Hi, Friends,

   Even though I said in my last post that I would wait till after retreat to write another post, I have changed my mind and am writing this one hours before I start my 8-day retreat and go into a silence that avoids all computer contact and all other outside news, etc.

   I have some good things happening with my effort to obtain the entry visa.  I do know that the application is in the Immigration Bureau's computer system and I am told that is a good sign.  My next step is, on the day after I finish retreat, December 23, to go back to their office and take this process to the next step.  I am hopeful that I will have that piece of paper by Christmas week or January 1 at the latest.  What an ordeal!!

   One thing that is remarkable in my new life is how international everything is around here.  I sit at table for a meal and I can be with two Indians, one Chilean, one Maltese, one American, and two Kenyans.  So too at a gathering over these last three days of Jesuits from the six nation province (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan and Madagascar).  Everyone speaks English with varying degrees of clarity.  Sometimes I have no idea what some of them are saying!!  Locals laugh and I am clueless.  In that gathering were people from all six of the nations I just mentioned but also others from:  Austria, Ireland and England, France, South Korea, and Egypt, and a few Americans--one is a buddy I studied with (1969-73) during my preparation for ordination 41 years ago.  It is amazing to talk with him after all these years and sit in wonder at how our lives have turned out.)  Our provincial is from Nigeria--which is on the far west side of Africa, maybe 2000 miles or more away from here. It is also obvious how the Africans are young in comparison to many of us non-Africans.  So many are in their 30s and 40s.  What a rich life they have ahead of themselves.
   When I think of what I am now a part of, I am quite moved at seeing something of what God is doing in a church that is truly worldwide and yet how the thirsts for meaning and a life with dignity are the same wherever.  The other item that is so prominent is the desperate poverty of so many people we are trying to serve.  There is so much injustice in this world and so many people with material plenty who are oblivious and/or do not want to be involved with those who find life so very difficult.

   The last week has been so rainy and cold, yes cold.  Here we are a week from the beginning of summer and the temps during the day are in the low 60s; yesterday it was in the 50s.    There is mud everywhere; the rains come down sometimes with such force.  I have a chair outside my room; it is under a large overhang and so I can sit, stay dry,  and watch this dramatic display of  power of Mother Nature.  Such weather reminds me of some of the late spring weather we would get in Michigan--rainy and cold prior to some wonderful sunny weather.  I guess that is how to understand what we have here at the present.  I am looking forward to getting back to my garden once I start retreat, but not when it is really rainy.

    The monkeys are starting to show up on our property and looking for fruit from our trees--bananas and oranges.  They look for an open door to our dining room so that they can sneak in to get a piece of bread--or a whole loaf.   We have an air-gun with pellets and are discussing ways of using it to impress on these crafty creatures, physically and psychologically. the message of "don't touch".  Yes, yes, I know:  St. Francis would not be pleased.  I think he would disapprove of a number of things Jesuits do!!

   I had a retreatant last week whose name is Elvis, a name he is proud of.  He was wonderful.  No, he was not "all shook up"; and no, he did not start singing "You ain't nothing but a hound-dog."  In fact, he is the vocation recruiter in Kenya for the Maryhill Fathers, a delightful fellow who speaks the King's English with  much polish in his manner of speech.  And yes, God blessed his retreat beautifully!

   With Elvis I also had three nuns and an American lawyer from Texas.  What a combination.  I am more and more impressed with these African nuns and the situations they serve in:  hospitals, first-aid stations in the most deserted areas of Kenya and Tanzania, others teaching in schools, some in refugee camps, etc.  They are truly impressive women.  They are so often the backbone of the church, and remarkable people.  It is a privilege to meet with them daily for about 30-45 minutes during their 8-day retreats.  They get lots out of it and so do I.  In all, we get about 45 people here each 8-day period we set aside for individually guided retreats.  We have a team of directors that can handle this many--quite a feat!

   At one side of our 46 acre plot is a beautiful  hidden area for the stations of the cross.  It is very humble in its wooden plaques of the stations.  The pathway is bordered on both sides with a plant that has large thorns on a stalk a little thicker than your largest finger.  Near the top of these stalks are flowers that are very similar to the blossom of an Impatient.  Then we have a couple of tall cactuses and large beds of low creeping plants of various shades of green, then a grove of eucalyptus trees close to the 10th-14th stations of the cross, and finally a special, large cleared area where Christ on the cross is mounted.  It is really impressive and prayerful, quiet as well.

   In the last few days I have finished downsizing three of the chapters of my manuscript for my book to one chapter (78 pages down to 30 pages),  I am quite pleased with what I have come up with.  Now I am working on a chapter, reducing it from 23 down to 14 or 15 pages.  After that I have one more chapter to edit.  I am expecting to be done by the end of Christmas week and then send off tot eh publishers my final version.  Of course I still have to have a "censor" read the text for anything objectionable doctrine-wise and get some close friends to proofread the text for any clumsy wording.  As I explain this, it might be Jan 15 before I send it all to the publisher.  Whatever!  It is getting closer and closer to wrapping up this huge process of producing a manuscript that some company will see fit to turn into a book and then market it.

   So . . . I wish you and your loved ones a very blessed and relaxed Christmas.  I will remember all of you at masses during my time of retreat and then during the Christmas season.  Take care and safe travels, please, if you are doing much driving in the snows of the Midwest.

Bernie