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Dear Friends, Downloading the Internet when I was home in Wisconsin didn’t seem very fast compared to other peoples’ computers, but talk about slow! I almost gave up getting anything to happen on this computer! Anyway I am grateful that we have email. Things like this remind me that I am back home in Tanzania! I arrived in Dar es Salaam Friday night, 28 September, on schedule. I spent the next two days at the Tanzania Episcopal Conference Center at Kurasini in Dar es Salaa

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, So many things have happened since I wrote to you before Easter that I can’t remember them all. They are already history! I will simply mention two things that have and will take much of my time for the rest of my life. I have many concerns that occupy my thoughts and work every day, however the two that get and need a lot of thought, prayer and time are the Diocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy here at St. Peter Parish and the major development project, the Songamb

Dear Friends, It has been awhile since I finally got enough gumption to sit myself down in front of my computer for any length of time. No inspirations showed up until this great day came along, April Fools’ Day 2011, or as we say here in Kisukuma,“lushiku lwa bajinga”. As far as I know, no one has “April Fooled” me. Nor do I have any plans to do such a thing. Perhaps there are just too many serious things going on to be fooling around. Just now I came back from church wh

Dear Friends, I expect that my news notes will be shorter than the last one because it is 90′ F here in my office as well as in my room. The windows are open but there is no breeze. We don’t mind the heat as much as the lack of rain. Some corn crops are already ruined or damaged. The soil here is not that fertile that it can hold moisture for a long time nor is corn planted so thick that the sun cannot reach the soil. I have a big garden and lots of flowers so it take a

Dear Friends, Greetings from St. Peter Parish, Nkololo, on a dark rainy day. We had a dry spell that damaged crops but now the rains are back and some crops will be saved while others will have to be replanted. My garden still looks good as we have been able to water our vegetables and flowers. I keep planting and transplanting several days a week so that we always have something available for the table. I am grateful that we don’t have winter or I would find it difficult

I am sure that many of you have seen a lot of coverage on TV of the terrible destruction in the poor country of Haiti. I hear about it every morning on the Voice of America and the BBC. We have occasional tremors here. It is hard to imagine what that was like. 2010 is well underway and we are busy preparing for the challenges ahead. The Bishop has not yet given me a definite date for opening the Diocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy here at St. Peter’s in Nkololo but I am hoping

Dear Friends, It is now 4:30 p.m. on 26 Dec. I had planned on writing a note this morning but it was not to be so. This should be a day off as the workers are gone for the weekend and the morning meeting of the Small Christian Community leaders never happened. I believe everyone was tired out from the Christmas Masses and the rain and only a few showed up this morning for Mass and the meeting. I was heading for my office this morning when a couple of men came asking for he

Dear Friends, Greetings from Father Paul Fagan, pastor of St. Peter Parish in the Tanzanian village of Nkololo 14 miles from the Serengeti National Park and 35 miles from lake Victoria. I am now in my 50th year in Tanzania and diocese of Shinyanga, however I got my start in life on a farm in Wisconsin where I learned much of what has been helpful in my development projects here. My long time here has made it possible to help people spiritually and physically. I have built ro