Saturday, July 10, 2010

Void

That is exactly how I feel at the moment. It has been an intensive day, the last day of long period of elections (since March this year) of new leaders in lay parish council, starting from the leadership of every Small Christian Community (41 to be exact in all nine outstations of the parish), every group in the parish (parochial and outstation choirs, the Apostleship of Prayer, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Living Rosary, Holy Childhood, Vocation Group, Catholic Women League, Working Youth, Tanzania Young Catholic Students, Friday recollection group, catechists etc.), every district in Kiabakari township (six districts, namely Busaraga, Jeshini, Madaraka, Nyamisisye Madukani, Nyamisisye Stendi and Nyamongo), then leadership of all nine outstations and finally today we had final election day of the executive committee of the Lay Council of the Parish.
The day started early for me as usual on Saturdays (and any other day to be honest). Confessions in the shrine, then Holy Mass and the Eucharistic adoration from 7.30 to 8.30am. Then I had to receive a few people in the office who came with their 'shidas'. Then at 10am elections begun. We held them in the meeting hall of the John Paul II Center for Education and Formation (under construction).

It was my duty to preside over proceedings. I was happy to see quorum achieved this time, as last Saturday out of 45 electors supposed to choose new executive committee members, only 19 showed up, so we had to postpone elections as the quorum of at least half of members plus one was not achieved. This time there were 28 leaders present from all nine outstations of the parish (nine outstations x five members of executive committee of each outstation's council. In the map of the parish below you can see more than nine outstations, but five of them - Songora, Ryamugabo, Kyawazaru, Terita and Majengo - have been merged with others for various reasons, like Kyawazaru village which was mainly a settlement for Wakurya pastoralists who moved to Tarime district several years ago out after ethnic clashes with  Wajita farmers, thus turning the outstation into a ghost village with only two or three families left).


The protocol of the elections went well. We needed to repeat votes several times as the race for various posts in the executive committee was very close. So after two plus hours of election proceedings I was able to stand up and pronounce the validity of the elections and approve new leaders by the power of my office as the parish priest.

I was happy to see that four out of six new members (I asked for an additional post of assistant treasurer to help our chief accountant and treasurer whose health has been a concern of late and cannot work full time) were the same persons who were elected for the same posts. Why was I happy? The period of three years of their leadership (according to the constitution of lay council) will be a crucial one and I need people who know what to do and are well versed in their leadership craft, and frankly saying, that did very good job for the past three years (that is why they had full confidence of the electors and mine too). The next three years we will have a lot of things to do, starting with our projects that stuck, next year there will be a centenary of Christianity in Diocese of Musoma, then after three years as they will be closing to the end of their leadership period, it will be a special year - first on May 22, 2013 I will celebrate Silver Jubilee of my Priesthood (25 years since ordination) and in July 2013 we will have ordination of our seminarian - Agostino Barageti Mapambano, who is in a major seminary in Segerea, Dar es Salaam. As we used to say in Tanzania - 'pole pole ndio mwendo' (slowly slowly is the right speed) and 'haraka haraka haina baraka' (there is no blessing in a hurry), we need to start our preparations very early to achieve what we want to achieve in 2013.

When we were through with elections, I felt relief that this long process of elections from the grassroots till the parish level is over. Our parochial leaders will participate in the elections of diocesan lat council in August, but at least in the parish I am done.

We had a nice meal together as the conclusion of the day. Then I was able to sit alone and exhale a bit. So here I am, feeling void after such a long election process and so many things going on in the meantime, my sickness (since yesterday I feel pain particularly acutely in my stomach and liver, believe me, it is hard to work in this condition), seminars and retreats in Bura, Kenya, parochial routine and other things going on at the same time...Thank God, I could tick them off one by one and carry on with life...

Tomorrow is going to be a tough day. After a first Mass in the shrine I will drive to Zanaki Parish to help with two Masses there, as the parish priest is on vacation. Then will come back in the afternoon home to sit down with my TV/DVD guru who will come with his equipment to finalize English subtitles for DVD documentary on Kiabakari (this should take about two days of work; subtitles are ready, just asked yesterday Sister Stephanie from Buturu to do proofreading to make sure it is English English and not Polish English) to have it ready before I set off to Canada and USA in autumn this year. It will certainly come handy as pictures speak volumes...

My sisters have recollection day today with the Eucharistic exposition in our house chapel since morning (I did this right after morning Mass in the shrine) and after an hour and a half I will go to them for the final prayers and blessing as the conclusion of the day.

Happy and blessed Sunday to you all! Remember, every Sunday one Mass I offer to God for my beloved ones, relatives, benefactors, friends and all whom I promised my prayers and who asked for the same. So, tomorrow first Mass is for all of you and all intentions dear to your hearts. Stay blessed!

No comments:

Post a Comment