St. Peter's In Dar

Got an email this evening from my friend - Mr Florian Ludovick Kaija - Tanzanian artist from Dar es Salaam, whose art decorated Kiabakari shrine. He notified me in the email that he was given a big job of interior wall paintings in one of the most prestigious and important Catholic parish churches in Dar es Salaam - St. Peter's in Oysterbay. Four sample pictures were attached to the email.

I must admit I am quite impressed with his new works. See for yourselves!

The One Who Knows

Saint James Apostle, the first among Apostles to shed his blood for his Master, whose liturgical feast we celebrate today, is one of the three true 'Illuminati', the chosen ones among the Apostles, who were allowed by the Master himself to know Him best and participate in the full account of His life, teachings, mysteries and actions...

Holy Firefighter

On May 4 the Church celebrates the liturgical commemoration of one of the ancient Saints, but very modernly revered particularly in my home town - Kraków. Saint Florian. A military commander in charge of organizing firefighters' brigades. Refused to denounce Christian faith, tortured, set alight and at the end - drowned in a river with a stone tightened to his neck...

175th Birthday

Congratulations to my brothers and friends from Butiama, Kahangala, Kraków, Kitchener and elsewhere on the joyful occasion of the 175th Birthday of their Congregation of the Resurrection! Will be joining my neighbors in Butiama this evening for the Anniversary Mass at 6.30 pm, sharing in their pride, joy and gratitude to God and people. Let us join them in this worthy moment in our prayers and best wishes! The link to their history is here.

Wonderful Time

Back from a five day long trip to western Poland, which turned out to be a trip to Berlin eventually, to visit and comfort a very special friend of mine who just came back from Tanzania after suffering a horrible bus accident on her way to Kiabakari on Monday morning...I will try to write a fuller report in the following days. Today I just thank God for giving me such a wonderful time spent with fantastic friends I love and respect so much!

Gentleman's Handshake

Feeling a bit exhausted mentally. It's been a delicate moment, this evening, when I sat with my friend and foreman and talked about money. Labor charge to be precise. For the school project and for the water tank project. It has been always tense conversation throughout past 15 years, whenever we sat down to talk about money. In times like these friendship simply seizes to exist....

Melting Pot

This is my magic, unique spot on the map of my city, The One And Only Royal Capital City of Poland, Kraków. And in the Great Market Square of this City, there is this Melting Pot, a special place, where I always find refuge as I wander through the streets of my City...a welcoming place where on hot sunny days one can rest and chill out...as on rainy, snowy, cold days, there is always a welcoming cup of hot coffee or tea...

Clear Air

It is easier to breathe when you are able to clear the air between you and your lost friend... Today, my personal satisfaction flowing out of the feelings of relief and accomplishment after finishing the work on English version of DVD documentary on Kiabakari and on other DVD project (The Cemetery of World War II Polish Refugees in Tengeru, near Arusha, Tanzania) I was asked for by my friends in Canada (some of them were refugees themselves during the war and right after it, then they found a new home in Canada and elsewhere), has been further boosted by feelings of inner joy after clearing the air between me and a once a very good friend of mine who went AWOL, leaving bad taste in my mouth on the way out, but today I feel like I got him back after waiting for so long.

Friends

No, it won't be about that famous soap opera (whatever you call these never-ending TV series). It is about today which has become suddenly, unexpectedly a day enriched with expected and unexpected friends and guests visiting me.

Arch-dust

This is a word a friend of mine once used after passing through Serengeti National Park upon arrival home in Kiabakari. He and his fellow travelers he came with to visit me to Tanzania, unwrapped his suitcases and bags of plastic trash bags that wisely were used to secure the luggage. Still, they found out that dust was everywhere, even inside those bags and suitcases, no matter how tightly they were wrapped! He shook his head and said - 'This is not a normal dust! It is an arch-dust! You just cannot win the battle with it!'

True Friend

I am not sure if I even should touch this issue, sensitive to me and to many, I believe. Devaluation of important terms and words - like love, friendship, holiness, faithfulness, truth etc. in our world has become so excessive, that the very topic of this post may cause confusion and dispute as each and every one has his or her own idea what it means to have true friend or what it means to be a true friend of someone else...Even here, in Tanzania, wherever you go, you will hear people calling you 'rafiki' (a friend)...though they have never met you before!

What have we done with the sacred word one finds in the Holy Scripture, that fits, I suspect, not that many people in our times, to be honest? Jesus used Himself this word in a bitter sense addressing Judas as a friend  in the Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal by the kiss of someone who betrayed first the sacredness of the noble title 'a friend of Jesus'...

Just to share with you a few simple thought and beliefs I hold dear to my heart in regards to this topic... My own idea of true friendship has developed and matured, I hope, in the span of past years of my life, through wonderful memories of true friends (though very very few) and through painful betrayals of those whom I considered once and cherished as my true friends... In my opinion at this point of my life, to have a true friend is one of the few greatest gifts, if not the greatest, of all one can ask from God. My understanding of a true friend is based mainly on two biblical quotes. One is from the Book of Sirach and describes the meaning of a true friend in biblical sense:

"A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds." (Sir 6:14-16)

The second comes from Jesus Himself: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:13-14) This quote describes what are the qualities I should have to be considered a true friend for someone else...

We hear so many times people complaining that they feel alone, they have no friends, or that their friends, once considered true friends, turned out to be traitors or just fair-weather friends... But! Does anyone of us ask herself or himself, if I deserve to have true friends? Who am I myself? What quality a person am I? How many times have I betrayed my friends in times of trial when they needed me most? Am I ready and mature enough to be a true friend to someone else? To stand firm for someone? To help someone to be a better person, a better child of God, faithful more and more to Him, and helping her or him to make wise decisions based on properly formed Christian conscience and according to God's will? And - have I ever considered the thought of laying down my own life for those I call my friends - as a viable thought, reality that I am capable of doing so, or just a fantasy, metaphor, an idea that will never happen or will never be on my agenda ever?

The older I grow, the longer I live, the more I cherish those whom I consider as my friends... I want more and more and I pray for this, that I may prove myself to be their true friend... while dreaming that one or few of them may become also my true friends... It is such a blessing to have God sent true friend...

Lord, I do not know if I ever become a true friend for someone else. It is You who are capable of making me one... Please, make me one for those You have given me in my life... and if the time for ultimate proof of true friendship comes... to be worthy to prove that I am the one by showing the greatest love without hesitation...

A Farewell To A Good Old Friend

Two days ago I mentioned in my post that I returned the old Landrover to the bishop and borrowed another car for my Sisters till we get a brand new one, if our vehicle request project succeeds.

I did not took this event lightly. The brevity of my note the other day can be misleading. To the contrary. I wanted to dedicate a separate post to my good old friend - a vehicle that served so many for so many years since its creation in 1986 in a factory somewhere in Europe.

Bishop Justin Samba, when in 2003 I requested a bigger car for my work in Musoma Cathedral (since we had only one Suzuki Samurai vehicle there, and she was too small for construction purposes and other longer safaris), instead of giving me a pickup truck as I asked, he gave me this old beat-up Landrover 110, which was parked in bishop's residence yard for some time, with smashed right mudguard (after an accident), peeling off paint and poor maintenance record. I took the car, drove her with trouble to the garage, repaired her completely - bodywork, paint, new carburetor, tires, seat fabric etc...

She served me quite well in Musoma and then in Kiabakari, when I came back here in November 2006.

This vehicle has a soul. And a very stubborn character. She was able to serve perfectly for periods of time, then all of a sudden stopped in the middle of the road for no apparent reason and drove me crazy trying to convince her to start the engine again! And the fuel consumption was just outrageous. She was so expensive to maintain (well, this is what I hear many times talking my my friends about their relationships with modern ladies)... Made in times when fuel prices were very sympathetic to customers' wallet, she guzzled one liter of petrol (not diesel) in 5-7 kilometers. When I played with nozzles, she choked going uphill and stopped. So I was forced to use her in short safaris, though I managed to drive her to Dar es Salaam and back, to Mwanza, and here in Mara Region to various places.

In 2008 I handed over the vehicle to Polish volunteers custody, who were administering our health center. They needed her more than me as I had Toyota Hilux I left in Kiabakari going to Musoma and found her on my way back still here in Kiabakari, though in very poor condition (huge effort of parishioners and myself to restore her to her beauty).

The vehicle continued to give them all sorts of trouble too. She showed her independence and character on many occassions. But still, they managed to use her for outreach program in Nyakiswa village, and sometimes this poor old chap of a vehicle was able to rush sick people to referral hospitals and saved their lives - like in the case of complicated deliveries, when mother needed to be transferred immediately to Butiama health center or Bunda hospital.

My good old friend served us well, yet with a stamp of her authority - she did what she wanted to do most of the time. And sometimes she showed us her donkey attitude - stubbornness and freedom to refuse to serve.

And yet, when the time came to bring her back to bishop's yard in Nyamiongo in Musoma (as the volunteers from Poland left and my sisters need more reliable car for the health center and their communal use as well, so we asked the bishop to lend us a used car, but better than this one), I felt immensely sad...It was like saying a farewell to a good old friend with whom we shared so many good and bad experiences, and that made our bond of friendship so close and lasting...

I want to share with you these last moments of being together with her. And her last voyage from Kiabakari to Musoma. And, of course, she couldn't fail to show us her attitude for the last time. So she stopped all of a sudden just 3 kilometers from bishop's place and refused to start the engine again. We needed to call for help of mechanics, and after begging her to agree to start the engine, she graciously came to life again and we were able to bring her finally to bishop's residence, from where I took her for the first date with me seven years ago. Our rocky relationship came to an official end. It was inevitable, yet still - so sad and heartbreaking...

A few pictures from our last journey together the day before yesterday to share with you this moment...

Farewell, my good old friend! Happy retirement!