New Life

Last week was truly a new life welcoming week long fiesta! Poor Sister Grace, our health center administrator and midwife by profession, helped by other sisters and nurses from the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Health Center in Kiabakari, was rushing daily back to work prompted by anxious people or watchmen from the facility coming to the mission asking for help...expecting mothers were being brought to the gate of the health center and on one occasion - a mum-to-be was left all alone at the gate by a bodaboda rider, as she came herself by motorcycle to deliver a baby!


On last occasion, a wife of our sacristan Charles Joram - Lucy, went into labour in the evening on Wednesday, and delivered a beautiful girl around 5am next morning. Poor sisters were with her all night, but then came back happy, that everything went well, baby girl was perfectly healthy and her Mum either, though mightily tired...Weird, that Charles did not even bothered to inform me that his wife was in our health center expecting to deliver a baby. When I went to the sacristy on the morning the baby was delivered, I congratulated him, but I was surprised that he was not visibly joyful, jumping up and down with happiness! He became a father for a second time, first a boy, now a girl... He behaved as if nothing important happened!

I thought to myself and still think the same. Thank God for this health center we built Thank God for Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs which financed its construction in 2/3 of overall costs! Thank God for Humanitarian Aid Foundation 'Redemptoris Missio' which cooperated with me and supported financially its construction, for its volunteers who supervised the construction and purchase of equipment, then ran it for the first two years! Thank God for Salesian Missionary Voluntary Service from Krakow who co-financed the construction! Thank God for our Sisters who came to take over the administration of the health center...

Our Mums in Kiabakari and the area can deliver their beautiful babies in proper conditions and under professional watchful eye of qualified medical staff... Not every woman in Tanzania is so lucky!

I found a link to this slide show on someone's blog. Some of the pictures are shocking. Be careful watching it...