asante sana

for those of know you that do know, asante sana means thank you very much.... and so thank you all very much - for reading our blog, praying and writing back, and for the ones we left behind that are so ably taking care of everything asante sana,sana!

and so we are winding down our safari- we are back at the provincial house in morogoro-the palce we first wrote from. the one with the dial up connection and finicky computer, so forgive punctuation and spelling....we figure in the last 10 days we have driven at least 2000 miles thru tanzania and kenya! fun, exciting, otherworldly, eyeopening, beautiful and oh my gosh are our butts sore!

the lack of expectations we had at the outset was a good thing, but i think we all had an idea we would be doing more . Not that we mind being honored guests, but we have felt rather useless.I figured out the reason the provincial head was taking us around is that it was a great excuse to get out to visit many of his priests and parishes, plus he really loves fr. kurian... the priest we stayed with last night put into words what they really want us to do ...LET OTHER PEOPLE KNOW WHAT WE AR DOING AND INVITE THEM TO TAKE PART...oops -caps lock error - anyway-we will have plenty to tell you about the men and women over here...what they are doing is amazing..we met a 19 yeard ol girl from germany who has taken a year off to work in the orphanage in tabora - where enni is- she has been here for one month. also met a german lady - a professional potter who is here for six months to make affordable water filters for people to use in their homes. (you should see what passes for a home here) anyway she is also quite a lady...and the potters for peace group is doing great things too. she is teaching blind people to make pottery so they can have some income.

we have the whole day tomorrow-thursday- here and then off to the big dumb city for the airport.
great news about the audition , Gary, good luck, and way to go at mass..thanks anne and muppy for helping with my kids! so sorry to hear about the power problems, we heard there was a storm in wisconsin, and wondered about home. george still wants to stay here and work in the mountains. he has never had this lonng off work in his life- he's getting used to it!

muppy - masses have been some in swahili-thank heaven i brought the magnificat with me, and some in english. the ordination was in swahilli, but the archbishop gave the homily in english - the swahili translator was very firey, and those who speak both said he was ad-libbing a bit!

Deacon frank's advice for the day - NEVER NEVER eat green coconut - he's not sick elaine, don't worry - but he thought he was gonna be!

god bless you all - see you SOON

bert and the boys!