Dear Friends,
In my Christmas news letter I mentioned that at Christmas I would write only a page or two and then add a lot of pictures because the yearly 4 page letter was a daunting task and only came out once a year not really reflecting the activities of the year. My hope is to improve communications by more email news notes with pictures and improving our web site roadstolifetanzania.org If you have never visited it please do so and give us some feedback so that we can improve it. Also a short response to my email news notes would be appreciated. A short note would take only a few minutes.
I am not even going to try to write about what has taken place since my last email letter one reason being that I can’t even remember what seemed important at the time and worthy of writing about. So many things happen every day that seem important at the time but then something happens the next day that makes us forget the seemingly important happening of the day before. Seems that so often one of our 4 wheel drive vehicles breaks down, or a tractor needs repair, or the metal roofing on a distant outstation gets blown off, or someone gets sick and needs help. Every day is busy: our hospital is open 24/7 and is run by a 36 member staff right now. We have workers here from Monday to Friday, lots of them, and it is a job to keep everyone busy doing what is important. Saturday’s are the ordinary days for meetings. Then Sunday is a day of rest unless you are a priest or a catechist. The next thing you know it is Monday morning again.
We installed 28 doors (doubles and singles) in the operating suites building that was pictured in my Christmas letter. We are finally getting a difficult job done. I am happy that we moved slowly because my original plan was to install aluminum and glass doors. However after getting an estimate we had to wait as I did not have the money. When I arrived in Dar es Salaam last September I saw some beautiful white PVC and glass doors. I knew that I wanted something like them. Lo and behold Stefano was talking to someone in Mwanza one day and he found out that there was a shop in an area called Nyakato that made the doors that we wanted including one solid tempered glass door leading to the sterile section of the building. And the good news was that they were cheaper than aluminum and must more fitting for an operating theater building as they are easier to clean. So that’s my story for today.
Love and prayers and please drop a note,
Fr. Paul
