Dear Friends

Greetings once again from Ewuaso.

The year is passing so quickly that it is hard to believe that we are already in the last quarter of 2007. Is it only me or does anyone else feel that time is moving more quickly ?

Despite many news stories of torrential rain in different parts of Africa we have not been affected by rain but rather by heat and strong winds which whip up the dust into giant dust storms. I have to dust my room every day and I can tell you I am very happy that we have electricity and that I invested in a vacuum cleaner.

While it is dry and dusty here in Ewuaso up in Ngong, where the parish begins, it is unseasonably still cold and wet. Strange thing the weather.

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Developments, Projects & Appeals Updates

Women’s Project

The Women’s project (renamed Ewuaso Development and Self-Help Project) continues but more and more difficulties have been encountered. This, of course, is only to be expected as time passes and different challenges are faced and some people drop out because of various reasons.

The biggest challenge we have faced is that of lack of knowledge among the people of farming. While the Maasai of this area are very knowledgeable about animal husbandry they have limited knowledge about planting and caring for vegetables.

The first harvest was very successful but then the word seems to have gone out in the insect kingdom and every insect came to camp in the farm.

They have lost a lot by not knowing when and how to spray to prevent insects and various fungui from attacking their plants.

In discussion with them we played around with a few different ideas on how to overcome this menace and make the farm profitable again and eventually settled on bringing in a man who is educated in an agricultural college and who has had experience in farming.

The people agreed with us and now he is working as farm manager and the people come and work under him. He will be paid from the profits of the farm and has a two year contract.

We hope that by the time he finishes his contract the people will be self sufficient in knowledge to continue on their own and also will have enough fruit and vegetables.

Empanada Group

The Empanada Crew of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Seffner conducted a special fund raising sale for the benefit of Ewuaso. They serve snacks after all weekend masses one weekend each month and one such weekend was dedicated to Ewuaso. Many, many thanks to the Empanada Crew, the pastor and many other individuals in St. Francis not only for this but for all the help and support they have given to me and the people of Ewuaso since the very beginning.

(The Empanada Crew)

Kindergarten School

The Kindergarten School continues to flourish. With two classrooms, office, kitchen and playground all complete. Up until now they have been connected directly to the main water line with the result that when there is no water they have to bring it in buckets from the garden tanks. So right now we are in the process of installing a 6,000 litre water tank. This is being done with the help of Cross International.

Cow project

We are blessed to be ahead of schedule with this project. Right now we are in the process of finishing the building of the cow house and by December the water tank will be installed for drip irrigation of the fodder grass. Once the grass is growing we will go in search of a good grade cow. This project is being funded by money raised by the Kibiko Committee of Ballyboy, Co. Offaly.

Goat project

Mwai, our breeding buck, continues his work and we ourselves have been blessed with three of his progeny so far. These we are going to pass on to some local people as soon as they are old enough to be separated from their mothers.

The people continue to bring a few females to him every few weeks. We are hoping to be able to get another breeding buck in the new year so as not to exhaust Mwai.

Kibiko Committee

The picture below shows members of the Kibiko Committee and some of the children in Ballyboy School who were involved in raising money for the parish last year. This picture was taken when I visited them and was handed over a cheque. Also

Kibiko Committee

in the picture are the publishers of ‘The Planet’ newspaper who contributed money and also ran articles in their paper about Ewuaso.

Visitors

We have been truly blessed over the last two months with the Bishop visiting the parish three times.

The first visit was to bless the house in Kibiko of a new lay community of young women who call themselves the Apostolic Missionaries of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. At the moment there are four young women living there and ministering in Kibiko church and also giving seminars on the Bible in other nearby parishes.

The second visit was his visitation of Kibiko at the beginning of the month of October. He celebrated mass for the people and met with the newly elected church council after the mass and listened to them and then gave them some words of encouragement. His visit finished with lunch at the Rosminian formation house.

His third visit was to Ewuaso Kedong on the third weekend of October. He arrived in the late afternoon and stayed over night. He complimented us on our guest rooms and expressed the wish to come back sometime in the near future to spend some ‘quiet time’ in one of the rooms.

He had an evening meal with myself and the sisters cooked by Sr. Camillus and a full Irish breakfast the following morning which gave him the energy for the celebration of the mass which took place at 11 am.

The mass was attended by the people from Ewuaso, Empaash and also the youngest of our Christian communities of Enkorika. It was a lively mass in Swahili with hymns in Swahili, Maasai and Gikuyu. The day was finished with a meal prepared by the catholic women for all present under the shade of the trees.

By 4.30 pm all were on their way home, some, such as those from Empaash and Enkorika, on the back of trucks and the Bishop in his Landrover with an additional passenger, a male goat, given as a gift by the people.

The other most special visitors in October were a herd of 14 elephants. They luckily didn’t enter the compound but hung around in the area at the back between us and the local primary school for about three days before they were moved on by the Kenya Wildlife Service. I didn’t get to see them as I was very busy and managed to see only their ‘droppings’ about 50 metres from our gate.

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Irish Donations

Update…… I spoke of this in the last edition of the Newsletter and now I have the document which outlines the process to be followed with me. So anyone who wishes to know more (and can figure it out !!) can drop me an email and I will forward a copy.

Various Thanks

Many thanks to Fr. John Bland and the people of his parish in New Zealand who had a special collection for Ewuaso. Thank you all for your continued support..

Also the Apostolic workers of Clane in Co. Kildare for their generous donation

A number of Coffee mornings have been organised by Mrs Ann O’Brien (my sister) in Clane and the money that has been raised has gone towards paying the secondary school fees of need children from Ewuaso

Thanks to you all.

All Donations

As money is sometimes sent directly to the account I would ask if anyone who sends money could send me a note, by email or snail mail, that they have donated money so as I can acknowledge it. I try very hard to acknowledge every donation but sometimes I don’t have a contact for those who donate or I am unsure of who the money is from.

If you have not received a thank you note by post or email from me it is not because I am not grateful but some other reason. So don’t hestitate to write to me again and REMIND me.

God Bless for now and be sure to keep praying for us as this is the most important help you can give.

John

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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