Stories to move any heart...

For those lucky enough to have seen it there was an inspiring story on the ABC television series Australian Story this week about a young Australian woman who has set up a school outside of Arusha in Tanzania. Hers is a "Catholic" story too and if you haven't yet heard about it you can read the transcript on the ABC website at: http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1438744.htm. Meanwhile we have our own inspiring stories from Laurie Negus who is now sending regular email reports back from Arusha. Here are some moving stories extracted from his most recent reports that will surely move any heart. They underline both the magnitude of the social justice task faced in Africa and give pause for those of us in places like Australia to thank God for our material circumstances.

   From Laurie's newsletter written on 13th June…   

On Saturday I went with Musau, of the billiard table fame, to meet the family that he was with was wonderful to see. To the young ones in the family, he was the adorable "Big brother" to the teenagers, he was a mate and to the mum and dad he was like a son. But the main reason we went was to visit a neighbour who has been paralyzed for 6yrs. After a bus accident in which everyone else was killed, ironically they were on their way to a funeral.

This woman lives in a little mud brick hut with a dirt floor about a third the size of my bedroom and I guess she just gets moved from the bed to her chair. Of course there are no windows in the hut just a door. She has no income the neighbours just support her with gifts of food etc. and she is a Muslim and most of the neighbours are Catholics. Two young women at a guess they would be around 19 or 20yrs old look after her for nothing, and that would mean a fair bit of care because she can only move her arms and her head, but when I congratulated them for being such great citizens, (through Musau as the interpreter) they shook it off as nothing. The woman herself seems a lovely person, who doesn't seem to blame fate that she lost her husband and her mobility in the accident, on the contrary, she thanks God for her friends and neighbours and for the fact that one of her children has blessed her with a granddaughter. And she obviously has good taste in people Neg, because after meeting me she wants to see you when you come here in August !!!

About two weeks ago a woman came to the house and Gerard did his duty and listened to what she had to say, initially he was saying to himself no I don't think we will be able to help her, but as he listened, his mind was certainly changed and he invited her to lunch the next day so that we could meet her. For me that was another of these events that have left me with a feeling of almost meeting face to face with God.

There was nothing really striking about this woman, except perhaps a natural calmness that seemed to exude from her, and her story is unfortunately all too common in Africa. She has four children with the eldest 16 and the youngest just 5 and her husband has died of AIDs. Unfortunately before he did he passed on AIDs to her and their youngest was born with the disease. There was no sense of anger or blame at all about her, just a gentle acceptance of what has happened and a really beautiful calmness, I tell you I felt my heart just about ready to burst. She and her daughter are being supplied with medication by the AIDs organization here but unfortunately that's all they can do, and to work well apparently you have to have good nutrition which is not possible for them.

However, that was not the major problem. She and her grandmother and 5 kids, (her eldest daughter has a young babe) live in a little hut similar to the one I described for the paralyzed lady, and they are supposed to pay 7,000 shillings a month rent. They were 7 months behind in that and their landlord understandably was threatening to kick them out. They have no regular income and they live on an average of 1,000 shillings a day, which although she hates it, she begs for. That is one American dollar. The only way she can do that is buy little bits of flour and get grass or wild vegetation and hope that friends can give them some food. What she was asking for was help to pay off the rent, and a stake of money so that she could cook and then sell simple type of food outside a little pub right near their hut. We were able to pay off the rent and paid for an extra month and gave her 60,000 shillings to start her cooking business. God I hope it works.

Last Sunday afternoon John Elphas and I paid a visit to Sophie Patrick, (the lady who had Malaria and Tyhoid) and she was in great form and looking so much happier, she had just run out of puff in her asthma puffer so it was good timing and she is also looking forward to seeing Neg when he gets here. That family is now in much better shape and Godfrey the young Ugandan man that needed a birth certificate now has a job and we have funded three women so that they can support their families so your generosity has not been wasted. Thank you ! I am keeping a written record of the funding and probably at the end of the year I will send you all a copy of who we have funded and the results if possible, but I cant promise all of them will let us know how they go. I have tried to make it very clear that they owe us nothing.

On my way back from the Patrick family I was walking on the route we go to mass and back most mornings and I met some of the little kids I wave to and say good morning to, but this time I was on my own (John Elphas had gone off with some of his friends) so I was able to spend more time with them. Their ages would probably range from about 2yrs to maybe 6yrs and like most kids here seem unaffected by the poverty and squalor around them. They are beautiful and are just so easy to entertain. I have this little dance routine that I do with them and they never seem to get tired of it. When it is finished we clap each other and I give them " high fives " and they jump up and down and get really excited so we do it again. This time I started with about 4 or 5 of them and ended up with about 30 or 40, counting the mums. Actually it is good fun and when you see their faces lighting up with their beautiful smiles it does the old heart good.

Well that is just about it for this month, I got my permit to stay for the next 2yrs last week and also my local drivers licence so it is good to be legal. Thanks to all those who have sent me emails it is really nice to hear from home, I know I cheat a bit, (well a lot !!) by sending these general letters but that is one of the beauties of email isn't it?

   From Laurie's newsletter written on 16thJuly…   

The first two days at Lushoto were beautiful, but then the next two a big cloud moved in and it was damp and cold, mind you not bad for a retreat, but I was glad when we came down from the mountain and were on our way to Tanga. Tanga is right at the edge of the Indian Ocean and the place where we stay is half price for religious at 10,000 Tan shillings, which of course by now most of you know is equal to U.S. $10 not bad for full board and extras thrown in. I loved it this year, not as hot as in November last year and it was wonderful to look out over the ocean at sunset and sunrise knowing that Fremantle and Perth were on the other side of the ocean. There is no doubt about it there is no place like home.

We got back home at 6 pm on Tuesday the 12th after an 8 hour drive and I rushed to the computer to find out the Eagles had won by just 4pts. Ripper !!!

The next day John Elphas and I paid a visit to a woman with 4 children who's husband had died last year and the family had demanded that she then marry her husband's brother or cousin (I forget which) anyway when she refused they promptly kicked her out of her home with nothing but the kids who range from about 6yrs old to 15 yrs old. When we got to where she lives the only one home was her young daughter who was busy cooking supper: Orgami a type of flour and water mixture that sets fairly hard and looks like mashed potatoes. Their "flat" was a mud brick style building with mud floors which they shared with four or five young couples. Their room was about 2m by 3m in which they all slept and did the cooking and I suppose stored their clothes and supplies. They did obviously share the ' hallway ' with the couples though because two of the young mothers with babies were doing their washing there when we arrived. As it turned out Philimena Joseph the widow was out doing some contract cleaning. The mind boggles what she gets paid. We pay our staff here quite well in comparison to the average and that is 60,000 a month which works out at 2,000 sh. a day.

Unfortunately the real poor are often victimized by quite well off people. Her eldest son left school in grade 7 this year to work for some people for 10,000 a month and they never paid him a single shilling, of course the poor have no power, who would believe him?

When I eventually met Philimena early on Saturday morning, she and her young son had walked to our place about an hours walk, John Elphas and I had prepared a light breakfast for them (just bread and butter and jam plus tea) it was gone in a flash, so we had repeats so that we could talk without interruption. Her English was very limited so I told John what I had in mind and he passed it on and then we reversed the process, slow but it ended up good fun with lots of laughs in between. I suppose she would be about 35-40 and looking thin and tired but is an obvious strength inside her a proudness I guess, whatever it is impressive.

What I proposed was something we have done with others, that we provide her with an amount of cash, say 80,000 to 100,000 shillings and if she thought she could make a good enough living out of that to at least give her some degree of independence. She is going away to find out what would be the best way to go about it and decide what would be the best articles and when I come back from Nairobi next week after checking the Brothers vehicles and giving them some advice on possible expenses etc, and of course meeting Peter at the airport . We will then fund her if she thinks it is a possibility. I tell you if you could have seen that woman's face with the hope beaming out from her with a mixture of disbelief. It was just so moving. I get all emotional just thinking about it. Well that will have to be it for this month because I have to get ready and packed for the trip tomorrow morning. Thanks for all your support and friendship. I must be one of the luckiest guys in the world.

Love Laurie.