New Website Same Address

Just to let you know that our Foundation Kiabakari website underwent a major upgrade and facelift. The address is the same at www.kiabakari.org but the content is totally different and more user-friendly. Great job done by our two volunteers - Agata Krupa and Tomasz Zbrzeżny. Kudos to them! Enjoy!

Screenshot of the the new website 

Priority 2014

Arrived to home town of Kraków last Thursday night for the long awaited vacation intertwined with the quest of securing some help for the completion of our primary school in Kiabakari, medical checkups, visitations of people and places dear to my heart and so forth.

I am very grateful to my colleagues who invited me for mission awareness Sunday, with preaching and fundraisings for the cause. I am grateful also to Miss Agata Krupa, volunteer of Foundation Kiabakari for the design of the info leaflet I will be distributing in the parishes and places wherever I will happen to be. Gratitude to Fr. Roman Zapała who volunteered to cover the expenses of the printing of the publication and to Wydawnictwo Platan in Kryspinów, near Kraków, for offering to print it immediately and for the costs of the materials used only. Thank you so much, you people of immense heart for the mission's cause in Kiabakari. God bless you much! I do hope this little publication will help people I will meet in my quest to know better Kiabakari, Foundation Kiabakari, what we do, what is needed there and so forth.

Here it is - the little leaflet, my little companion on the road from May to August. May God grant special convincing powers to all readers of this publication to move their hearts to join our cause and help to push it forward. It is in Polish language, understandably, and here it is shown front and back on one page for better viewing.

Jubilee Missal Cover

This is the cover of my jubilee missal (both pages - back and front - in spread) designed by Miss Agata Krupa, the volunteer of our Foundation Kiabakari, and printed by Miss Bożena Koczur, the CEO of Foundation Kiabakari. I am very grateful to the ladies for their skills, contribution and kindness, Thank you so much! The back page of the missal features all parishes I lived and worked since my birth till now.

Left - back page; right - front page

Year Of Faith in Kiabakari

In a couple of hours I will see managing director of the printing press in Mwanza, to discuss printing needs of Kiabakari parish and shrine for this year. I will collect also printed posters to be distributed in parishes, convents, institutions of Diocese of Musoma and outside the diocese, with the schedule of liturgical special celebrations of the Year of Faith in Diocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kiabakari. The poster along with my letter and a special brochure will be dispatched the next week. At this point of time, I wish to express my gratitude to Miss Agata Krupa for design and graphic works on the poster. Judge for yourself the professional work she has done.  Click on the image to enlarge. Thank you, Agatka!

Little Angel For Kiabakari

Many, many thanks to Miss Agata Krupa for her thoughtfulness and painstaking work, manufacturing some 230 little angels with big hearts for Kiabakari children along with lovely handsome 'Dziabągi'. It took her a few weeks to accomplish the task and then she needed only one day to sell them all during a special mission market day on Solemnity of Epiphany a week or so ago in Mucharz Parish in Achdiocese of Krakow, where the Parish Priest is my classmate and friend, a man of big heart like these little angels, Fr. Krzysztof Strzelichowski, who wholeheartedly invited Agata to her parish to sell little angels and small creatures called 'Dziabągi' (see pictures below). All income Agata decided to forward to Kiabakari for the benefit of our children.

This Saturday we will see how much this help was needed when we will have special Children's Fiesta with various activities, music, plays, competitions and food. Her initiative along with the help from collection of teddy bears, toys, school gadgets collected by Miss Bożena Koczur and Mrs. Anna Piwowarska on behalf of Foundation Kiabakari - which will be used as gifts to children on Saturday, along with the personal gift of Sylwia Konstantynowicz and her husband Jacek Juras (who are on their way to Kiabakari as I write these words, to represent all our benefactors, during the fiesta) - made this fiesta to be possible.

On behalf of all children in Kiabakari, parents, guardians and the entire community in Kiabakari - we say with grateful hearts, red with love and happiness, like those of little angels - Asanteni sana sana sana! Thank you very very very much! Karibuni kwa Tamasha letu! Welcome to our fiesta!

Photo Exhibition

Miss Agata Krupa, the volunteer of Foundation Kiabakari, has prepared - with the cooperation with dr Jadwiga Żyłka, also the volunteer of the Foundation, and her sister Magdalena Żyłka, the owner of Żywa Pracownia in Kraków - a photo exhibition entitled: 'Kiabakari - Afryka Obiektywem Malowana' (Kiabakari - Africa painted with the lens). I would like to encourage all readers of my blog, living in Poland, in particular in Kraków and its vicinity, to visit the exhibition. I would like also to commend especially the painstaking work of Miss Agata who prepared pictures, framed them and set up the exhibition. Thank you so much! My gratitude goes to both sisters - Jadwiga and Magdalena - for their kind thought to stage this exhibition in their workshop in Kraków and for their invaluable help in making it possible. It is my hope that this exhibition will find positive interest in many visitors and will help to open up Kiabakari, its joy and problems to the concerned sensitive hearts of people. God bless the organizers, visitors and all benefactors of Foundation Kiabakari (www.kiabakari.org).

Dividing The Time By The Spoon

Since my comeback to Kiabakari at the beginning of October, I have this prevailing feeling that the time has become densely congested, packed with numerous activities and challenges, all thrown at us at once. It feels like if the time has become a jelly which is so thick that one can divide it by the spoon...

Busy Little Bee

Recalling words of Commodus from 'The Gladiator' movie, it feels like being a busy little bee these days (maybe not that little, but still busy!) with several things going on. I'm kinda disappointed that I cannot come here to post more frequently, as I would wish, but the reality is just this. No time at the moment...

Get Together

It was a rewarding evening. Meeting friends involved closely in the daily operations of our Foundation Kiabakari, sharing, talking about the present issues, plans for future and imminent concern in regards (in particular) to the project 'Perfect Health' which we are about to commence in a couple of weeks time in Kiabakari. I was very happy that people responded so well to the invitation. I was very grateful to Bożena in a special way for her selfless service and great help she extended to me in preparations of the meeting and the food. Thank you so much, Bożena!

Anniversary Gift

Twenty one years ago, exactly to the day, I left my Homeland for missions via Ireland where I spent three months, practicing my English, before heading to Tanzania to join my fellow countrymen who were already there working as Fidei Donum missionaries (diocesan priests sent to help in the mission countries). Grateful to God and people for the past amazing years, in which I was blessed to taste the whole spectrum of human existence and feelings, from euphoria to despair, from victories to failures, meeting wonderful people along the way and serving to the best of my limited abilities, I am proud to present the special anniversary gift I wish to share with you.