
because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their
self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).* We said an expert should know
what he's talking about.. *And we said okay.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Now we're asking
ourselves *why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from
wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and
themselves.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Probably, *if we
think about it long and hard enough,* we can figure it out. I think it has a
great deal to do with *'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Funny how simple it
is for people *to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.*
Funny how *we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible
says.* Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like
wildfire, *but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think
twice about sharing.* Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass
freely through cyberspace, *but public discussion of God is suppressed in the
school and workplace.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Are you laughing
yet?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Funny how when you
forward this message, *you will not send it to many on your address list
because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for
sending it.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Funny how *we can
be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of
us.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Pass it on if you
think it has merit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">If not, then just
discard it... no one will know you did. But, *if you discard this thought
process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.*<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">I decided to send
it on. *Will you?*u<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-73386512217474654622023-01-02T05:28:00.003-08:002023-01-02T05:28:58.127-08:00<p>Dec. 25, 2022 I</p><p> don't know what happened to the Christmas message</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><br /></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-13885084789320670472023-01-02T05:27:00.002-08:002023-01-02T05:27:35.780-08:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Jan 2, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Happy New Year. I am feeling very lethargic. No
energy to do even simple things. But I force myself. I have to keep up these
exercises. I feel that they are helping. I am still angry that my Christmas
message never made it. It just got lost somewhere. I also couldn’t send out the
Sunday reflections because it kept refusing to accept my email addresses. My
guru is working in that but I don’t know how long it is going to take him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In any case I pray for you all for a new year
with all the blessings you need to cope with whatwver is going to come down the
pipelinae at you in 2023. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-80713123203093873192022-12-25T07:20:00.001-08:002022-12-25T07:20:16.781-08:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Dec. 25, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I am going crazy with this new windows 11. It
has buggered up my whole system, addresses and all. And all the blog entries
sins June 14. I had a blog for today and it just disappeared, along with lots of
others. I hope my guru, Fr. Proud, an find them. They must be around somewhere.
Have a blessed Christmas season and a hope-full 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-54654150721268506172022-12-16T01:19:00.001-08:002022-12-16T01:19:17.212-08:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Dec,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>16, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have had 3 sessions with the physiotherapist,
KIARA, each time giving me another exercise to do twice a day, before she comes
back next time,,,,,,//Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8qm to 9 . Wonder of wonders, the
bowels have started to move again and some of the muscle in the left leg is
coming back. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
don’t know how many times I have started my Christmas letter and it just seems
to disappear and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t find it. So here
we go again. Let me put this in the blog before it gets lost too. Blessings on
you all for your love Nd support. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-41609662294415453242022-12-07T05:29:00.002-08:002022-12-07T05:29:59.939-08:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Good news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The new diet is working. I have had 2 BMs in the last 2 weeks. Hooray.
We are making progress. My niece also sent some money, so I made an appointment
with a physiotherapist to make a home visit for a reasonable charge, It seems
that the muscle in my left leg is disappearing because it gets no exercise. I
have to find some exercises to get it back again. I hope it is possible. I also
have to start my dear everyone Christmas letter, It all sounds so normal but I
can hardly walk now and everything has to be carefully preplanned. Lots of love
to you all and keep the prayers coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cas<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-54651868671634690332022-12-02T00:06:00.002-08:002022-12-02T00:06:13.363-08:00<p> <b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">DEC. 2, 2022</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Dr. Govender, in my meeting with him on Tuesday
the 29<sup>th</sup>, said I am malnourished and going down ….porridge in the
morning and soup<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>afternoon and evening
had me starving he said and the body was pulling energy to exist from the
muscles. ( half the calf muscles are already gone, ) and he prescribed for me a
whole new diet, something that is impossible at mariannhill<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1. Muesli every day<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2. 3 fruits every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>3. Drink 3 raw eggs a day (full of the
protein I need) 4. Lots of Greek salad<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>5. 2 litres of water every day,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>that , hopefully will get me up and back to normal. He himself ordered
some special protein drink cartons, and is trying to get me into a program
where I CAN GET HOSPITAL ATTENTION OR A WEEK, WHERE THEY WILL GIVE ME<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A DRIP WITH ALL THE NUTRIENTS NY BODY NEEDS,
He strongly hinted that I was on the way out. Wow. He scared me, but also
impressed me with his TLC, his PA, Melissa, is also, searching for ways to get
free care. Lots of people are trying their best for me. I am really touched,
moved, by their concern and real efforts to help somehow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
want to apologize too for 2 things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1.
I stole, borrowed money for this new diet fom the fund for the poor, I hope
that the donors will forgive me,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2. I
received so many birthday wishes and blessings that I am unable to answer each
and every one. I just say thank you to you all, and God bless you for you love
and concern and friendship. I thanked God for my 87 full years of beautiful
people (all of you), and look forward to more beautiful people in my 88<sup>th</sup>
yr, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Again, God bless you all and man many thanks for your love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cas<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-26297769942017279932022-11-27T00:51:00.002-08:002022-11-27T00:51:39.381-08:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Nov, 27, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It is a long story. I Wanted able to have a bm
for a long time till ai finally asked a friend to admit me to st. Marys hosp.
here at Mariannhill to have a professional give me an enema ( we tried many things
at home with practically no results. I had three strong enemas and again, no
results, finally was released to go to a doctor at another private hospital who
told me to take 4 sachets of picoprep (the stuff they ask you to take to flush
the system. Well, the system was flushed and the colonoscopy was a great
success….clean, clean, clen like a new born baby, even some technicolour pictures
of my innards. That was Thursday the 17<sup>th</sup> nov.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Till now , no movement….back to square one. St.
marys let me out on<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>passout to get the
report for the colonoscopy, which I did and I have an appointment with the
doctor who did the job to see where we can go from here. (I hope there is a way
forward without another colonoscopy, which I can’t afford). I will see him on
Tuesday, Nov. 29. Then back to st. Marys for follow up. A problem is that we
are mixing two unmixable systems….private and public hospitals …two different
systems. Private, good but way out of our budget, and public, good but slow and
free or very low cost. It was maddening and frustrating in st. Marys…no
internet…no communication with the outside world for almost 2 weeks. I will
only know on Tuesday if there is a way forward and what it might be. Keep the
prayers coming. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u style="text-underline: words;"><span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">icwhich I duid<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will let you all know what is and has
been happening if I have the energy. I haven’t had solid foo, with a few
exceptions, for over 2 weeks now. Only soup and mealie porridge, lots and lots
of water, some clear apple juice and black coffee or tea to drink. I lost lots
of weight<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I weigh 51 kg<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(about 113 lbs.) In 2018 my normal weight was
150 lbs, or 70 kg. If anybody of you wants to lose weight, I have the secret. I
will keep you posted when I get a chance, LOL and more,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cas<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-56294796916226035832022-10-25T07:28:00.002-07:002022-10-25T07:28:22.231-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Oct. 25, 2022</span></u></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I don’t knowhow time can go so fast. I wanted
to say for the whole week that a serious dent was made in our family when my uncle
cas (Casey) passed away just over a week ago. He ws the last of the 14 kid in
the Chmielewski family (Aunt Rose was the second last). It is hard to say who
was my favorite undle because there was not a bad one in the bunch, but maybe because
he was closest to me in age (of the 14) but I thin he was my favourite, that’s
why I took his name for my religious name. I think his kids and all us cousins
loved him a lot. He was just a good man. He was 96 when he died and I am 87,
just 9 yrs. difference. I admired him , among other reasons because he built
his own house, from digging the basement to doing the plumbing and electricity
along with the usual help from the local guys giving a hand…You know, put a cas
of beer out and a few snacks on Saturday and watch the house go up. That was
the spirit In those days….all the neighbors pitched in and helped each other.
Maybe it still works that way but it is long since I have been in the States to
notice. It still happens in the villages here in Africa but too many are becoming
westernized here too and people are getting more individualistic. But I sad
event <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sorry that it took me so long to
mention this sad event in our family history. To make it more totally relevant
for non-family members, he was one of my many great mentors. I wanted to be
like him. Let me put this in my blog before I forget for another two weeks. I
forget lots of things but I thank God that I still remember my name, and it is
not just….hey you. Ha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lots of love to
you all till next time the sprit moves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-49868133767265488152022-10-17T07:06:00.001-07:002022-10-17T07:06:42.327-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Oct. 17, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Let me just throw this little bit in while it
is fresh in my mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">You know , I said after a few days after the
failure of our hope at Luthuli, that I was down, down, down, down,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just a bit above depression. However, after a
few days I knew that it was not the end of the story. I don’t Have <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>clue what the end of the story will be, (maybe
it is my faith speaking now) and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God being the jokester that s/he is , something totally unexpected is going to pop
up and God will have the last laugh.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-68469337838048030602022-10-05T02:22:00.002-07:002022-10-05T02:22:11.770-07:00<p> <b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Oct. 5, 2022</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Picking up from where we left off at the
Luthuli hospital neurological clinic. While we were waiting to be called, I saw
that the clinic was full, mostly with mothers with children, mostly babies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I was parked in my wheelchair at the wall on
the left and I saw two mothers with their<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>1 yr. old babies opposite me and both babies had head as big as
watermelons. I felt so sorry of them (encephalitis) with their problems and
ashamed with my minor, non-life threatening problem.. At least I had time to
pray for them, to have the strength and love to be able to handle the daily
demands that these children will make on them. My partner, Michelle, was the
only white, besides me, but she had no problem communicating with the other
women and nurses in the clinic. To be like that in South Africa is rare and a
gift. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Finally we were called and were shown to a room with a junior doctor who
examined my case. First, he made it clear that they don’t do Baclofen pump
operations at Luthuli, although both Neurosurgeons (one a friend and classmate
of our family doctor and the other, the one who got us into Luthuli in the
first place whose children’s godparent is Michelle , who accompanied me both
knew that that is the reason we were going there and both of them were heads of
the neurological dept. in their time and one of them presently..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">the doctor made a few checks with my leg and
eventually wrote a report<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that made it
clear that the pump was not an option. He gave a form for another MRI if we
wanted to book an appointment for that. We were called to him just after 12
noon and left him, disappointed, about 12:30. So, that was that. I kind of
expected that but it didn’t really hit until Friday and Sunday when I really felt
down, as I said earlier. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I
Made the decision to put it out of my mind completely and just get on with life
without bothering<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>our friends
neurosurgeon friends any more as I felt that it wasn’t fair to stretch the
friendship any more than we already had. They had tried their best. So we just
let go and let God s the AA slogan goes, sure that it’s not the end of the
story and it will come one day as a surprise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
night I went to bed at 6pm and slept till 12 midnight, hade a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pee and went back to sleep till 5 am and
again till 7:30 and spent most of the day lying down, having no energy,
psychologically, emotionally, ;physically exhausted. The first time I slept
through the night I months, never feeling the spasms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">So. As for most people with problems that don’t
seem to be solvable, we just take it a day at a time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Nothing new for most of you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-57870974428639525742022-10-03T21:44:00.002-07:002022-10-03T21:44:19.478-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #CC0000; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Oct. 4, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have not finished what I
wanted to say abour my visit ti Lurthuli Hospital, but I just got busy. So here
is something to feed on in the meantime. See you later,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Sept. 26, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Well my thoughts revolve
around the failure to make any headway at the Luthuli Central hospital.. We (I
plus others)_ had hoped that we would have been given the ok to have a baclofen
pump installed, which would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have eased
off or eliminated the spasms. Bu we were told that there are no such ops at
this hospital any more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I had thought that I had
prepared myself d for a negative <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>response,
but I was emotionally and psychologically exhausted. Feeling down is the word. Not
quite depressed, but close. However. Let me explain a few things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Chief Albert Luthuli Central
Hospital is the highest you can go in hospital care. If you are referred to
Luthuli by another lesser hospital, and get oked by the staff at Luthuli for an
op, all is free. Cancer<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>heart,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>kidneys,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>etc. the best of the
best are here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">When you make the
appointment, you are given a number and a date. When you arrive on your date
you show the guard your number and he refers you to the next person. When he
sees your number, he checks his info and gives you another number which will be
called out and shown on a board as in air terminals. We ( a friend kindly
volunteered her time for the day with me---the one whose friend is the
neurosurgeon who arranged this appointment) arrived about 7:30am and our number
was called at 9:10am. We were told to go to counter 4. That is where the normal
information is taken that will be your file from now on. You are then given
your precious hospital card with your patient number for all future visits. We
were then sent to the neurological clinic full of other people and again you
hand your file over to one of the nurses and wait your turn to see one of the
doctors. We finally go called to see a doctor at 12:10 afternoon. So the wait was
from just about 9:30 to just after 12 noon<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Diana Ejaita for The
Washington Post<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/"><span style="color: white; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-subhead)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; text-transform: uppercase;">MAGAZINE</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-subhead)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: white; font-family: "PostoniDisplay",serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The Case for Leaving America to Escape Racism<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">As a Black woman, I
want freedom from oppression. So I’m finally plotting my exit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter">
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0">
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0">
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1">
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2">
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth">
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight">
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1">
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2">
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth">
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0">
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight">
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0">
</v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas>
<v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f">
<o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit">
</o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><v:shape alt="Image without a caption" id="Picture_x0020_22" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" style="height: 48pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 48pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">
<v:imagedata o:title="Image without a caption" src="file:///C:/Users/FRCASP~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg">
</v:imagedata></v:shape></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Perspective by </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/deneen-l-brown/"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">DeNeen L. Brown</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Reporter</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #1366B3; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">September 26, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. EDT</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-meta)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Listen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-meta)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">37 min<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-meta)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Comment<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-meta)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">84<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; padding: 0cm;">Add to your saved stories</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-meta)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Save<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-meta)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Gift Article<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "var(--wpds-fonts-meta)",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Share<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The mouth of the Volta River in Ghana seems to be swelling with the
stories of my people. By day, the river, black and thick, runs south, dumping
its fresh water into the Gulf of Guinea and eventually the Atlantic Ocean,
where it churns in a powerful vortex. By night, I swear I see the river reverse
itself, running inland, as if an invisible force were swallowing it whole. The
pink water lilies, with plump green leaves that floated south that morning,
appear to be moving backward. It is magical and mysterious. I’ve never
witnessed a river reverse course.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">I believe this river carries the stories of my enslaved African
ancestors who may have been transported down its waterway hundreds of years ago
into waiting boats anchored out at sea before making the transatlantic voyage
as “human cargo,” heading from this </span><a href="https://slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0109#:~:text=Gold%20Coast%20is%20a%20former,for%20gold%20that%20existed%20there." target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Gold Coast</span></a><b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> </span></b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">for South America, the Caribbean
islands and other parts of North America. As many as 15 million Africans were
packed in the belly of slave ships, often without proper ventilation or
sufficient food. It is estimated that up to 2 million died in the Middle
Passage, lost in deep-water graves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">My ancestors, though I do not know them, must have survived that
gruesome voyage, only to have to endure the barbarity of enslavement in the
Americas. As with many people in the African diaspora — scattered by the evil
of the slave trade, disconnected from our language, song, culture and people —
I am not exactly sure where my ancestors are from. Still, I know that my
distant ancestors are from this continent. As Peter Tosh sang, “Don’t care
where you come from / As long as you’re a Black man, you’re an African / No
mind your nationality / You have got the identity of an African.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/?utm_term=.8e6f47de200c&itid=lk_inline_storybox" target="_parent"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/?utm_term=.8e6f47de200c&itid=lk_inline_storybox" target="_parent"><!--[if mso & !supportInlineShapes & supportFields]><span
style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'><span
style='mso-element:field-begin;mso-field-lock:yes'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>SHAPE <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>\* MERGEFORMAT <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><v:rect alt="magazine logo" filled="f" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/?utm_term=.8e6f47de200c&itid=lk_inline_storybox" id="Rectangle_x0020_20" o:button="t" o:gfxdata="UEsDBBQABgAIAAAAIQC75UiUBQEAAB4CAAATAAAAW0NvbnRlbnRfVHlwZXNdLnhtbKSRvU7DMBSF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" o:spid="_x0000_s1026" stroked="f" style="height: 24pt; mso-left-percent: -10001; mso-left-percent: -10001; mso-position-horizontal-relative: char; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: line; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-top-percent: -10001; mso-top-percent: -10001; mso-wrap-style: square; v-text-anchor: top; visibility: visible; width: 24pt;" target=""_parent"">
<v:fill o:detectmouseclick="t">
<o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit">
<w:wrap type="none">
<w:anchorlock>
</w:anchorlock></w:wrap></o:lock></v:fill></v:rect></span><!--[if mso & !supportInlineShapes & supportFields]><span
style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none'><v:shape
id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:24pt;height:24pt'>
<v:imagedata croptop="-65520f" cropbottom="65520f"/>
</v:shape><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]--><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 1.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/interactive/2022/assimilation-chinese-names-asian-racism/"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 1.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/interactive/2022/assimilation-chinese-names-asian-racism/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">In December 2021, I jumped on an airplane to reconnect with the
continent — and to explore Ghana as a potential place to live and plant new
roots. It was a time when America seemed to be splintering, with state laws
banning the teaching of </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/05/29/critical-race-theory-bans-schools/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">critical race theory</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> — effectively, barring the teaching of historical truths — and
constant warnings about real </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/10/biden-us-historians-democracy-threat/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">dangers to democracy</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> and the possibility of a new civil war. Eleven months earlier, I
had watched as insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, scaling
walls, beating police officers with American flags, breaking historic glass
windows, bursting doors and trampling through a building </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/slave-labor-white-house-lafayette-square/2021/07/28/c64a8f9c-efd6-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">built by enslaved Black people</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">. Someone erected a gallows and noose outside. One man carried a
Confederate flag, a symbol of entrenched racism, through the halls of Congress.
The fight for racial justice seemed to be failing. The moral floor had cracked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Democracy appeared to be imploding, and the country seemed to be
increasingly dangerous for Black people — although racist terror was embedded
in the fabric of American history and is </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">not a new phenomenon</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">.<b> </b>In 1999, Amadou Diallo, a student, was shot 19 times by
four New York police officers who were then acquitted of all charges in his
killing. In 2006, police shot Sean Bell the morning of his wedding. In 2009,
transit police fatally shot Oscar Grant III in Oakland, Calif. In 2014, Michael
Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. Walter Scott was killed in 2015,
Philando Castile in 2016. In 2018, Stephon Clark was fatally shot in his
grandmother’s backyard. In 2020, George Floyd was murdered, and Breonna Taylor
was fatally shot while she slept in her bed. In Kentucky, Charleston and
Buffalo, self-proclaimed white supremacists attacked Black people in churches
and grocery stores.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">As a reporter for more than 35 years, I watched, researched and wrote
with a sense of journalistic distance while consuming the emotions of every
tragedy.<b> </b>Each video was so terribly sad. The 2019 police killing of
Elijah McClain in Colorado ripped at my core. I replayed the videos of McClain,
23, a peace-loving vegetarian who played his violin to shelter cats, pleading
for police to stop hurting him and to just let him walk home in peace. We
couldn’t walk the streets, drive, study, go to the grocery store or sleep
without fear of getting killed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">One night while on my trip to Ghana, my driver made a U-turn in traffic
and was stopped by a police officer. My stomach dropped. It was the middle of
the night and I was terrified. I watched as the driver got out of the car and
walked toward the officer standing on the side of the road. The driver motioned
to the officer, talking with his hands, explaining he was lost and apologizing
for making the U-turn. The officer listened. After a pause, the officer said,
“I forgive you. Go about your way.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">I want this kind of freedom: to live in a country where traffic stops
end peacefully. I want the ability to move among people who look like me. I
want to engage in intellectual debates </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/17/black-people-are-tired-trying-explain-racism/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">without having to explain the history of this country’s racism</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">. I know no place is perfect. But I want to live in a country where
racism is not a constant threat. Which is why I have decided to eventually
leave America. When or where I will go I can’t say for sure — but I am finally
ready.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 0%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Writer DeNeen L.
Brown at the former site of Fort Kongenstein in Ada Foah, Ghana, where enslaved
Africans were traded. (Courtesy of DeNeen L. Brown)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">I am not alone in my plot to leave the country where I was born in an
attempt to flee entrenched oppression. There is no official tally of African
Americans who have recently chosen to leave, but anecdotally there has been a
surge of interest in the topic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Looking ahead to the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first
enslaved African people on the shores of what is now Virginia, Ghana’s
president, Nana Akufo-Addo, issued a call to people in the African diaspora to
“return home” by visiting and moving to Ghana. “In the Year of the Return, we
open our arms even wider to welcome home our brothers and sisters,” Akufo-Addo
said in 2018 at the National Press Club in Washington, “in what will become a
birthright journey home for the global African family.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">For many, the death of Floyd in 2020 may have been a turning point. “In
the last two years, there has been a groundswell of Black people in America who
want to go to Africa,” says Greg Carr, a professor of Africana studies and
former chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University.<b> </b>“I
haven’t made the jump yet, but I’ve been thinking about it all the time. … I
would prefer to experience the full range of human experiences on the
continent, rather than put up with the default position in the United States,
where we are ‘othered’ and excluded from the definition of humanity. It is a
perpetual field of violence.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Celebrities have been part of this trend. In 2020, the singer and actor
Ludacris announced on </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B63U046lyaM/?hl=en" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Instagram </span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">that he had become a citizen of
Gabon, a country in central Africa. Actor Samuel L. Jackson also became a
citizen of Gabon after he took a DNA test that showed he was connected to the
country’s Benga tribe. “It was spiritually uplifting to connect with the tribe
and to look down and see my relatives and ... to be welcomed by some people
that looked at me ... like, ‘Come home,’ ” Jackson </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7H4GiWa-m8" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">told </span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">“The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah. In
2021, singer Stevie Wonder announced he was moving to Ghana. During an interview
with Oprah Winfrey, he explained that his decision was prompted by the recent
political climate in America: “I don’t want to see my children’s children’s
children have to say, ‘Oh, please like me. Please respect me. Please know that
I am important. Please value me.’ ”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs says it does not
keep track of the number of Americans who have moved out of the country. “U.S.
citizens are not required to register their presence abroad, and we do not
maintain comprehensive lists of U.S. citizens residing overseas,” a State
Department spokesperson wrote to me. “Estimates of U.S. citizens in particular
countries can vary and are constantly changing. We do not want to provide
figures that cannot be considered authoritative.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">But online, one can find growing communities that are sharing stories of
what they sometimes call the Blaxit, i.e., Black Exit. The YouTube
channel </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gue5XYgpMlA"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">GoBlack2Africa</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> has posted dozens of videos
interviewing African Americans who’ve moved to Africa. A video from </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLL1v645JSw" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">the African Web</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> YouTube channel titled
“Why Are So Many African Americans Moving to Ghana” has been viewed over 217,000
times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">In 2021, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/MrTimSwain/about"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Tim Swain</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">, a poet and educator who moved from
Indiana to Ghana, told the YouTube channel </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10uGVHDXV0" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Odana Network</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> that the first time he visited
Ghana in 2007, he was transformed “as a Black person.” Then in 2014, he went to
join peaceful protests in Missouri after the police killing of 18-year-old
Michael Brown. The attacks on protesters left him shaken. A few months later,
he traveled to Ghana again. “It was like this juxtaposition of America where I
am feeling like the bottom of the bottom, reminded every day that I’m a Black
person that is a stain on the fabric of America,” Swain recounted. “I come to
Ghana where I literally exist as a human being. I have no conscience about the
color of my skin. … Every time I came to Ghana it became literally harder and
harder to return to the U.S.” After about two years of planning, he and his
wife moved to Ghana in 2019.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Rashad McCrorey, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqob_1znSgc"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">who owns a
travel company that organizes tours to Africa</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">, told BNC
(“</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAPlkRGvp4_JnsIyOJmpgDg"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">America’s Black News Channel</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">”) that he
was traveling in Ghana in 2020 when the pandemic hit the United States. He
decided to stay. “It’s been an amazing experience,” he said. “In America, we
deal a lot with racial oppression, [systemic] oppression, whether it’s red
lining ... the prison industrial complex. But what I appreciate most about
being in Africa is that I just wake up every day and being a man.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Winthrope Wellington, 38, who runs Throp, a </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELCl88w2kYtsRFeqD0nB9w" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">YouTube channel</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> that highlights economic
business development in Jamaica, has interviewed African Americans who have
recently moved to the island. Wellington — whose father is Jamaican —
permanently moved from New York to Negril after college. Last year, Wellington
interviewed Rahel Teklegiorgis, a guest at his family’s hotel who decided to
move to Jamaica from Philadelphia during the pandemic. “As a single Black
female ... I felt welcomed. That’s the beauty of the culture here,”
Teklegiorgis told Wellington. “Wherever I go, they’re like, ‘Empress!’ It’s
just a beautiful thing to feel welcomed and valued and held up. ... It’s like a
breath of fresh air. ... I would encourage folks to just try it. Take the first
step.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">After he posted the interview, Wellington noticed a theme in the video’s
comments. “I realized there was an underground movement of people asking, ‘How
can I, as a Black American, move to a country where I don’t feel oppressed and
automatically judged by my skin color?’ ” Wellington told me. He added that during
Donald Trump’s presidency, “people were driven to my channel. People were
looking for a way out.” He also noted another element that may be a key driver
of the trend: In the age of remote work, people can choose to live abroad
without quitting their jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">And yet, people have also been making this choice since before the
pandemic and George Floyd and the upheavals of the Trump era. Mark E. Blanton,
53, a former U.S. Secret Service agent, and his wife, LaTasha R. Blanton, 44, a
doctor of physical therapy, decided to move from their home in Virginia to
South Africa after visiting in 2011. “We saw beautiful homes, luxury homes,”
LaTasha told me of her first visit to South Africa. “We saw Black people
holding positions.” It made her think of all the work she had put into her
career in the United States without ever really feeling as though she had quite
arrived. In America, she recalls, “I checked all the boxes they asked me to
check: Go to school, get a degree and at the end you would have a life where you
don’t have to worry as much. But it was never that.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">In 2018, they moved, resolving that “we should live out the rest of our
days around people who think like us, look like us and feel the same way we
feel about our accomplishments,” says LaTasha. “When I first arrived in South
Africa, that is when I realized I was living.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Mark and LaTasha now own the </span><a href="https://therealsouthafrica.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Real South
Africa</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> tourism company, which is based
in Johannesburg and introduces visitors to life in the country. They have seen
an increase in the number of people booking tours. For many, the trip is an
experience that shifts their inner core. When their airplanes land, “everybody
says they felt something,” Mark told me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Whenever Mark has to travel to the States, he sobs on his return flight
to South Africa. “It’s the feeling of freedom,” he explains. “I don’t want to
let it go, even for a moment. I love my freedom. I truly do. You must
understand the experience on this side as an African American. … A lot of
African Americans are figuring this thing out. That is the biggest draw. They
are getting their freedom.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-48543511678302219612022-09-01T06:44:00.000-07:002022-09-01T06:44:09.687-07:00<p> <b>S</b><b style="text-align: justify;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ept. 1, 2022</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I just received the latest
newsletter from the Denis Hurley center and ai am always inspired by the work
that they do and the projects they support, churchy and non-churchy. Here is
one example that couod be a challenge to some of you who read this blog. You
probably read about the devastating rains that hit our province in South Africa
that left already very poor people with literally nothing (some even lost their
llves)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: white; border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-left: left; mso-table-lspace: 2.25pt; mso-table-rspace: 2.25pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%px;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 2.25pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">RE-IMAGINING THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH AFTER THE FLOODS</span></b><b><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 7.5pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="height: 7.5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 2.25pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-line-height-alt: .75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 1.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 1.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 2.25pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">In early
August, we hosted an invigorating discussion looking at issues of ‘spatial
justice’. The event – entitled “Homes, buildings, land & space:
Re-imagining what churches & Christians have done and can do in the wake
of the Easter floods” – was convened by the Diakonia Council of Churches with
our own Stuart Talbot leading the discussion alongside Caroline Powell who is
based with The Warehouse Trust in Cape Town. (Caroline recently worked with
our Director and others on a book called ‘Facing Homelessness’ which </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://2auws.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/cl/f/hX8sqSrBQEDpJorruh7Y8bhaLhsDqsfijaSv35Bo_PsiHGOkzZGbiuTO3YFP7ioFw41qOTQoFmrIAVvuewqfeIB7cqjS3Ehtkoh6mJ11PuEnty0Xf5_7Dm1ID7ObYisNhGHRN-hfWxhg9CRfYlK3GRLr2eXqchGNKuBAKof0vApDlX-44sFU_U77GLnx_7lcNEMkxhJd0VYCu7yvxJNEh6lm-22CaIRpPAUKJPw6Ujgc2Wtpy6d6JA" target="_blank"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">you can access here</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">).</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 2.25pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The horrific flooding in the KZN Province in April 2022, which
left many in the metro and beyond traumatised, was the context for the event.
Four months on and we are still living with a massive housing crisis. Too
many people are still stuck in community halls or living in unsafe premises
after their homes were destroyed. And, as in many instances, it is the
poorest and most economically and socially marginalised who were the hardest
hit; shacks built on steep hills, settlements with no running water built on
riverbanks for ease of access and so on.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 2.25pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We have seen, before our eyes, how poverty, injustice and
inequality have led to real disparities in how the floods impacted different
people – and in turn whether they have been able to rebuild. And all this
when we are already facing challenges of spatial justice: homelessness is a
situation faced by more and more people in our city; land (and who does or
does not have access to it) is a fraught debate in South Africa; and
shack-dwellers are regularly marginalised and victimised through forced
removals and harsh treatment by officials.<br />
<br />
Given this situation, the day was spent considering: “What is the call to the
Church in this context? As we partner with God in the work of redemption and
‘making all things new’, how could we reimagine our role? And how could we
reimagine what we can do in the wake of the floods and our on-going need for
safe and decent housing?”</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 2.25pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In the morning session, we took a deep dive into scripture and
looked at how it can help to shape, inform and expand our understanding of
spatial justice – and in turn how this can inform our action and direction of
travel as a church. We did this using the Contextual Bible Study methodology
pioneered by the Ujamaa Centre at UKZN <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">(see photo above)</span></em>. For the afternoon session,
we held a discussion where we shared stories from around the country around
space, housing, homelessness and land. This session was a chance to locate
the ideal of spatial justice in the South African story and to look at how
the Church is and could be addressing spatial injustice.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-80771149487711085442022-08-13T02:42:00.000-07:002022-08-13T02:42:05.950-07:00<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">August 13, 2022</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I was just reminded today that
I AM ALREADY 87 AND WILL BE 88 IN November. Holy Moses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I happily received visitors
from Pretoria twice this month<b><u> </u></b>both of them couples that I
married some years back. Nice to see that the glue is sticking. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>had
a trip to the dentist to do something to kill the pain. He fixed a filling and
now all is well. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have been trying to
monitor my meds but I am confused because one day they work fine and the next day
I am up the whole night with spasms every 20 or 25 seconds until I fall asleep
again. I don’t understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the 26<sup>th</sup> of July we jubilarians celebrated different things…for me it was 26 yrs. as a priest. Where did the time go???<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had signed up for a winter school on
racism, but had to cancel because it was too complicated to get transport at
the times for going and coming and also I don’t think I could sit still so long
without having to have a pee and the toilet is faaaaar. Here at home I just use
the portable urinal. I would never survive going out any more unless there is a
toilet nearby. Ha, but don’t laugh. Your time is coming, but I hope not too
soon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are working on getting me into Albert
Luthuli Hospital for a Baclofen pump operation. ALH is a government hospital so
the govnt pays. We can’t afford a private hospital. Please pray that it works out..
It is kind of complicated but our home doctor’s classmate is in charge of the
neurology dept. at ALH. And specializes in brain surgery and things related to neurology.
Fingers and toes crossed wrapped in lots of prayers.The thing about a Baclofen
pump <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(]which is put just under your skin
near the tummy) is that it pumps the meds straight up to the brain because it
is injected into the spinal fluid with<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> a </span>small pipe. I understand<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that
it stops the signal from getting out which is much better than trying to deal
with the spasm that is being buzzed by the signal. You know what I mean?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went to the traffic dept. to pay for the
yearly car registration.. you get a small disc that the traffic cops look for
to see it you are legally driving. We left here at 10:45 and were back at 11:15. Wow. lots of ubuntu.....treating people like human beings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I distributed lots of the money that you
sent to help people and they send their sincere thanks. Food, rent, medicine,
transport, repairs to the house after the devastating rains, school fees. Etc.
We were untouched but just nearby it was terrible. Some lost everything and
they didn’t have much to begin with.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well. That’s all for now. We continue to
pray for each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Whoever said that getting old
was not for sissies spoke a deep truth. Ha. But it has its ups too especially
for grand;parents with their grandchildren. Lots of love as always.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cas<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-68096652169987146442022-07-16T01:33:00.001-07:002022-07-16T01:33:13.154-07:00<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">July 16, 2022</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I am losing track of time
here. already July is rushing to its conclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have Sia It already many
times that when someone says how are you doing, they don’t really want to know
but it is just a sign that they love and recognize you. You are nor just a lump
or dried cement on the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But, on the other hand if
they know you are having serious challenges to your health, they really want to
hear if you are making any progress or what else is going on so here it is<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">These spasms are really
interfering with my quality of life.. ai had to give up driving because I can’t
trust what my left leg is going to do. If I had an automatic transmission I
could still continue because all other things are working all well. But <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have been taking some
gabapentin….tablets in the morning and afternoon, which seem to ease up the
spasms but they stilll come more or less every every 20 seconds . And at
night<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I take half a rivotril pill (.5 mg
in half) but powerful. It even makes you sleep. Than I tried, twice the whole
pill and at 3am I found myself spasming not just in my left leg but my whole
body was tensed up tight so I stopped and went back to the half tablet. But
last night I woke up at 3am and the spasms started immediately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was painful and I had just had a wee and
really didn’t want to get out of bed. It was 17C. in the house and 9C outside
my window. But eventually I had to get up and take something called tramolta,
to calm down the pain but because the spasms kept on, I couldn’t fall asleep
and eventually got up and took a gabapentine tablet which seems to calm down
the spasm and eventually I fell asleep again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Since we have been having
serious electricity shortages with so-called load shedding, Br. Albert has had
his hands full with generator which was repaired after a long time and is
supposed to kick in when the power from the mains goes off that he had to top
the physiotherapy, so I haven’t had physio (except the exercises that I do
myself every day) for about 6 months now and I felt that the hamstring muscle
was going back , slowly, to it original short position which<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>would pull the leg up into a 90% position. So
I booked a session witih a physiotherapist to find out if<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that was true and while she was having a look
at my knee<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it showed her how it works by
starting its every 20 second rhythm. Fr. Ernests was also there so he also saw
what I have been trying to explain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Her advice was to get a bean
bag that you could heat up in the microwave and place it under the knee and get
someone from the monastery to come and press down on the knee 3 times a week
and it would not get the leg straight again but would stop it from getting worse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I don’t remember if I told
you this already, but, kind of the last resort was something called a Baclofen
Pump. What they do is put a needle in your spinal cord and shoot this baclofen
in where it goes straight to your nerves and is supposed to stop the spasms at
the source, where the signal comes from to go into spasm. They put a small pump
inside you somewhere that squirts this stuff in you 24/7SO YOU GET REIEF FROM
THE SPASMS. I hope. Anyway, it is too expensive and op for us to pay for so the
hope is that I can get a referral to Albert Luthuli hospital (where all the
experts are)and then the govn’’t pays. I that can happen (fingers crossed and
lots of prayers) I can go ahead and have this op there. If not, I don’t know
what..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It is more that 3 yrs. since
it started after the knee replacement and the spasms seem to be getting more
aggressive especially when I get up in the morning and before I go to bed at
night. Even with the walker, I can hardly walk. I refuse to think of a wheel
chair because I think that for me it would be going backwards. Then my legs
would alwarys be in the 90% position and my hamstring would be happy and would
get shorter again which is what we are trying to avoid. I use my elbow crutches
mostly outside the room and the walker inside the room. I can still take a
shower, wow), I can make my bed,, etc. etc. But I wonder how long. And then
what??? God will have to provide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I see the neurologist on
Aug.1<sup>st</sup> and he will talk to his friend about getting me into A. L.
hospital for a free op.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It seems that they have a
trial run before they go for the whole op by injecting a little baclofen into
the spinal cord an checking how it is working . If it is working then they go
for the whole op, So now you know you know ‘how are you”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Otherwise I am fine and healthy. My mouth
works well at the dinner table. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I know that some of you
have<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>even worse or more challenging
;problems and I really have n right to complain or moan, so I just join with
you and pray that God brings you some comfort and healing, even if it is only
inner healing. (as I am sitting here typing, I can feel the spasms and as soon
as I get up they will grab me and try to show me who is in charge. Ha. Don’’t I
know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I think that this is enough
for now., so I will say till next ystime (auf wiedersehen). I pray that you all
stay well and in God’s good graces and S/He doesn’t mind being reminded that
you need help and support from God, even if it is every day,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">As always, lots of love. I
am richly blessed having you as loving family and friends. Peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cas<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-38139759840790980872022-06-26T05:13:00.001-07:002022-06-26T05:13:15.441-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;">June 26, 2022 </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have to record this before
it goes out of my head. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Yesterday I had visitors
from Pretoria….a couple I married 12 yrs. ago (the glue is not only still
sticking but it is getting more solidified) and the mothers of the then bride
and groom (two old gogos---grannies, roughly my age) still in pretty good
shape, from what I could see) and the first son, now 11 yrs. old.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It was a delightful
afternoon When the wife asked what time they should come, and after gauging the
time from where they were staying, I said “How about 10am?/<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said, they are gogos, they don’t get up
till 10. Ok, I said, make it 2 or 2:30 pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Better. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">They brought some coffee,
tea and coffee along and left some irresistible chocolate sweets.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">We reminisced about the old
times and mentioned the names of people who touched our lives then. I mentioned
that I had to give up driving because I nolonger had total control of my left
foot, but I would be able to drive an automatic car because I could do that
with just the right foot. ( I am dreaming of someone who wants to get rid of
his/her automatic or would be willing to trade my beautiful 2005 Hyundai Atos
with their automatic. I can dream, can’t I<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The time went so fast,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>too fast. Next you kknow it was almost
5pm, time for supper. I was soooooo happy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Can’t wait for the next
visit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But I Realized that I have
been institutionalized……I would have trouble organizing a cup of tea or coffee,
sugar and milk ( I could easily do that in my own house, if I had one,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I get up at 5am now, because mass is at
7:30 and breakfast at 8am, after mass. We have a timetable and a schedule which
is necessary in our situation. In the old days, at my mission, I could
re-adjust the schedule and organize things as I liked. Of course, there are
also advantages,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we re cooked for,
rooms cleaned, laundry done , etc. so I am not complaining just remarking. Anyone
who would like to make me a gift of a small automatic car, I wouolf be glad to
indulge you and you could be sure of many, many prayers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I slept happily through the whole
night, getting up to pee only once. Very unusual. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Baneli changed my sheets for
me, and I have put on an extra blanket as it is getting winter cold here now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I am going to bed earlier
and earlier these days but lately, it has been between 8 and 8:30pm. It is
getting harder and harder to get up in the morning to a cold room<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(it was 14C in my bedroom this morning and 9
C outside on our veranda. Remember this is Durban, supposedly
semi-tropical,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ha, long gone, climate
change has arrived with force. This will be a busy week. I will explain later.
As John Lennon once said, “life is what happens while you are busy making other
plans. Peace and love till we meet again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-27266256663487982322022-06-18T00:06:00.001-07:002022-06-18T00:06:30.978-07:00Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-7085927350738540582022-06-14T05:49:00.000-07:002022-06-14T05:49:08.374-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">June 14, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Wow, how the time has flown. I can’t believe
that it is over a month that I have put anything in my blog.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Well, here goes. The meds that are supposed to
be quieting down my spasms seem to be encouraging them. They still haven’t been
able to find something that will do the job. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two years
ago, an offer was made to install in my body a Baclofen pump, to inject the baclofen
directly in the spinal cord so that it goes straight to the nerves. But it was
so expensive that I turned it down them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that
things have not improved at all, once again this suggestion was made, but with
an offer of trying to get me into Albert Luthuli hospital, the best of the best,
as a kind of charity case where everything would be paid for. These are the experts
in all the various fields. Maariannhill nor I would agree to spend the money it
would cost if we had to pay, but if the bid to get me into luthulli would succeed
I would accept gratefully. The after care would be about the same as the
expense of the meds that could be discontinued (refilling the pump, someone to
do that, etc.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shall see. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I think that I have finally accepted that I can’t
trust my leg to drive any more so I will simply ask for lifts (ugh) but the time
has come finally. The spasms seem to come every 20 seconds or so, some s\stronger
than others, and they last longer and are more painful.I wish I could go back and
undo the knee replacement, but too late for that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A more humorous but also serious thing is my
bladder . I used to see the Urologist once a year to make sure that my prostate
was clean of cancer. Then for about<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a
year and a half I didn’t go any more. I used to wonder why he kept asking is I
was incontinent. Ha. I saw him 2 weeKs ago and told him, yes, incontinent about
5 or 6 times<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a day. The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>problem is I am on crutches and can hardly walk
now. I have<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a portable urinal that has
been my salvation. I am trying to learn my signals. Can I wait a bit or must I
move NOW, NOW. If I don’;t read he signals right and wait too long, it could be
and has been disastrous. I don’t think I could ever be embarrassed any more.The
Urologist thinks that there is a link, nerves-wise , between the nerves causing
the spasms and the ones controlling the bladder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Neurologist decided to look again at the
3 MRI’S to see if they missed something and to even get another kind of outside
opinion who is also knowledgeable to have a close look and hope that he can see which
nerves are sending those sisgnals. I hope they can be found too<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Aside from that , two especially happy occasions
took placed…..one of our Mariannhill priests was just made the archbishop of
Durban and another one (our our former superior general) was just made the
bishop of Kokstad, a neighboring diocese. Greata rejoicing. Visitors from all over.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Nice to see old confreres from all over the
world. And all of us old timers, seeing our dreams coming true, all the
youngsters taking over where we left off and continuing the work, some of them
being made bishops and leaders of our Mariannhill community. We can say “Nunc
dimmitis servum tuum domine…” Now you can take me home Lord….I have done what
you asked me to do, so I can go home now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I get invited out from time to time and they
will pick me up and bring me back and I keep in touch with Savannah Park
through the Pillay family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Our friend and dear brother who has been helping
us for the past several years from the Durban diocese has been called back to
his home diocese. We are grateful for his faithful help during the past years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">That’’s enough for now. Let me see if I can
think of other things<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-21105914209357004482022-06-04T10:28:00.000-07:002022-06-04T10:28:02.637-07:00<p> Sorry, I let more than a month go by woth laziness taking over, but I will try this week to do better. Come Holy Spirit, I need your help and enlighenment. Always with love, and asking for forgiveness. Peace.</p><p><br /></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-69115748307972821242022-04-26T02:20:00.001-07:002022-04-26T02:20:27.066-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #CC0000; line-height: 12.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: white; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Finale. Prestissimo<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #CC0000; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/epg.html#schedules"><span style="background: white; border: solid white 1.0pt; color: #cc0000; mso-border-alt: solid white .75pt; padding: 0cm;">Programs</span></a></span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/podcast.html"><span style="background: white; border: solid white 1.0pt; color: #cc0000; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: solid white .75pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; padding: 0cm;">Podcast</span></a></span><span style="color: white; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t"
path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75"
alt="A woman in a drenched raincoat walks past the Quarry road informal settlement outside Durban. "
style='width:522.75pt;height:294pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:/Users/FRCASP~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg"
o:title="A woman in a drenched raincoat walks past the Quarry road informal settlement outside Durban"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img alt="A woman in a drenched raincoat walks past the Quarry road informal settlement outside Durban. " border="0" height="392" src="file:///C:/Users/FRCASP~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.jpg" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_1" width="697" /><!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: white; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">A
woman in a drenched raincoat walks past the Quarry road informal settlement
outside Durban. (AFP or licensors)</span><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; text-transform: uppercase;">AFRICA<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 38.25pt; margin-right: 2.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #373737; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/taglist.paesi-e-luoghi.Africa.Sud-Africa.html" title="TagList for "South Africa""><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; text-transform: uppercase;">SOUTH AFRICA</span></a></span><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 38.25pt; margin-right: 2.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #373737; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/taglist.cultura-e-societa.ambiente.html" title="TagList for "Environment""><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; text-transform: uppercase;">ENVIRONMENT</span></a></span><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 38.25pt; margin-right: 2.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #373737; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/taglist.cultura-e-societa.societa.societa-civile.html" title="TagList for "Civil Society""><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; text-transform: uppercase;">CIVIL SOCIETY</span></a></span><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 38.25pt; margin-right: 2.25pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #373737; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/taglist.chiesa-e-religioni.Magistero-pontificio.laudato-si.html" title="TagList for "Laudato Si""><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; text-transform: uppercase;">LAUDATO SI</span></a></span><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 34.5pt; margin-bottom: 18.75pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Museo Sans Cyrl",serif; font-size: 31.5pt; letter-spacing: -.55pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">South Africa’s floods: Neighbours have been helping neighbours.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: #646464; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">South Africa’s Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of
Mariannhill, Neil Augustine Frank, O.M.I., has described the recent floods in
South Africa as “sad and depressing.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Paul Samasumo – Vatican City.</span></b><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">South Africans are still coming to terms with last
week’s devastating floods. Amidst the bleak news from the flooding, the Bishop
has also spoken of heartening stories of neighbours reaching out to help
neighbours.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Museo Sans Cyrl",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Over 4000 homes destroyed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">It has stopped raining in South Africa’s KwaZulu
Natal. People in the province are beginning to process what happened to them
after a week of relentless rains that destroyed more than 4 000 homes leaving
thousands of families homeless. The death toll stands at 448.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Museo Sans Cyrl",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">A bleak Easter <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">For many residents of this coastal region, it was a
bleak Easter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">“Attendance was very poor because many people were
cut off. People couldn’t reach places of worship. In Mariannhill Diocese,
people couldn’t reach the Cathedral,” said Diocese of Mariannhill Diocese
Coadjutor Bishop Neil Augustine Frank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">He added, “Many people have lost their lives. Some
families are desperately mourning, having seen their loved ones washed away by
the floods. I have not seen bodies recovered, but some people are still
missing. It is a very sad, depressing situation. Homes have been swept away or
practically destroyed in the floods. There have been landslides,” Bishop Frank
said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Museo Sans Cyrl",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Waiting to bury loved ones<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The People in the Mariannhil Diocese are waiting
for the waterlogged cemeteries to give them a chance to bury the dead, said
Bishop Frank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">“One of the greatest needs now is the burial of
loved ones,” said Bishop Frank. “The burials can’t happen right away because
the land is still soaked with water. We have to wait a while. Many people have
lost everything, and as a Diocese, we have to find funds to help people
supplement what they have and what they might receive from the government for
proper burials,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Museo Sans Cyrl",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Affordable, stable housing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">On Monday evening, South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster. The floods, in a way, bring to
light continued widespread inequality in South Africa, especially in the
housing sector. Most deaths and destruction happened in informal settlements
where people live in shacks due to a lack of affordable, stable housing. Many
people just can’t afford stable housing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Some people may not have lost homes, but their
houses have become uninhabitable, said Bishop Frank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Museo Sans Cyrl",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Neighbours helping neighbours<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">“Some homes may still be standing, but these
houses’ foundations have been compromised. The people have to leave them. They
may still have some possessions, but since they are displaced, there is a need
for mattresses, clothing, and in many places also for food. Fortunately,
neighbours are taking care of neighbours, and that is what we preach in Church.
To see this preaching happening in reality, to see it now, is encouraging. It
is a sign of a Church that is working well. Various families are also responding.
In some places, the municipal government structures are working. In some
municipalities, these structures are not working as well as they should,”
explained the Co-adjutor Bishop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">“Caritas South Africa has given us some funds for
us to respond as a Diocese. We are supplementing. We cannot do everything. We
have to see ourselves as working with others. Other NGOs and the government are
doing great work here,” said Bishop Frank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Museo Sans Cyrl",serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">South Africa needs a new resurrection<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">As communities now turn to bury the dead and the
arduous work of cleaning up and rebuilding, Bishop Frank hopes that some
lessons will have been learned from the tragic floods.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #E9E9E9; line-height: 21.0pt;"><span style="color: #373737; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">“We cannot go back to building houses on sand – I
say this literally and metaphorically. We thought that our resurrection was in
1994, but we have been disappointed. We must start again,” said the Mariannhill
Co-adjutor Bishop as he referenced the end of the apartheid government in 1994.
Many had hoped that the new democratic government of South Africa would usher in
a period of economic emancipation for the country’s poor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-47180167705014716252022-04-16T04:07:00.002-07:002022-04-16T04:07:37.441-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">April, 16<sup>th</sup>, 2002<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It is hard to think positive here in KZN after
so much loss of life and damage and so many having lost everything.. But at the
same time it is heart warming to see how many have pitched in to being help and
comfort to those suffering. The Holy Spirit is at work, for sure. But much more
needs to be done, as in Ukraine and all those other places of great suffering.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">April 13, 202<o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
forgot to mention yesterday that the spasm in the left leg can be very vicious,
at the same time the leg is very weak and can’t be depended on for putting any
weight on since It will just fold up and you will fall if you can’t find
something to support you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Last night the electricity from our engine went
out and stayed out….bad sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>engine has been running most days and nights
since the rain on Monday. It has been raining, and raining and raining, so much
that I thought I saw the ark outside my window. Ha. Many mud slides and damages
to houses and floods. There has been almost no traffic as most roads have been
closed since bridges or parts of roads have been washed away . One of our
workers ha of her two rooms washed away with all their clothes , blankets, etc.
Fr. Tom Szura, luckily, jest sent some money to help people like that. But I
still have no internet (I am now used to internet banking) and I am not able,
easily, to go physically to the bank. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I</span></u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> will try the atm, but I
must hurry since it will be soon empty so soon before Easter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">That’s it for now. I will try again tomorrow.<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-73830277826391818682022-04-12T02:15:00.006-07:002022-04-12T02:17:25.010-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;">April 12<sup>th</sup>,2022</span></u><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">April 12<sup>th</sup>, 2022</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Well. It is 3 weeks since the Botox injection and this what I have
experienced so far. The firs few days there was no noticeable change..Then
change began to take place but not as I had wished or expected. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The spasms began to be more frequent and stronger, more aggressive.
If I had to wee during the night,<u> </u>the spasms accompanied me while I peed
and even sometimes interfered with me while peeing, as the left leg would go
into a spasm lifting the leg up forcefully sometimes causing the urine to go away
from the portable urinal which I have been using because it takes me too long
with the crutches or walker to make it to the toilet on time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
portable urinal has been my salvation in my two rooms (office & bedroom).
When I am lying in bed or sitting at my desk, the spasms come about every 20
seconds, small ones, and only every once in a while a bigger one, stronger and
even from the toes all the way up to the hip and across the back. One gets a kind
of signal that it is time to pee and if you don’t move quickly enough your have
a problem. Part of the problem is that just then your leg will go into a spasm
and it won’t let you put your foot down on the floor. ,You may have to try 2 or
3 times before you manage to get the leg from the position that it has brought
the leg up to a 90% spot, and, in the meantime, the urine is not waiting. If you
don’t manage to get the urinal on time, some of the urine is already coming and
sometimes it is a lot and they you have to do some cleaning up and maybe even change
clothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I
sometimes complain loudly to God, God says you see that man over there, he can’t
even get out of bed, or that one over there in the wheel chair, with his hands
curled up. He has to be lifted out of his wheelchair. Would you prefer that?
Then I keep my mouth shut.But although I am still not happy, I can still take a
shower (even though even there the spasms come with me there), and I can get dressed
and even put my socks on…and I can still drive since the spasms don’t bother me
while I am driving. (My physiotherapist said that most of his patients can’t
even get out of bed.) I only drive to
the pharmacy to get my meds or to the supermarket to get a few things.A friend
takes me to my doctor’s appointments because it is too far for me to get from
the parking to the office in the hospital. A friend who usually come with him
will find a wheelchair so that I don’t have to walk all that way with crutches
of with the walker.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I was advised to continue my medication and my
physiotherapy (it was too expensive to continue with the professional physiotherapist,
so Brother Albert from the monastery comes to me every day, faithfully, to give
me my physio at 2pm. In the meantime I have been doing a lot of reading and checking
the news on the internet either on my computer or on my cell phone. Sometimes,
like now because of the constant rain, there is no internet.Quite often the
electricity goes off (usually so-called load shedding) but we have a stand by
generator so that we still have our own electrici<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
other day I drove my self to the barber shop for a haircut (it’s not far) and often,
on Sunday for lunch I will go up to the Pillay family (our church leaders) for
lunch and to ask how things are going at Savannah Park. It’s nice to get out of
the house once in a while.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> From
time to time a friend will come to visit or to take me out for a lunch and that
also breaks the monotony.. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We don’t
do much talking at the table in the dining room mostly because just abut
everyone is deaf and you wind up shouting to be heard, so its better to just
eat and be quiet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I
thank you for your prayers and ask you to continue as I still have hope that
this Botox will do its thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It is very expensive and a cousin in the US has
promised to help.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The injection is
supposed to last for about 4 months and then you need another one. If it gets
to be too expensive we just stop. In spite of the spasms that accompany me
whereever I go all day long, I am happy to be alive and still of sound mind,
more or less. Ha.</span> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">since the Botox injection and this what I have
experienced so far. The firs few days there was no noticeable change..Then
change began to take place but not as I had wished or expected.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></u><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;">The spasms began to be more frequent and stronger, more aggressive.
If I had to wee during the night,<u> </u>the spasms accompanied me while I peed
and even sometimes interfered with me while peeing, as the left leg would go
into a spasm lifting the leg up forcefully sometimes causing the urine to go away
from the portable urinal which I have been using because it takes me too long
with the crutches or walker to make it to the toilet on time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
portable urinal has been my salvation in my two rooms (office & bedroom).
When I am lying in bed or sitting at my desk, the spasms come about every 20
seconds, small ones, and only every once in a while a bigger one, stronger and
even from the toes all the way up to the hip and across the back. One gets a kind
of signal that it is time to pee and if you don’t move quickly enough your have
a problem. Part of the problem is that just then your leg will go into a spasm
and it won’t let you put your foot down on the floor. ,You may have to try 2 or
3 times before you manage to get the leg from the position that it has brought
the leg up to a 90% spot, and, in the meantime, the urine is not waiting. If you
don’t manage to get the urinal on time, some of the urine is already coming and
sometimes it is a lot and they you have to do some cleaning up and maybe even change
clothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
sometimes complain loudly to God, God says you see that man over there, he can’t
even get out of bed, or that one over there in the wheel chair, with his hands
curled up. He has to be lifted out of his wheelchair. Would you prefer that?
Then I keep my mouth shut.But although I am still not happy, I can still take a
shower (even though even there the spasms come with me there), and I can get dressed
and even put my socks on…and I can still drive since the spasms don’t bother me
while I am driving. (My physiotherapist said that most of his patients can’t
even get out of bed.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I only drive to
the pharmacy to get my meds or to the supermarket to get a few things.A friend
takes me to my doctor’s appointments because it is too far for me to get from
the parking to the office in the hospital. A friend who usually come with him
will find a wheelchair so that I don’t have to walk all that way with crutches
of with the walker.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;">I was advised to continue my medication and my
physiotherapy (it was too expensive to continue with the professional physiotherapist,
so Brother Albert from the monastery comes to me every day, faithfully, to give
me my physio at 2pm. In the meantime I have been doing a lot of reading and checking
the news on the internet either on my computer or on my cell phone. Sometimes,
like now because of the constant rain, there is no internet.Quite often the
electricity goes off (usually so-called load shedding) but we have a stand by
generator so that we still have our own electrici<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
other day I drove my self to the barber shop for a haircut (it’s not far) and often,
on Sunday for lunch I will go up to the Pillay family (our church leaders) for
lunch and to ask how things are going at Savannah Park. It’s nice to get out of
the house once in a while.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
time to time a friend will come to visit or to take me out for a lunch and that
also breaks the monotony.. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t
do much talking at the table in the dining room mostly because just abut
everyone is deaf and you wind up shouting to be heard, so its better to just
eat and be quiet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
thank you for your prayers and ask you to continue as I still have hope that
this Botox will do its thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="tab-stops: center 261.65pt;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black;">It is very expensive and a cousin in the US has
promised to help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The injection is
supposed to last for about 4 months and then you need another one. If it gets
to be too expensive we just stop. In spite of the spasms that accompany me
whereever I go all day long, I am happy to be alive and still of sound mind,
more or less. Ha.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5130506119556817419.post-64708336127619841102022-03-24T10:17:00.002-07:002022-03-24T10:17:37.206-07:00<p> <u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Mar 25, 2022</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">To continue the story, they went off to a
safari to a game reserve for a few days and when they cam back, I took them
for tour of the Mariannhill complex (3
schools, hos[ital, nurses training , cathedral, guest house, retreat house, carpenter
shop, metal work shop, printing press, tailor shop, and several other small
shops, 2 convents, orphanage, graveyard, soya farm, etc. a small city. The monastery was built in
1882. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Then we went for lunch to El Arish , a local
restaurant that serves a variety of dishes, but specializes in curries and sea
food ( from the Indian Ocean). That was Friday the 18<sup>th</sup> and on the
17<sup>th</sup> they were given a look at some or the local villages in the
rural area.(by my friend Jama). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">On Friday afternoon, after lunch, we had a bit
of time together and a chance to say goodbye since they would be leaving the
next day, the 19<sup>th</sup>, Saturday. It was all too quick, but I really
appreciated that they took the time to come for a visit, even though it was
short, and Katrina had other friends that she wanted to visit, that she knew
from the year she was a volunteer here. parting is always such sweet sorrow<u>
2<o:p></o:p></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Things went along normally till the 12rh of
March. That is the day I have been waiting and longing for months. It was the
day when I would meet , my niece, Ann,…. My niece, , a medical doctor… and her
daughter, Katrina, my grand niece….who spent a year as a volunteer at our
orphanage home, some years back, and her
new husband (married in Dec. last year), Chase ( I really like him), and David,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ann’s husband….all 4 are paying me a visit and
looking around, here and there in South Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It was
enjoyable just to be in their company and it became even more enjoyable when
Katrina announced that she was pregnant. Wow. What great and beautiful news.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">
While they went off to do some more visiting with Katrina’s friends,
they dropped me off at home. I had had enough excitement for one day, and
although I went to bed early, I couldn’t sleep, I think because I was still too excited.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The next day was Sunday, (I’m sorry but something happened to shift
things around and I am too lazy and scared to try to correct that and make it
even worse) and they came and picked me up and we went off to Savannah Park to
my old community for a lovely Zulu Mass.I sat with them in the back and only
read the gospel in Zulu and listened to Fr. Des. Who has been helping since I
was no longer able to do it. The reading for that Sunday was about the
Transfiguration, when Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain to
experience the divine side of who he was, since all they knew of him was his
human side. Of course, their minds were blown when he was transfigured, big
dazzling light and all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But what struck me was the juxtaposition of
Transfigure and disfigure that he brought out in his sermon…..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">e.g. during Lent while we try to get ourselves
in shape for Easter, what we are actually doing is trying to get the sins out
of our lives, the things that dis-figure us, and try to get back to the Jesus
who was transfigured and who came to live in us when we were baptized. I
thought that was a cool way of explaining sin, a disfiguring of the
image of Christ in us. Then we went up,
after Mass, to spend some time and have an early lunch at the Pillay’’s ( Mike and Anneta who look after our church
stuff, Mike also being the leader and
organizer of the community. Mike is Indian but leads a 98% Zulu community. Netta would be classified as a “coulered”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I had an appointment with the neurologist on
Wednesday the 23<sup>rd</sup> and there, after much discussion, we booked a
date for a Botox injection for next week
March 30<sup>th</sup>. It is not only for wrinkles, which I don’t have,
but also for muscle control…..I think it is my hamstring muscle that has been
driving me crazy (every time I get up from a sitting position or from the bed,
it goes into a tight and painful spasm. It will cost <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">R6 000 (In dollars , at the present
exchange rate it would be about $89.00 , good for 3 months, then another
$89.00. One of my cousins near Washington DC promised to help and I also ask
others if they can contribute, it would be a great help. Otherwise we would
just have to forget it. It is an injection into the muscle. I am anxious to see
how it will work. I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying like mad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Well, that’s it for now. I feel kind of ashamed
to get this injection because I know that none of my parishioners could afford
it. But I am hoping that it may allow me to go back to Savannah Park on Sundays
again….I hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">We
are all praying for the people of Ukraine. Putin now joins the monsters like
Stalin and Hitler and others closer to home here in Africa. Dare I not pray for
his conversion and change of heart, as impossible as that seems? Lots of Love
to you all.
</span>Fr. Cas. Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04979574953053850151noreply@blogger.com0