Ewuaso ooÕNkidongi Parish Newsletter n. 13August 2007
Ewuaso Kedong, Kibiko, Kimuka, Saikeri, Najile, Empaash, Mass Centres
l to r Raphael with Fr. General & Fr.
George Kamau
Dear Friends
Many greetings
to you all from Ewuaso Kedong where we are being blest right now with rain.
Also for the last few weeks we, and the a lot of East Africa, have been
experiencing earth tremors of about 5 on the Richter scale. A frightening thing
in the beginning, but you get used to everything shaking.
Because of so
many commitments it becomes more difficult to keep this Newsletter going on a
quarterly basis but I continue as I think that you all deserve to be kept up to
date on how your donations and prayers are causing wonders here in the parish.
Since the last
edition of the Newsletter I have had the good fortune to meet many of you as I
travelled from the 20th of May until the 3rd of July in
U.S.A. and Europe. This year my ÔbreakÕ was very relaxing and upon my return
the people were telling me that I looked younger. This was different to the
last time I returned when they told me I looked Ôwhiter and fatterÕ.
Maybe I was
more relaxed this year as I didnÕt have to worry about the people being
abandoned during my absence. This was because I was blessed to have a priest
who was present to take care of the masses in the whole parish. Fr. George
Kamau, a newly ordained Rosminian, was a great help and the people really liked
him. Regrettably he has now gone to Tanzania for his new assignment. A big
thank you to him as he reads this.
In the picture above you can see Fr. George with Fr. General, James
Flynn, during his visit in May to Ewuaso Kedong. Also in the picture is Raphael
Tanin our Ôjack of all tradesÕ. For more see below ÔDevelopments etcÕ.
While Fr. George was able to cover the pastoral and sacramental parts of
the work in the parish all the other work concerned with ÔworldlyÕ development
had to wait until my return. So there has been a lot of catching up to do on
this level as everything piled up while I was away. So letÕs get right into the News.
Developments,
Projects & Appeals Updates
Students Fees
One of the
growing needs in the parish is fees for students. We have many requests each
year from young people whose families cannot afford to pay the fees for their
secondary education. These requests are first put by the families concerned to
the members of their own Basic Christian Community (Jumuiya) and if they cannot
help then they are passed on to the relevant Church Council. Each group tries
to help as much as they can and then pass on the requests, which are beyond
their means, to me.
Over the last
three years these requests have been increasing, and I try to do what I can as
I believe that this is a very important are that we can help the development
not only of the individual but also of the community. So more and more of the
money I get from individuals, like many of yourselves, is put to this use.
Web
Site
Website and
blog are things that were foreign to most of us and probably still are to some
of us. However they are the modern ways of communication and to move Ewuaso
into the 21st century it is my hope that before too long the parish
will have its own Website. The first steps have been taken and when it is setup
and functioning I will let you know.
Fruit
Trees
Our most
recent project is the starting of a project to grow fruit trees here in Ewuaso.
Papaya and Watermelon grow very well here and over the last year the Sisters
have proved that also hybrid varieties of fruit trees, like Mango, Orange,
Tangerine, Passion fruit and even Avocados will also grow in our soil.
Through help
received we have been able to buy the equipment for drip irrigation for trees
and we are in the process of installing this as I write. It will be part of the
peoplesÕ project for growing vegetables which already is in operation.
We have also allocated another part of our compound to the local people for setting up a tree nursery following a request from the Chief. He is hoping that with help the people will begin to grow trees around their homes in order to try to reverse some of the damage done to the environment by flash floods, cuttings of trees for charcoal and the like. It is a worthwhile project and dream which I am very happy to help in and to be associated with.
Papaya fruit grown with the help of drip irrigation
Goat
Project
Our goat
project was begun last year with the acquisition of a pure breed male German
Alpine goat. The idea behind it is that interested people can bring their local
female goats to be ÔservicedÕ by him and thereby slowly improve the quality of
the goats. "Quality" meaning that they will be able to get milk from their
goats rather than just meat.
Mwai with some of his visitors
With only one
breeding buck it is obviously a slow processÉ. A buck can only do so much!!
However over the next few years we hope to be able to buy some more pure bred
bucks and therefore be able to increase the size of the project.
It would be
ideal if each family could have a pure bred male in their herd but because pure
breeds are more susceptible to diseases that the local goats are resistant to
much more care is needed for them. The cross breeds have both resistance and a
higher milk yield.
Kindergarten
The
Kindergarten which opened at the beginning of this year with a total of 55
pupils, got a new Building courtesy of Cross International. Cross are also funding
a feeding and nutrition program for the children of the school and what had
been required was somewhere to prepare this food.
The Kindergarten School (left)
with the new kitchen on the right
The kitchen
was built by Raphael Tanin (see fotos on p.1), a local man who does all our
hard work, and was blessed by Fr. Flynn during his visit.
Sharon Naisiae Sekeyian, at 3 years old is the
youngest child in the Kindergarten School.
Projects
for 2008
Cow
project
Slowly over
the past two years as we cut the grass in our compound we have been saving it
as silage and also planting small areas of Napier grass (fodder for cows). In
this coming year we hope to be able to build a small cow shed and buy a pure
bred Friesian cow.
As with all
our projects this one is also aimed at educating the people to the value of
upgrading their stock. We hope to be able to show that it is possible and easy
to keep a good grade cow which will give more milk than the local variety.
Girls Rescue Centre
Almost two years ago the local Chief asked us to
consider building a Girls rescue centre or refuge.
He is a man who is serious about stopping female
genital mutilation, early marriages of Maasai young girls and encouraging all
families to send their girls for schooling. To this end sometimes he has found
that it is necessary to remove the young girls from the families in order to
protect them.
His current practice is to send the girls to other
families within the parish, which they are willing to do, but puts them under
an extra financial burden.
Another solution he has tried is to send them to
homes run by other churches in areas that are far away from here. He is unhappy
with these solutions for the reasons stated above and other and would prefer if
the Catholic Church could provide a solution.
At present we are in discussions with Cross
International Catholic Outreach with a view to them funding the building of a
Rescue Centre in the Parish at Ewuaso Kedong. Also we are talking to the
Superior of the Sisters in the parish to see if they could take on the work of
caring for these girls.
More news later on in the year on this.
Local Primary School
The local Government Primary School is our
immediate neighbour here in Ewuaso Kedong and was started many years ago by a
Mill Hill Missionary.
They have over 700 pupils and very bad
infrastructure. Classrooms are few and in a very state of repair. As the school
is not fenced animals and people wander around freely. The staff room is a room
that measure 12ft by 7ft. It has no windows and not enough chairs for the
teachers.
Not very good working conditions for teachers or
learning environment for pupils.
I am hoping that within the coming year we will be
able to build them a decent staff room, rehabilitate some of the class rooms
and fence the immediate area around the school so as to lessen the passage of
people and animals. The latter they are very excited about as it means they
will be able to keep the compound clean and plant some plants to beautify the
environment
Other Projects planned
In the coming year
we are still hoping to send 3 young girls for training as Montessori teachers.
This I spoke about in the last issue of the Newsletter.
Two New
Churches need to be built one in Saikeri and the other in Enkorika. We also
hope to be able to renovate the catechist"s house in Saikeri to make it
habitable and to build 2 new ones, one in Empaash and the other in Enkorika.
The Kibiko
Multi-Purpose Hall spoken about before has been shelved until 2009.
Other News
New
Outstation
As I explain to many of the people I speak to about
the parish, it is a very vast area of which I, on my own am unable to cover.
However requests keep coming for service from the area which I have not covered
yet. Recently the people of one settlement in this area gathered together and
made a persuasive argument for becoming a mass centre.
This settlement is called Enkorika and it has a
large population. They have already had one mass when Fr. George Kamau was
standing in for me and they have come the long journey to Ewuaso for mass and a
long talk with me and the parish council.
The result is that we have reorganised our
catechists and the two with motorbikes now go there each weekend to give
catechesis. The people have donated a piece of land for building a church and
this we hope to be able to do sometime in the future.
More about this in the next issue
Visitors
Some of the
visitors who have come to see us over the last few months have included Fr.
James Flynn, the Superior General of the Institute of Charity (Rosminians). If
you are a regular reader of the Newsletter you will remember he visited us last
late in 2004. (cf Issue n. 3)
He visited
coincided with the completion of the building of the Kindergarten Kitchen and a
small guest room and so we prevailed on him to bless both while he was here.
This he most graciously did before a large group of parishioners who had
gathered to greet him. He then was the first to sleep in the new guest room.
This brings to
3 the guest rooms we have in Ewuaso Kedong. So feel free to visit us !!
In June we had
two Sisters from the Mercy Sister"s of England Generalate. They came to visit
Sr. Camillus. Regrettably I was
away during the time of their visit as I wanted to thank them face to face for
allowing Sr. Camillus to be with us and also for their generous donations which
have allowed us to build the guest house and Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
Gerry &
Margaret Murphy who are friends of Fr. Sean Walsh and benefactors of some
Rosminian missions in Tanzania visited on their way from Tanzania home to
Dundalk. They were accompanied by Fr. Augusti Haki, a Rosminian from Tanzania
and parish priest of Mombo Parish in Tanga Diocese.
Jon Merrill
(Cross International Africa Representative) was our most recent visitor. Jon
has already visited us more times than anyone else and toured the farm project
and Kindergarten school during his visit. Cross International have helped us
greatly with these projects. The latest the kitchen to which I refer to above.
Our Chief (4th
from right) when tree saplings were presented to him recently. Others in the foto are local school
principals who will benefit first from the trees.
The guest
house in Ewuaso Kedong
Irish Donations
I have only recently learned that if
you live in Ireland and you wish to donate money, whatever amount, to any of these projects you can fill
out a tax revenue form which will mean that the Government will give 42 per
cent of the amount to the same project in the next year.
I think this is right !
Fr. Patrick Pierce can be contacted
for more details if you are interested.
God Bless for now and be sure to keep praying for us
as this is the most important help you can give.
John
_______________
As
always:
Donations are always needed and appreciated and can
be sent to:
Fr.
Patrick Pierce I.C.
Rosminian
House of Prayer,
Glencomeragh
House,
Kilsheelan,
Co.
Tipperary,
Ireland
Tel:
+ 353 52 33181
Or
directly to
AIB
Bank 65/67 O"Connell St.,
Clonmel,
Co.
Tipperary
A/c
Name: IPIC Ewuaso
A/c
No.: 40016297
Sort
code: 93 53 79
Or
in the U.S.A. to
Fr.
Christopher Fitzgerald I.C.
St.
Francis of Assisi Parish,
P.O.
Box 1218
Seffner,
Florida
33583
U.S.A.
Tel:
+1 813 689 4241