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Dear Friends, Greetings from Prairie du Chien, located on the banks of the Mississippi River and just north of the mouth of the Wisconsin River. I just ventured up the Wis. River yesterday, 01 August, for the first time this year. I love to fish there for catfish. After maneuvering around new sandbars and obstacles brought in by recent flooding I found some good fishing spots and ended up with 18 pounds of fish. The biggest one was 5 ½ pounds. Getting that one in the net

Dear Friends: I hope that the last dirty pile of snow is now melted and that you are at last enjoying the beautiful sight of spring flowers. Perhaps there is only a foot of ice left on some Minnesota lakes. Enough is enough! Here we are seeing some weather changes. We no longer have what were almost daily rains or light showers. We still need some rain for corn that was planted after the first harvest or simply planted later. Farmers that planted cotton too early, as usu

Dear Friends, I have been known to write “this will just be a short note” and then go on to write a long letter. But this evening I will be true to my word if for no other reason than that I only have 2 days to go before I have to be ready to leave for home in my parish of St. Peter in Nkololo and there is still much to do. I will go to Janesville, Wisconsin, sometime Wednesday afternoon or more likely evening. Usually last minute things to do delay my departure. When my mot

Dear Friends, I was up before the sun this morning with my first priority after saying Mass being to write a short newsletter to let you know that I am here in Prairie du Chien, WI. I arrived in Wisconsin in time to experience the excessive humid heat that blanketed much of the country. I knew that it was hot when I didn’t even want to be out on the water fishing, much less riding my bicycle. Some folks thought that that was my type of weather! We do live just south of the eq

Dear Friends, It is now 2:20 p.m. on a pleasant/warm Friday afternoon, 8 June. A week from today would have been my brother Fr. Peter’s 82nd birthday. Sad to say, he only lived to be 61, but packed a lot into those years. I wish that I had some astounding news to tell you, such as that we have found funding for our hospital or at least for our operating suites building. Sad to say such is not the case. At least we have the foundation in and hope to get a rough floor poured so

Dear Friends, I am writing to you on a cloudy Saturday afternoon, 12 May 2012. My last letter was 21 April. That was not so long ago, but a number of things have happened since my last letter and I want to write them before I forget what happened. I only have 5 weeks and 2 days left before I begin my long journey home and lots can happen before that. Last time I wrote I mentioned that we had started looking for blood donors and that we had given one blood transfusion in an em

Dear Friends, I have been back in Prairie du Chien 2 1/2 weeks and have given talks in churches on two weekends. Here in the US and in my travels I have been asked about my news notes. Many say that they like to read them and that they haven’t seen any for a while. True! The last one I wrote was on May 12, 2011. I will bring you up to date with this short note and my schedule while I am visiting in the US. As expected, June, my last month at home in Nkololo, was hectic.

Dear Friends, No departure from the States is ever what I hoped it would be. There were so many people that I wanted to pay a short visit to say goodbye but it didn’t happen. There were also so many phone calls that I had hoped to make and in the end I simply ran out of time and could not make them. Happy to say a few people were kind enough to phone me and say goodbye. Also, there are so many things that can only be done during the last day or two. Then it comes down to

Dear Friends, This will probably be my last news notes before I fly out of Chicago on Thursday 14 Oct. My original plans were to fly out on 29 Sept. and be home by now. However, God had different plans and I’m trying to adapt to them. I wrote earlier that I went to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. I traveled with Wally Orzechowski who is the executive director of the Community Action Program in Southwestern Wisconsin. We talked with 15 students in the Depa

Dear Friends, Time remaining before my departure from O’Hare airport in Chicago on 14 October already seems too short to get everything done. There are many things to be done yet around the house and yard as well as to finish my church dates for the coming year. I am still waiting for my mechanic at Nkololo to send me his order for John Deere parts. What is on my mind now does not bother most of you at this time of year, namely writing my Christmas newsletter. It is not e

Dear Friends, Someone said, ” the best laid plans of mice and men gang oft astray”. I am leaving for Lodi tomorrow morning but before night falls this Friday I am going to let you know that I am alive and well. I find that my first month here is always difficult. Jet lag is not a problem. It is simply that sudden change from one world to another. One goes through the motions of being “home” but it takes a month to feel comfortable here in the States. There are people to