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Letter from Fr. Martin Martiny OP to the Benefactors, Sponsors & Friends of Fr. Tom’s Kids & the Dominican Friars of East AfricaWamosre uru ahinya!!! Or “Warmest Greetings” in the language of the Luo people! July is the heart of what we call winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The temperatures are dropping into the frigid fifties these days and the rains are mercifully continuing. Water in this part of the world is life and we are grateful for whatever we get. Once the rains stop, there is no telling when they will return. 1. With respect to academics, we are now approaching the end of the second of the three Kenyan school terms. We expect to have most of our over 275 children and students passing through the Dominican compound by the first week of August. These are the days of medical and dental appointments, uniform repairs and some tutoring for those who are struggling and for those preparing for the national exams at the completion of primary and secondary school. We will also be taking some of them to see the local airport---now we have eight flights a day---the Kisumu Museum, and perhaps the Kakamega Rain Forest , the only rain forest in Eastern Africa . 2. We are delighted to let you know that last Friday, 13 July 2007, the Hawthorne Dominican Sisters www.hawthorne-dominicans.org accepted their first patient, a twenty-three-year-old mother of three, into their St. Catherine of Siena Hospice for those suffering from terminal cancer. We have been working with the Sisters for almost three years to see this event become a reality. The official ceremonial opening will be on the 29th of November of this year. We are so grateful to now have our Dominican Sisters here as our neighbors! They will be preaching the Gospel side by side with us here in Kisumu working with those poor and terminally sick with cancer. St. Catherine of Siena Home will also be accepting children with terminal cancer who have been abandoned by their families. 3. Once again we wish to thank all of you for making possible our work of the Dominican Friars with Fr. Tom’s Kids. Our patron and father, Thomas Richard Heath OP, a generous, intelligent, and humorous Dominican friar really loved the Kenyan children and, since 2005, watches over them from above. We suspect that your generosity is at least in part inspired by his prayer. We want to thank those of you also who have made general donations to help us continue the vision of St. Dominic in this land. 4. As I mentioned above, the rains have not yet gone. Along these lines, we are hoping to be able to build a water tower soon; every time we think we have the money, however, the prices of steel and cement rise; but we are pretty close to building at this point. Well water and storage capacity are crucial during the dry season. This water tower for the Dominican Friars and Fr. Tom’s Kids would never have become a reality without particular benefactors who have been so generous to us. 5. During the most recent Easter Season and month long school break, Fr. Benedict organized another UZIMA Youth Eucharistic Retreat for about 500 Youth from Tanzania , Kenya , and Uganda in Nairobi . 150 of these are sponsored by Fr. Tom’s Kids Program. They took part in a weekend of Eucharistic Adoration, Confessions, Group discussions, Singing, and Prayer. Our kids also had the chance to take a tour with Fr. Ben of Nairobi . For most it was their first trip to Kenya ’s capital! We are most grateful to all of you who supported us financially and spiritually throughout the weekend. It was a great evangelization effort by the Dominican Friars from Kisumu and Nairobi . Thanks to you, Fr. Tom’s Kids truly benefited spiritually. 6. We are especially indebted to one of our sponsors, Mrs. Cathy Nix and the Choir of St. Elizabeth Anne Seton Parish in San Antonio , Texas . They recently put on an energetic and most successful fundraiser and Concert for Fr. Tom’s Kids which brought us new sponsors and significant donations. Cathy, thanks so much to you and to the whole parish of St. Elizabeth Anne Seton. Your wonderful efforts and talents of music will have a lasting impact on Fr. Tom’s Kids. 7. We should take a moment to remind you at this point that the Kenyan school year begins in January and runs until November with three month long breaks. The first academic term begins in January and it is the term that requires the largest tuition, boarding, and school fee payments. It is always a close run thing for us. So if you are able to send us your 2008 contributions in October or November 2007, this would enable us to meet our January school payments on time. 8. We wanted to let you know, that in addition to Mr. Tim Strick networksales@earthlink.net (of Colorado), Ms. Maureen Morrow popsmmm@yahoo.com (of New York ) is also helping us to communicate properly with the sponsors, so you may be getting some communication from them. Here in Kisumu we also have Albert Odhiambo julias.odhiambo@gmail.com, (a high school volunteer who is helping Mr. Julias Odhiambo to correspond with the sponsors these days via email). You can read about Albert on our website (click here). 9. Finally we wanted to let you know that Fr. Benedict Croell croell@op.org is getting ready to finish his role as novice master of our young East African Dominican seminarians. He will leave Kenya for further studies after his last class of novices make their simple vows in August (click here). He will be in the States before starting studies in Rome in the Fall of 2008. He will continue to help with Fr. Tom’s Kids in the coordination of the sponsors and communication with all of you. You will most certainly be hearing from him or one of our other volunteers soon. We expect Fr. Ben to be back after finishing his studies. Our young friars in Nairobi www.eafricadominicans.org will continue to organize the UZIMA Eucharistic Youth Retreats during Fr. Ben’s absence. 10. By the way, Fr. Benedict already said he is ready and willing if any of our Friends, Benefactors or Sponsors would like to make a trip to East Africa. He has said he is ready to be your personal tour guide and chaplain when you are ready to bring him back to Kenya, if even for a brief visit (his Swahili is good enough, but my Luo is better!). A special thanks to Mr. Dom Lamas who is donating Fr. Tom’s Kids website www.frtomskids.org to us and also does the updating – Dom thanks so much! May God continue to bless you for your generosity and kindness to Fr. Tom’s Kids and to the Dominican Friars. You are in our daily prayers and Masses here in our chapel. Please keep a special intention in your prayers which we have been praying for here for a long time: A NEW DOMINICAN SCHOOL FOR FR. TOM’S KIDS RUN BY DOMINICAN SISTERS. In Our Holy Father, St. Dominic, Fr. Martin Martiny OP martinyop@op.org “DOMINICAN FRIARS KISUMU”
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