The Last Shipment

Finally, the last shipment of remaining four items on the shopping list for the new delivery unit in our health center will be on the way from Dar es Salaam to Kiabakari by the end of this week. My supplier, Crown Limited from Dar, has notified me that the missing items have arrived to their showroom in Mikocheni and they are finally in the position to ship them to me. It's been a long wait since May when the first items started to arrive to the health center. I am happy now that the project generously supported by the Polish Foreign Ministry via Polish Embassy in Nairobi through the Small Grants scheme will be done and dusted. It will allow me to sit down with the staff of the health center and our volunteers and talk about the immediate needs of the health facility, so I could propose a new project to the embassy. A good news day today indeed!

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...

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.

Announcement

Yesterday, the Polish Foreign Ministry announced the results of this year competition for voluntary programs submitted for funding to them. My Foundation was among other NGOs who applied for funding. It was our first time to do so. I was happy to share with you that our project code-named 'Afya Bora' (Perfect Health) qualified for the second round. And now we got the funding, meaning that the very first volunteer of Foundation Kiabakari will come here at the end of September to supervise the implementation of the project. A happy day indeed and a great result for all those in the foundation who contributed to the success. Well done, ladies and gentlemen! The link to the Ministry announcement is here.

Afya Bora

I may not have the best health at the moment, but the very first project - submitted by my Foundation Kiabakari to Polish Foreign Ministry under auspices of voluntary / development program 'Polish Aid' - titled 'Afya Bora' (Perfect Health) was approved by the ministry for funding! I'm thrilled! And so are all of us in the foundation. A very hard work in last two months paid dividends - the project passed and now our first volunteer coming to Kiabakari in late September for the implementation of this project will participate in training run by the 'Polish Aid' program in Warsaw. I'm positive she will do just great as she is a very smart and talented girl...

New Life

Last week was truly a new life welcoming week long fiesta! Poor Sister Grace, our health center administrator and midwife by profession, helped by other sisters and nurses from the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Health Center in Kiabakari, was rushing daily back to work prompted by anxious people or watchmen from the facility coming to the mission asking for help...expecting mothers were being brought to the gate of the health center and on one occasion - a mum-to-be was left all alone at the gate by a bodaboda rider, as she came herself by motorcycle to deliver a baby!