Dear Everyone,                                                                                                                         April 24, 2014

Well, Easter is over, come and gone and it has been, for me, a busy time but also a time or deeper reflection especially watching the so-called “faithful” who were attending the services, knowing that each one had his or her own personal problems and challenges in his or her own life and were looking for strength and help in order to deal with them in a good way, as it were, in God’s eyes.

     On Holy Thursday I washed the feet of a Zulu man who was in a wheelchair and another Zulu patient who was mobile but hospitalized. I knew that they were thinking of their families and would have longed to be anywhere but here in the hospital, but…. I am sure that they never could have dreamt that they would see the priest up close and personal like this, an umlungu (white man) on top of it, washing their feet. Holy Moses, what is the world coming to. Then there was an off duty nurse (also Zulu) and two sisters, one Zulu and one German, both nurses at St. Mary’s hospital. It has been my custom for many years now to wash the feet of 3 men and 3 boys (males), and three women and three girls (females), so it was nice to know that the Pope and I are on the same page in that respect. I don’t know if the patients were catholic or not but I am sure that God was not in the mood for making fine distinctions that evening. It was a good reminder of what the world needs, more than the symbolic washing of each other’s feet, but really taking time to help one another in our various needs according to our abilities.

    Then, Good Friday, we made the stations of the Cross, e.g. the imaginary way that Christ walked on his way to his cricufixion at Calvary. There are 14 stations, the first one being that Jesus is condemned to death by pilate. Each station has a short reflection and a prayer. This particular way of the cross, as it is also called, was trying to look at this way of the cross through Mary’s eyes, Jesus mother. How would a mother feel if her son, whom she raised as a child, and who had always been a good kid and a good grown man as well, going out of his way to help and heal people. How could they do this to my son, you could imagine her saying. An how many mothers are doing exactly the same thing today in so many countries where there is so much violence and where the youngsters are caught up in it, often just because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I won’t go through all the other stations but they end with Jesus being taken down from the cross and being put in her arms. You can imagine her grief and sorrow. And, once again, how many mothers who have been given the bodies of their children who have been shot dead by the police or eliminated by some gang because he was out of his territory or whatever. Jesus suffers and weeps with those mothers because he surely loves those kids as much as or more than the mothers. Gives lots of things to think about how Jesus still suffers and is crucified in so many situations of violence and injustice in our own time.

     Then, as usual, we had the normal service for Good Friday, which mainly focuses on the passion, which is usually read by several people who are then given time to reflect on what this willingness to die on Jesus’ part meant for us. How can one miss the point that “there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.”

There is more to it but that is the main part.

     Then comes Holy Saturday sliding into Easter Sunday (He is risen). I took the car to a friend who helped to clean up the headlights which were clouded over by some junk and then it was easier to see when the headlights had been cleaned up. I still don’t like driving at night because the lights from the oncoming cars really blind me, but if I don’t have to go too far and the street is more or less lighted up, I will chance it.

     In the evening I was told we would start at 9pm with Imvuselelo, (wake). I was there at 8:40 and looked around to see if the wood for the Easter fire was there and ready, but nothing. So I just waited till about 9:30 and then asked again and was told that, actually, the service would start at 12 midnight. OK. So I went back home for a bit and came back and then we had a lovelly, happy, joyful celebration of Easter. Hope. Joy. Everyone has his or her problem that s/he is battling with and it is just a reassurance that no matter how impossible the situation may seem, like after Jesus death on the cross, all hopes crushed, there is still and always will be hope. By the time we finished and I got home and into bed  it was 3:30am.

       Sunday was spent visiting friends and EATING all kinds of foods and goodies, and discussing life and the world situation, etc. etc. etc  Just nice socializing.

      On Tuesday I caught a bus and went to Mthatha. I rode with another friend, Theresa, Chisanga, the head of the English Dept. at the University in Mthatha. (WUS—Walter Sisulu University)/ She was up in Durban to assist her daughter wiho had just given birth to her first child. We chatted and dozed. (You see what a normal like I live!!!) I re-connected with my own community there and it was nice. Between the time I arrived on Tuesday afternoon and left on Friday morning, I had given two haircuts (not much hair for us old timers any more), I visited Bedford and checked out things. Made contact with several people to wish them happy Easter and to reassure them that they are not forgotten and abandoned. But the main thing was a meeting with the trouble shooter from Eskom (Electricity suppliers). We have been trying to solve our problem with them for at least three years now and always there it a hitch. Well, I think that we finally succeeded in moving in a forward direction. We also had a long and fruitful discussion about the situation of Fr. Guy and our unhappiness with the response or non-response of the church and the authorities of Mariannhill for resolving his problem. There will be forward movement there too but it will not be so nice.

    The ride home (back to Mariannhill from Mthatha—just over 300 miles) was uneventful. Fr. Malinga, a friend, came along and I dropped him off at his place, went to fill up the vehicle I brought back for the use of the Superior General when he comes, with petrol and got home just in time to try to get on the internet by 4pm only to find that I couldn’t get a signal no matter what I tried. Very Frustrating. I finally managed by changing to another sim card but it was also unsatisfactory. Here I am this morning and I have now given up getting a signal and am finishing this blog which I started yesterday, the 25^th. I will try again later in the day when I go to town where I know that I can get a signal. I have a mass this afternoon for a young lady who is graduating. So that is about it for now. Never a dull moment. You can go back to sleep now after reading this long and boring epistle. Cas    

Blog

I can’t remember the last time I blogged but it is the morning of Good Friday and I am preparing the service and some thoughts for the Good Friday Service in Zulu. Hmmm! (In Zulu it is Black Friday). I think that everyone has a time in their life when everything looks black or bleak, hopeless, whatever. Jesus had his moment too. He had made up his mind to face it and deal with it and , in the end, things got turned around and here I am and here you are, survivors of whatever had pulled us down in what we thought was hopeless.

     I have been busy helping the people that God put in my way to find the right people to help them , whether it be doctors or mechanics or sources of help of one kind or another. I know a lot of people and can refer and even take those who need help to those people. I am blessed.

     A friend has been helping to get my vehicle in shape.  He fixed the thermometer that wasn’t working. He checked the cam belt to make sure that it was not going to break, which would be a disaster. He fixed th e turn signal so that it shuts off  by itself and tomorrow, Holy Saturday morning , he is going to clean off the inside of the headlamps which has become discolored so that it doesn’t let much light through.

     Yesterday, I found that I had a puncture (someone taped a note to the boot—trunk—to warn me. I pumped the tire up and went to the tire place only to find out it wasn’t a puncture, I needed a whole new tire. The wall of the tire was damaged and couldn’t be repaired .. That was R1000 and really eats into my budget.

     In the meantime, besides doing a lot of reading, I have been trimming the hedge and removing branches from the palm trees that are partly blocking the driveway and carting the stuff away so it gives me a chance to get some exercise.

     Next week I will be going to Mthatha by bus (about 500 km.) to bring back a vehicle to be used by our Superior General when he arrives at the end of the month. He is doing his canonical visitation, going from one member to the other in our province to hear their stories, good and bad. He will take about three weeks. In the meantime, I have been invited to Zimbabwe for about 10 days and will have a chance to visit friends in Harare and Bulawayo that I haven’t seen for about 10 yrs. including my home boy Fr. Andy Heier. It will be nice.

    When I get back , we will have a meeting with the whole province (of Mthatha)  and the general and plan the way forward.

     In the meantime, the Fr. Guy case is always on the back burner. When and how will it be solved—who knows.

Dear Everyone,

    Yesterday was a very important event in our Mariannhill history. We buried a 94 yrs. old veteran of the school of old missionaries. He was a character, full of life and jokes and fun and at the same time deeply serious about making Jesus real to the people who were under his care as their shepherd.

     It was said that once he came out here to South Africa, which was, if I remember rightly, shortly after the second world war—he never returned home to his native Switzerland. He was a once off and when God made him, it seems, he threw the mold away, as they say.

     It was inspiring to hear about him and it gave an impulse to my own determination to be faithful to my calling and never to ease up as long as I live.

     Otherwise, I have still gladly given my self to looking after my confrere, Fr. Macarius Haeusler, who is back for a while from him parish in the North of Zambia. He successfully passed the 3 week checkup after his prostate operation, and the last thing on the list is a visit to a specialist eye doctor who can give him an injection into his eye (ouch!) to prevent the macular generation from destroying more of his eye nerves. He is already blind totally in his left eye and has very, very limited vision in his right eye. It is so limited that after our eye doctor, Casandra, checked out various ways (like magnifying glass, etc.) to enhance his vision in that right eye, nothing worked. So he has to just carry that cross.

    I have been going pretty regularly to a new and growing parish at a place called Savanah Park. I think that we hit it off with each other and I don’t mind at all whenever they ask for a visit from me. They are very kind to overlook my poor Zulu but I think that they still understand what I am trying to say.

     I would have lots of work to do in getting some order in my files but I have been too lazy to do that. The days go fast enough but the nights, from after supper ( a break from about 6pm to 7pm-and, after the news from 7 to 7:30pm) till bed time at about 9:30 or 10pm consists in doing a lot of reading, some heavy and some novels, especially by the priest novelist Andrew Greeley. John Grisham is another favorite.

    Anyway, I am preparing for a visit in just over a month to friends in Zimbabwe. I should start packing now so that by the time I leave, I will have cut down to only those things that I really need. I don’t like to wait till the last minute.

     So, there you have it. I am gradually adjusting to the slowed down life and am at least content for the time being. I would like to look for more, but I am sure that things will evolve.

   Catch you later. Fr. Cas

Saturday March 8, 2014

It's almost a month since I looked at my blog and lot's has happened since then. As you may recall, everyone laughed to hear that Cas was going to be without wheels. Ha! That's impossible. But I was prepared for this. However, it was not as simple as that. But, actually, people, beginning with my Provincial, Fr. Guy, were very understanding and helpful. Fr. Guy said that he would release the Astra (a 2003 model) for my use here at MD (Mater Dolorosa--mother of sorrows, ugh!)
    However, again, when I tried it out after going back to Mthatha to meet my niece and her husband, Ann and Dave, I noticed that the temperature gauge wasn't working so I left it in Mthatha till it got repaired. In the meantime, after my lovely family guests departed, some friends, Classina and John Powell, said that I could use their Tazz (Toyota) while they were away in Mozambique and it came in very handy;
   But before we get into that, the time with Ann and Dave was great. The rural areas, villages, people in Transkei, Mthatha meeting the community, Port St. John's and the beautiful wild coast and friends Dr. O'Mahony and his wife Mbuyi. Durban, Retreat house for lodging, Hluhluwe and Mfolozi game parks for two days and two nights where they saw myriads of wild animals including most of the big five, as they say, except a Leopard (sightings are very rare) and Hippos. They saw gobs of Rhinos and elephants and Giraffes and Water Buffaloes, etc. Dave is an amateur photographer and he thought that he was in heaven. I think that he took at least sixty zillion pictures. We met many families as I wanted them to see who my " family" is here and they were anxious to meet my "home family". The last night before departure we went to the Roma, one of those revolving restaurants where you get a chance to see all of Durban and the seafront with the ships waiting to come into the harbor. The next day, Feb. 27 I led them to the airport with my borrowed Tazz and off they went .Back to work, unfortunately.
     The very next day, a priest friend and confrere, Fr. Macarius (75 yrs. old) had arrived from Zambia and complained about having the old man's trouble about uriniating. I thought that this is more serious than he may think so I called the urologist who told me to bring him in now now. The result of that meeting was being first on the list of operations the next week to clean out his prostate. He has had the operation and is doing fine now. He also is partially blind with something called macular degeneration. He can see shapes and forms but nothing distinctly. I will take him to my optometrist to see if we can't get him a device to be able to at least read a bit. That will be next week.
    In the meantime, I went for my appointment to the ophthalmologist who examined by eyes after taking drops every day for the last 6 months and he was pleased and said it was as good as could be and that I should come back in a year. In the meantime, he also said, cataracts are beginning to form in in a year or two he may have to correct that. I also went to my optometrist who measured my eyes again for the second pair of glasses. I am afraid that I might sit on these or lose them or something and wanted a back up pair. I can drive without them but things are much more distinct with them (like reading signs). Otherwise I don't need glasses to read normally.
    Another great adventure was being able to go back to the hospital and on the first Sunday and again on Ash Wednesday to help with the distribution of ashes, a sign that we recognize that we are a work in progress and there is still more to be done. I had another service that evening in Zulu, mostly, and I see that I will have to do some boning up on my Zulu. I picked up a missal, hymn book and bible to get started.
    I discovered that there is no signal here for my MTN provider but I discovered that I can get a signal in front of the cathedral so usually I go there each morning about 5am and again in the afternoon about 4pm to check my emails and do whatever I have to do in the internet there.
     In the meantime, I am adjusting and things are filling in slowly but surely. The vehicle came in very handy for the many trips to the hospital and to the eye doctors.
    I am happy for Fr. Macarius who will be going back to Zambia in three weeks. I am afraid to think what would have happened to him if he hadn't mentioned his bladder problem. He lives out in the boonies about 1000 miles from Lusaka where he might be able to get some help but it would be, probably, too late.
    So that's enough for now. I will be taking the car, later today, to see if my friend, can fix the heat gauge. I miss Mthatha and my kids and people there and my confreres but I realized that it was time to face the fact that I am getting older now and can't be as active as I was before but there is still some life in the old horse. Love and peace to you all, as usual

   

Dear Everyone,                                                                                                                     Feb. 10, 2014

      On Wednesday, Feb. 5, after having a lot of trouble with the fading battery of My confere’s bakkie (pickup truck), and having to go back and forth to borrow the jumper cables from our Yaris, I managed to get the vehicle over to our project and loaded my boxes (too many) with the last minute things plus the files that I had taken out of my one remaining file cabinet to make it lighter and easier to carry and load and offload, I asked our maintenance man, Mjuleni, to give me a hand to load the file cabinet and we were all set. I went to see Fr. Guy and his guys for my last meal in Mthatha for some time. I got home at a reasonable hour and got to be early as I wanted to get up at 3am to load up my computer and tooth brushes and hair brush etc. and clean up the place a bit before I left. When I got to the car, about 3:30 am, Ha, the thing wouldn’t start. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I said. I was forced to wake up Mjuleni and some of the guys who are renting to ask them to give me a push start and then wish them well for the future. They won’t easily forget my early morning departure.

     I got To Fr. Guy’s house, Sabelani, about 4:15 and there was no Fr. Ngadi. He was supposed to meet me there and then we would leave the car that I and he had been driving and leave with his bakkie. He overslept. I phoned him and tried to wake him up but no response.  But eventually he did get the message, somehow, and off we went about and hour later than I would have liked, but, so what…

     It is about a 5 hr. ride, depending on the road repairs and the traffic, but we were lucky and were not delayed by much. We grabbed a quick bite for bkfst about 9:30am and arrived at MD (Mater Dolorosa) about 10:30. We had a lot of help in getting the boxes and stuff up the stairs to my room (s) and he left immediately to visit one of our confreres to pick up something that he had brought from Kenya and was on the road back to  Mthatha right after lunch. I had to smile on the way to Mariannhill because Francis took turns sleeping and working on his tablet. It has a wi-fi built in and he handled it like a pro. I wished I had his tablet and his skills.

     I was given a warm welcome. The two retired bishops are still very active both physically and mentally and they are a pleasure to be with. There are several other brothers and priests who are immobile or slowing down a lot and I am the new kid on the block, the youngest of all, turning 79 this year and 80 next year.

     I had two visitors already, one driving up in his Mercedes sports car which attracted a lot of attention especially at the orphanage when he put the top down. Ooohs and Aaaahs. The other was when my friend Shirley came to fetch me twice, once to go to her son to get me back on the internet (I discovered that my MTN provider is too weak so I couldn’t send or receive emails and couldn’t even get on the internet. That has been solved, more or less with the help of her son who is a guru when it comes to this stuff.

     Then on Sunday, Shirley, my friend, picked me up again and we made a plan whereby I can make use of her vehicle several times this week until I am able to get the vehicle that Fr. Guy promised up here. My niece, Ann, a general practitioner doctor and her husband Dave, from South Carolina, are here since the 8^th of Feb. and I will meet them in Mthatha on the 18^th and come with them to Mariannhill where we will meet people and take in a game park before they head back for home on the 27^th.

     I have already gotten some commitments for Mass and some presentations and have put out my feelers for  other possibilities lest I go stir crazy here. I know lots and lots of people and I will have to control myself. This was my first assignment and my roots in Africa started here and I am happy to renew old friendships and offer my services is there is any way I can be of help.

     So this is a catch up on what has been happening since I left Mthatha, sadly, but necessarily last Thursday. I keep all of you and all of them in my prayers and in my heart.

This is what I wrote this morning.

  I can’t imagine a worse disaster. The cable that leads to the transformer has been stolen by thieves. We have had no electricity for three days and three nights. To top that off there is no water coming from the mains. That means that we rely on the water in the tanks. But it is inaccessible because it depends on electricity to pump it to the taps. What it means practically is that: can’t cook, can’t boil water (especially for babies and we have a few), can’t bathe, can’t flush the toilet, etc. It makes like totally impossible.Also, because there is no electricity, out security has been compromised because I had to disengage the gears of the electric gate so that it can be operated by hand. That means that anyone can do it, including thieves,  If people decide to move away it will be a financial disaster for Mariannhill because this is our only local source of income. And it comes at a time when I have already mostly packed and am ready to leave in a few days time for my new home at Mariannhill. I have already organized other things that side like my niece and her husband who have come on a visit to South Africa.

    If I could have planned a total disaster, I don’t think I could have thought of something worse except, perhaps, a Tsunami or hurricane.

    I am frustrated and demoralized right now. We were on the verge of solving a long standing problem. Now this.

I started this day at 3:30 because I couldn't sleep any more. I was frustrated because the modem wasn't allowing me  to send or receive emails so I left about 4:45 and drove up to the Ultra Save Petrol statiion and tried to send some messages out from there because there was a better signal. Then I went off to have Mass for some sisters and after Mass went back home to change into some old clothes so that I could walk through the bush to the transformer so that I could take pictures of the damage that had been done and to prove that it was Eskom itself that had to replace the cable not us. To make a long story short, I visited the offices of Eskom three times and came back and checked the transformer twice to make sure that we had electrcity, Finally at 2:30pm it came back. Everyone has to throw out all the stuff that was in the fridge and freezer but we can wash again, and cook again, and charge our cell phones again, all the things that one takes so for granted. 

     I am super tired and will hit the sack very early tonight. Time is flying and in 5 days I will be on my way to my new life. We shall take it a day at a time, and let everyithing up to you know who. Love and Peace, Cas

Dear Everyone,
     It is January 20th and a lot of things have happened since the last entry. Yesterday I had Mass at a parish where I could speak English. Not my normal Sunday fare. In the  homily I recalled that I had just experienced 4 funerals. Mandela's, last month, then Nomonde's son on Jan. 4th (Lita was stabbed to death on Christmas day); Benny Ntumbane (who was raised by the Holy Cross Sisters in an orphanage since his mother died a month after he was born and his father had already died before he was born). He worked for the land affairs department and tried to see to it that those people whose land was stolen under the apartheid regime, got it back, and also to prevent profiteers from making false claims so that they could get some land that they really weren't entitled to and make some money.; The last one was last Saturday, Nothemba who succumbed to a long illness being in her early 40's. She tried to raise, single handedly, her 4 children, and struggled against all odds, moving here and there wherever she was able to find a job (she was a good chef) but wound up unemployed, like so many others,. The common denominator for all these funerals was that all those who attended these funerals witnessed to the fact that all of them were loving, caring, giving, generous people who touched the lives of all around them, in spite of their own difficulties.

At Benny's funeral, one of the young women who grew up with him (along with others who were also present) challenged the participants in the funeral with the words : What are people going to say about you when you die. Willl they say how grateful they were to have been touched my your life? Will you feel that, really, your life was worth living?

In the readings for last Sunday, the first reading was from the Prophet Isaiya, who was handpicked by God to do a specific job in his time being the spokesperson for God and reminding the Isrealites of what it was that God expected of them. The second reading was from Paul, who also had a special job, going to the pagans and reminding them and the Israelites that God doesn't pick favorites, God's love is boundless and for everyone, us too. The Gospel had John the Baptist announcing that the one they had been writing for had finally come. He had that special job. And what about us. I can't, as a priest go into a factory or an office or a school or in every family home to do what God expects of me. Each of us in unique and is given a job to do that no one else can do, in our home, work, school or wherever or whatever. If we listen to God, and respond, we will also hear ( we will be out of the body by that time and smiling at the people who will come to our funeral, probably some surprises too..) the nice words that  people will say about us (hopefully), how they felt that they were better persons because we (you) had touched their lives.
     I guess that's the message as we step well into 2014. The response after the first reading was " Yes, Lord, I come to do your will!" God has great expectations for each of us. Love and Peace, Fr. Cas