Thursday, December 3, 2015
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Dark Grace - Honesty
"Moral scrutiny is not to discover how good or bad I am and regain some moral high ground, but it is to begin some honest "shadow boxing" which is at the heart of all spiritual awakening. Yes, "the truth will set you free" as Jesus says (John 8:32); "but first it will make you miserable," as many others have said. The medieval spiritual writers called this defeat to the ego compunction: the necessary sadness and humiliation that come from seeing one's own failures and weaknesses. Without confidence in a Greater Love, none of us will have the courage to admit our failures. Self-scrutiny merely becomes neurotic scrupulosity about non-essential moral issues (Colossians 2:16-23) rather than mature development of conscience, human love, or social awareness. I know this from years of hearing Catholic confessions.
Shadow boxing, what Bill Wilson called a "searching and fearless moral inventory," is for the sake of truth and humility and generosity of spirit, not vengeance on the self or some kind of victory over the self. None of us need or expect perfect people around us, but we do want people who can be up front and honest about their mistakes and limitations and hopefully grow from them.
Apparently that's what God wants, too: simple honesty and humility. There is no other way to read Jesus' stories of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) or the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). In each story, the one who did wrong ends up being right--simply because he is honest about it. How have we been able to miss that important point? I suspect it is because the ego wants to think well of itself and deny any shadow material within itself. Only the soul knows that we grow best in the shadowlands. We are blinded inside of either total light or total darkness, but "the light shines on inside the darkness, and it is a light that darkness cannot overcome" (John 1:5). In darkness we find and ever long for more light. I would call this dark grace. But most of us have only been taught about light and pretty grace, and so we miss at least half of our opportunities for encountering both God and ourselves." (Richard Rohr, Gateway to Silence)
Shadow boxing, what Bill Wilson called a "searching and fearless moral inventory," is for the sake of truth and humility and generosity of spirit, not vengeance on the self or some kind of victory over the self. None of us need or expect perfect people around us, but we do want people who can be up front and honest about their mistakes and limitations and hopefully grow from them.
Apparently that's what God wants, too: simple honesty and humility. There is no other way to read Jesus' stories of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) or the publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). In each story, the one who did wrong ends up being right--simply because he is honest about it. How have we been able to miss that important point? I suspect it is because the ego wants to think well of itself and deny any shadow material within itself. Only the soul knows that we grow best in the shadowlands. We are blinded inside of either total light or total darkness, but "the light shines on inside the darkness, and it is a light that darkness cannot overcome" (John 1:5). In darkness we find and ever long for more light. I would call this dark grace. But most of us have only been taught about light and pretty grace, and so we miss at least half of our opportunities for encountering both God and ourselves." (Richard Rohr, Gateway to Silence)
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
The Scissors For You
This is Eveline, a bright student in our Blessed Maria Teresa Ledóchowska pre-school in Kiabakari Catholic Parish. Her dream is to be able to continue her studies in our educational institutions up to Form Six class in High School. She knows too well we have pre-school completed only, while the primary school is still under construction since August 2007 with only six classrooms ready and the school kitchen to be completed in the next month or so. A secondary school and a high school are still in the planning phase only. But she is full of hope that her dream will become reality some day and the ropes of limitations coming from the place of birth and scarce opportunities of proper and continuous education in this area to develop her skills and talents and obtain the best education possible in Kiabakari - will finally be cut through with the help of Fundacja Kiabakari and the people of good will worldwide. Here are the scissors for you from Eveline. Come and take your part in cutting through those bonds enslaving dreams of our children and the youth in Kiabakari.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Bitter Reality
The idea of wiriting this post came up after listening to opinions and beliefs of many people - including my relatives, friends, benefactors and volunteers - on how our health center in Kiabakari operates and survives.
The common presumption is that our facility operates financially on Tanzanian government / Church / NGOs donations and support. That is why people think that the medical service we provide in Kiabakari should be offered on free-of-charges basis.
Yes, I would love to see this happening. This is our dream and vision. But the bitter reality is far from this wonderful desire.
Not only we do not get any support from the above mentioned sources, yet still we are obliged by the Tanzanian law and Catholic Church practice in Tanzania to make various payments and contributions, apart from the regular expenditure as in any other facility of this type elsewhere in Tanzania and in the world.
Our income in the health center comes from these sources: firstly, out- and in-patients - from their payments for medical services and medicine they are administered or prescribed; secondly, National Health Insurance Fund payments for services and medicine we offer to the members of the insurance scheme (we treat them for free and the compensation comes a few months later in the form of a bank cheque - they deduct any discrepancies and mistakes the doctor-in-charge of the facility makes while filling them, thus causing losses for us); thirdly - any donations in kind (bandages, water for injections, gloves etc) in and outside of the country. Fourthly - volunteers work which helps to attract more patients and hopefully to generate much needed income for the struggling facility.
Last year alone, I personally had to find extra six million plus Tanzanian shillings to help see us through the end of the year. This year already more than two million went in for the same purpose - to help to make ends meet. This money I had to find somewhere somehow and this not comes easy, believe me.
Today, despite having three volunteering doctors in the health center, my manager came to me to ask for help so he can pay social security and income tax payments. He was short half a million shillings.
We are surrounded by bush private labs, pharmacies and medical mini-facilities run by local people, who in most cases do not bother to register their businesses, do not pay taxes and all required by law - payments and contributions. The same people wage war on us, spreading black PR to discourage people from using our services and to go to them. Obviously, all their smear campaing is entirely false and is a pure lie. But this is how the world goes and how people fight for income, not only here, but I believe - everywhere else.
Since the opening of the health center in January 2008, the administration of the facility went from hands to hands and since two and half years I was left alone with the help of my secretary - whom I made a manager of the facility - to run the show. Since its beginnings till this day noone came up with the valid and workable plan and vision - how to run the facility and keep it financially safe and stable in the long run and the foreseeable future. People came and went, struggling to run it, then walking out seeing it is extremely hard, stressful and frustrating. I am not an exception. This is not my job to run the medical facility. I see clearly that my good will and desire to see this important helth center survive financially and to be safe in the long term - is not sufficient. We need organizations, people, something to make it secure and working. Who and how? I do not know at this point of time. I feel most of times so much left alone. Occasional donations, development projects and volunteers are missing the point and may even fool the public to think that things are going well. The daily running of the facility and keeping its finances in black and succeeding in fulfilling the challenges of the payment list below is a daily nightmareish reality for Amon and myself.
I am dreading the moment when I will hit the wall and be forced to raise my hands up in defeat and close the health center due to a bancruptcy. This would be a disaster to everybody involved in the conception, construction and running of this facility - Polish government, Diocese of Musoma, NGOs and private benefactors, volunteers and donors. But most of all - it would be a death sentence for many Tanzanians whose lives might be saved here.
Below is the list of the payments, expenditure and contributions we do here in Kiabakari in our health center. I hope this will be an eye opener to many of you - what we are facing here and how hard it is to survive in this environment. And hopefully it will be a wake up call to all of you who think that in Kiabakari the health center is a neverending story of success and easy-peasy money-making machine.
LIST OF PAYMENTS AND EXPENDITURE
BLESSED PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI HEALTH CENTER - KIABAKARI
The common presumption is that our facility operates financially on Tanzanian government / Church / NGOs donations and support. That is why people think that the medical service we provide in Kiabakari should be offered on free-of-charges basis.
Yes, I would love to see this happening. This is our dream and vision. But the bitter reality is far from this wonderful desire.
Not only we do not get any support from the above mentioned sources, yet still we are obliged by the Tanzanian law and Catholic Church practice in Tanzania to make various payments and contributions, apart from the regular expenditure as in any other facility of this type elsewhere in Tanzania and in the world.
Our income in the health center comes from these sources: firstly, out- and in-patients - from their payments for medical services and medicine they are administered or prescribed; secondly, National Health Insurance Fund payments for services and medicine we offer to the members of the insurance scheme (we treat them for free and the compensation comes a few months later in the form of a bank cheque - they deduct any discrepancies and mistakes the doctor-in-charge of the facility makes while filling them, thus causing losses for us); thirdly - any donations in kind (bandages, water for injections, gloves etc) in and outside of the country. Fourthly - volunteers work which helps to attract more patients and hopefully to generate much needed income for the struggling facility.
Last year alone, I personally had to find extra six million plus Tanzanian shillings to help see us through the end of the year. This year already more than two million went in for the same purpose - to help to make ends meet. This money I had to find somewhere somehow and this not comes easy, believe me.
Today, despite having three volunteering doctors in the health center, my manager came to me to ask for help so he can pay social security and income tax payments. He was short half a million shillings.
We are surrounded by bush private labs, pharmacies and medical mini-facilities run by local people, who in most cases do not bother to register their businesses, do not pay taxes and all required by law - payments and contributions. The same people wage war on us, spreading black PR to discourage people from using our services and to go to them. Obviously, all their smear campaing is entirely false and is a pure lie. But this is how the world goes and how people fight for income, not only here, but I believe - everywhere else.
Since the opening of the health center in January 2008, the administration of the facility went from hands to hands and since two and half years I was left alone with the help of my secretary - whom I made a manager of the facility - to run the show. Since its beginnings till this day noone came up with the valid and workable plan and vision - how to run the facility and keep it financially safe and stable in the long run and the foreseeable future. People came and went, struggling to run it, then walking out seeing it is extremely hard, stressful and frustrating. I am not an exception. This is not my job to run the medical facility. I see clearly that my good will and desire to see this important helth center survive financially and to be safe in the long term - is not sufficient. We need organizations, people, something to make it secure and working. Who and how? I do not know at this point of time. I feel most of times so much left alone. Occasional donations, development projects and volunteers are missing the point and may even fool the public to think that things are going well. The daily running of the facility and keeping its finances in black and succeeding in fulfilling the challenges of the payment list below is a daily nightmareish reality for Amon and myself.
I am dreading the moment when I will hit the wall and be forced to raise my hands up in defeat and close the health center due to a bancruptcy. This would be a disaster to everybody involved in the conception, construction and running of this facility - Polish government, Diocese of Musoma, NGOs and private benefactors, volunteers and donors. But most of all - it would be a death sentence for many Tanzanians whose lives might be saved here.
Below is the list of the payments, expenditure and contributions we do here in Kiabakari in our health center. I hope this will be an eye opener to many of you - what we are facing here and how hard it is to survive in this environment. And hopefully it will be a wake up call to all of you who think that in Kiabakari the health center is a neverending story of success and easy-peasy money-making machine.
LIST OF PAYMENTS AND EXPENDITURE
BLESSED PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI HEALTH CENTER - KIABAKARI
- Salaries and allowances of the employees
- Holidays and other benefits of the employees
- End / Termination of contracts - financial packages
- Medicine and drugs procurement
- Social security of the employees - NSSF
- Income tax of salaries - PAYE
- Tanzania Revenue Authority tax (SDL)
- Health Insurance of the employees
- House allowances for the employees
- Land rent annual payment
- Fire safety inspection annual fee
- Fire extinguishers inspection fee (2-3 times a year)
- Goverment licence fee and income tax of the facility
- 5% of annual income - contribution to the Diocese of Musoma
- Annual contribution to the Health Department of Diocese of Musoma
- Annual contribution to the Health Department of the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference
- Hospitality (guests, inspections, visitations - food and drinks)
- Health center board members meeting allowance (quarterly)
- Servicing and maintenance of the medical equipment (batteries, paper, gel, needles, gloves, perishables for lab tests and lab samples etc.)
- Uniforms and boots for security guards and uniforms for employees
- Staff canteen costs (breakfast and lunch)
- Electricity bills
- Water consumption bills
- Office stationaries
- Printing of health center perishables - files and various forms for departments of the facility (reception, pharmacy, lab, doctor etc.)
- Minor repairs (infrastructure, pump house, furniture etc.)
- Service of the generator
- Fuel for the generator
- Official travels of staff members for meetings, workshops, seminars etc.
- Transportation costs
- Communication (post office box, mail, internet, phone credit etc.)
- Cleaning and laundry department equipment and cleaning agents
- General cleaning of the premises and garden caretaking allowance
- Dogs’ food
- Dogs’ caretaking (drugs, vaccinations, bathing and allowance for the person in charge of dog care)
- Gifts and funeral donations and contributions
- Other occassional payments, donations and contributions.
Please, pray to Almighty God, to Whom nothing is impossible, to make possible a dream of so many people of good will, mainly our people in Kiabakari and the area, that our health center survives, is in good professional and capable hands. May Divine Mercy uses this facility as its favorite channel to touch lives and bodies of God's children and to heal them.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - the homily of the Holy Mass of the Carmelite Rite of the Perpetual Profession at Monastery of the Queen of Carmel in Bunda - Tanzania
The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel today. A day of utmost importance to the Monastery of the Queen of Carmel in Bunda (some 35 km from Kiabakari). For the very first time in the short - just fourteen year long history of the monastery two sisters of Discalded Carmelite Congregation made their perpetual profession. I had a priviledge to be a main celebrant and the preacher (on behalf of Bishop Renatus Nkwande of the diocese of Bunda who got sick and asked me to stand in) in this unique solemnity. Let us pray for the newly professed sisters!
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Huruma Cup 2015
Many years have passed since we held Huruma Cup in our parish for the last time. Many factors contributed to this fact, including some biased judging in the past which made the youth disenchanted with efforts to prepare and perform well. This time I made sure judges are picked by me personally and there is no undue influence on them. I do hope this will be the opening of the new chapter in the history of our parish. Engaging all - children, youth and adults alike - in sports and arts competitions. This year we begin humbly with five categories in arts - choir, debate/ngonjera, sung poem/shairi, drama/igizo and traditional dance/ngoma.
On Saturday, July 4th, we had the first day of the competition - the elimination of art groups from Kiabakari town. The judges did a good job, uninfluenced by anyone and I guess everybody agrees with results. We were enjoying the performance of the groups together with our volunteers from USA - Emily and Maria.
The second stage will be on Saturday July 25th with groups from all over the parish. The best groups in each category will perform in front of the Bishop Michael Msonganzila and the parochial community on Sunday July 26th, on the parochial feast day, which will include Confirmation for our parishioners, 60th birthday of Fr. Godfried Maruru (my friend and helper whenever I am away or in need of extra hands), Jubilee of 60 years of work of our catechist Boniphace Kisunda and my Silver Jubilee as missionary in Tanzania.
Here are some images from Saturday competition. Enjoy!
On Saturday, July 4th, we had the first day of the competition - the elimination of art groups from Kiabakari town. The judges did a good job, uninfluenced by anyone and I guess everybody agrees with results. We were enjoying the performance of the groups together with our volunteers from USA - Emily and Maria.
The second stage will be on Saturday July 25th with groups from all over the parish. The best groups in each category will perform in front of the Bishop Michael Msonganzila and the parochial community on Sunday July 26th, on the parochial feast day, which will include Confirmation for our parishioners, 60th birthday of Fr. Godfried Maruru (my friend and helper whenever I am away or in need of extra hands), Jubilee of 60 years of work of our catechist Boniphace Kisunda and my Silver Jubilee as missionary in Tanzania.
Here are some images from Saturday competition. Enjoy!
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
How Can I ?
There so much to be grateful for to Merciful God, His Angels and Saints and to His people in the first half of this year which ends today. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude to God's Mercy and to love and care of so many great people I have been blessed to meet and interact with in the past six months. Thank you!
"How can I repay the LORD for all the great good done for me? I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD". (Ps 116:12-13)
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)