Mission: Tanzania!

Before we left Morogoro, Fr. Evandro and Francesco had time to visit the market with Fr. Daniel.

Early in the new year, Fr. Evandro Miranda Rosa, C.R., our Superior General in Rome, contacted me about the possibility of coming to Tanzania for a short visit with our new Econ General, Mr. Francesco Ruspoli.

We have two guard dogs: Simba (Lion in Swahili) and Rex. Both are German Shepherds. Simba, the female, is older. Rex, the male, is a young adult.

Before leaving Buhemba, I wanted to check out the progress of the new secondary school and the renovation of the athletic field.

The Resurrection Sisters have a place in Buturu, which is near the Butiama parish. They invited all of us for a Christmas celebration the day after Christmas.

The final outstation was at Kyamuko. It is a small community and there were no baptisms scheduled.

I ended the last blog with: “After the solemn Christmas blessing, we were off to two more outstations. With the baptism, we were late, and now we were in a real hurry!” Well, that was my first mistake of the day.

On Christmas Day we started by travelling to Tarani Outstation for Mass. There we baptized a two week old baby!

Christmas Eve finally arrived. I presided at the Mass and Fr. Andrzej preached. There were 70 babies and children to baptize!

Step by step, more trappings and lights are added until the final product, which is enjoyed immensely by all the parishioners throughout the Christmas season.

The day before the 3rd Sunday of Advent, people started to prepare the grounds for Christmas in Butiama. This is taken VERY seriously,

The “atmosphere” for Christmas is very different from what we see in the Northern Hemisphere.