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.

Back To Where I Belong

I am glad my stay in Dar es Salaam is coming to its end. I do not belong here.

My place and my purpose of life is in Kiabakari. It was great to see friends, to put together our minds, talents, wits and efforts towards the noble goal of the fundraiser. It was rewarding to see people showing up and appreciating what we did. It was satisfying to see magnanimity of invited guests contributing generously to our cause. It was pleasant to sit down and wrap down in postmortem meeting the fundraising job in our preparatory committee company. It was nice to revisit people with compliments cards and reminding those who pledged about their commitments.

It was nice to read in the newspapers reports on the fundraiser, see the news on TBC1 and ITV channels and listen to news of the event in radio stations. Inspite of the fact that most of the news were incorrect and politicized, missing the reason of organizing the fundraising dinner and the main goals of the donations. Anyway, we differ in comprehension skills.

But now, time has come to pack and go. I do not get carried away by what has happened on Saturday evening. In fact, I feel as if nothing happened. Just a feeling of accomplishment and questioning myself if I could do more or better. But the answer comes - no, in my conscience I did everything I could in my powers. The rest I leave to God.

On Thursday afternoon we begin our popular mission in the parish in Kiabakari. I look forward to this important event of the Year of Faith. In kiswahili language, this kind of parochial spiritual experience is called - Mafungo ya Kuamsha Imani (Awakening Faith Retreat). Yes, we need to go back to our roots and awaken our faith in this time of grace. When I get back to Kiabakari tomorrow evening, I will have only 36 hours before the event begins. But we are ready. We have been ready for months. Our preparations ended long time ago. It is now only up to our parishioners and people of good faith to show up and participate fully.

It will be a great time for me to rest spiritually and mentally after some five months of hectic preparations for our fundraiser in Dar. It could not come in more opportune time, right after the immense mental effort. I feel so happy going back to Kiabakari. I will have a lot of time to silence myself, to pray, to meditate, to reflect, to thank God and people. Rest assured I will pray for all of you with grateful heart for helping us during the fundraising time with your well wishes and prayers.

The Day After - Fundraising Photos

Thank God the fundraising dinner is over, no major disasters reported, very good outcome of the fundraising effort of the Guest of Honor - Hon. Edward Lowassa, MP, which gives me hope that we will be able to push forward our development goals for this year including Major Deeds of Faith in our Year of Faith program. Huge relief to everybody. All debts cleared at the hotel and supplying parties (decoration, video shooting, still pictures, LCD screens and audio system hiring, printing etc.). The photographer brought memory card with pictures shot yesterday so I am able to share with you a few pictures from last night's event. Thank you all, who prayed and kept fingers crossed for the success of the event. Thank you all, who took part and responded positively to our cause - in particular Mama Maria Nyerere, Hon. Edward Lowassa, MP, Hon. Nimrod Mkono, MP, Madame Consul of the Republic of Poland and other distinguished guests. Thank you all who joined their effort preparing the event and making sure it was a success - especially Mr Ansbert Ngurumo and his team at Vox Media and Tanzania Daima newspaper. God bless you all!

The Rock City

My first short trip to Mwanza city, some 185 kilometers from Kiabakari, this year. Meeting a couple who brought a special gift from someone in UK who did a magnanimous gesture of fundraising money for children in Tanzania, while climbing Kilimanjaro Mountain a year ago with serious spinal problems along with our dr Jadzia from our health center in Kiabakari (while she was still with us). She made it and raised money for two places - one in Arusha and the other in Kiabakari. So, today I meet those people who brought almost five hundred British pounds being our share of the total amount to hand over to me on behalf of that heroic Polish woman in UK. It is a very touching moment for all of us and I will make sure that the hard earned funds are spent wisely in Kiabakari for educational projects for our children in Pre-School and Primary School. The link to the fundraising webpage is here. Thank you, Maja!