February, 2009 Dear Family and Friends, Greetings once again from the mission parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Atchanvé, Togo, West Africa. If you are new on my mailing list, this is the latest in a series of occasional reports with photos that I send to friends and supporters back home to keep them informed about the progress of the mission. I hope you enjoy it - please feel free to pass it along to others. At the end of this letter are some links to previous mission updates. Arrival of the Sisters; Blessing of the Convent and Clinic Let me start by giving you the good news that in November we were finally able to welcome three wonderful Togolese nuns who have moved into the new home we have built for them here in Atchanvé. Then in December the Archbishop of Lomé came up to bless the convent and our new medical clinic which has opened at last. When my request for sisters was accepted over a year ago, I remember telling Mother Marie Gonzaga, the Superior of the Institute of the Sisters of Notre Dame de l’Eglise, that the challenges were very great and that the only way this was going to work would be for her to send me three saints. She laughed and said “Well, if they are not saints when they arrive, they will be by the time they have finished their assignment there.” Excitement was building for weeks here. The night before the nuns’ arrival three musical groups practiced for the last time – our parish choir, the young girls’ traditional African dance group, and the new band that was formed when donated instruments arrived from the U.S. – and everything was ready. Here’s a photo of the welcoming lineup formed by the young dancers, ready to greet the car that brought the sisters:
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Here I’m waiting with a delegation of some of the local chiefs. The young girl standing to my right is holding a calabash filled with palm wine for the chief of Atchanvé, which he poured on the ground with a prayer and good wishes for the sisters when they approached him.
When the nuns descended from the car, we gave them the gift of a large crucifix for their chapel, carved by a Togolese artist, and for each one a picture of our patroness, Our Lady of Guadalupe.
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Here’s a photo of the band:
Next you can see the sisters being escorted during the walk to their house. On the left is Sr. Pauline, who will be the local superior here. She serves as parish secretary, accountant and receptionist, and works out of an office at the mission center. In the middle is Sr. Colette, who will be the principal of our new Catholic school (more on that below), and will oversee our educational efforts in the other villages as well. She brings good experience. On the right is Sr. Jacqueline, a registered nurse who is the director of the medical clinic.
Blessing of the Convent and Clinic
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A month later, on December 14, Archbishop Denis Amuzu-Dzakpah came from Lomé to join us for an outdoor Mass, preceded by the blessing of the sisters’ house and the clinic. The date was chosen because it was the day we celebrated our patronal feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Welcoming a visitor is very important in Africa, and since this was his first trip here as Archbishop the villagers pulled out all the stops for him, just as they had done with the sisters. When he arrived I quickly handed my camera to one of our catechists so that I could greet the Archbishop, and told him to take pictures for the next few minutes. I was amazed at how well this next photo of the Archbishop meeting the chief of the village turned out. It struck me as capturing beautifully an encounter of the Church with traditional African culture. On the left a couple of chiefs from nearby villages are looking on. On the right are Philippe Gaké, the main catechist here in Atchanvé and Fr. Benoît Hegbor, the pastor of the neighboring parish to the south, in the town of Tsevié, 35 kilometers away.
A couple of weeks before this event I had sent Philippe around by motorcycle to over three dozen villages in the area with an invitation to join us for the occasion, and thousands came. The clinic and convent are located on donated land about 600 meters from the center of
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the village, so a large procession was formed and off we went. The next photo should give you an idea.
Here is the Archbishop blessing the clinic:
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We had announced in the invitation that the clinic would open the following day, and that in order to give thanks to God for helping us see this project through to completion, we would waive the very modest consulting fee that we normally charge. So on our first day, 107 people showed up. A lot of them had arrived the day of the celebration and spent the night. The next pictures show a few of them waiting to be served and a couple of patients on IV. Of course the pace has slowed down since then, but our hope for the future is great, since there is just no comparable facility in this area. We have chosen St. Paul as our patron, the greatest missionary ever. That’s because we’re counting on his prayers to help us give our patients not only good care, but also the kind of Christian witness that will help to draw them to faith and to eternal life in God’s kingdom, where there will be no more sickness or dying and where their healing will be complete and permanent.
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This next picture shows Sr. Jacqueline and the rest of the staff of the clinic. The young lady (second from the right) is Josephine, a novice who arrived a week after the clinic opened. She works at the pharmacy in the clinic and lives with the nuns as part of her preparation for religious life. She’ll be with us for about six months, and then we hope to have another. We’re praying that the presence of sisters and a novice will inspire some of our own young women and girls in this area to consider a vocation to the religious life. Many of them had seldom if ever seen a nun prior to the sisters’ arrival.
Feast of Christ the King at Kpoguéré Togolese Catholics love religious feast days. The Feast of Christ the King is especially appreciated here, and is always celebrated with a Eucharistic procession. Our secondary stations take turns hosting the event, and each year we encourage all of the villages to make the trip to the village that has been chosen. This year we selected the village of Kpoguéré to host, and the villagers there prepared the Mass and procession beautifully. Several choirs took turns leading the singing, and young girls led the way strewing flowers. I was able to walk for part of the procession, which lasted over an hour. The rest of the way I rode in the mission’s pickup specially prepared for the occasion:
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Traditionally the procession pauses briefly for prayer and a Scripture reading at several sites in the village. At each site an altar with flowers and candles has been prepared on which the Blessed Sacrament is placed. When the procession arrives at the site closest to where the chief of the village lives, he and the elders are lined up waiting and – even if they are païen (pagan) – they salute Our Lord in the Eucharist with raised arms or some other gesture, which I find very impressive: a dramatic, public recognition on their part of the unequalled majesty of the King of Kings.
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A Gas Station for the Mission We are doing everything possible to make the medical clinic and the parish as a whole self-sustaining economically, which isn’t so easy in such an extremely poor area. It takes a little creativity sometimes. After studying the local needs we decided to open a gas station to go along with the mission’s general store. The proceeds will go towards helping to pay the salaries of the clinic staff as well as other parish expenses. It also provides modest employment for a few villagers. We keep the prices at the store quite low, which makes it very popular, and we do keep busy because the demand is high for staple items such as soap and cooking oil. At the station we’ll be selling gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene. The nearest gas station is 22 kilometers away over very bad roads, so we should have plenty of customers. Although there is little four-wheel traffic in the area, there are many “motorcycle taxis” that take people from village to village. In most of the villages there are also mills for grinding corn that need diesel fuel to operate, and just about everyone here uses a kerosene lantern. We consulted with Oando, a local gasoline company that will be our supplier, about the construction requirements. They were very helpful, and we are close to being ready. The concrete liner for a 10,000 liter underground tank with separate sections is finished, and the tank itself should be brought up from Lomé next week. Here is a picture of the work in progress:
So what do you do after you dig a hole like this, and you need to get rid of the resulting mountain of dirt? No problem, as you can see from the next picture.
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You just ask about 300 kids to come with basins and haul it away. It took them about an hour, and they had a great time.
Chapels for Dzatikpo and Kpoguéré In my last letter I talked about our desire to build chapels in some of our secondary stations. Thanks to the generosity of some of you, the construction of two chapels is underway, in the villages of Dzatikpo and Kpoguéré. The contractor is a specialist in construction using briques stabilisées. This is a technique in which good quality earth of the right sort is dug up, sifted through a screen, mixed with a small amount of cement, and then placed in a hand-operated press to produce excellent quality, attractive bricks at a relatively low cost. So every brick of the chapels will be made this way, one by one. I’m told that a decent day’s work can produce at least 500 bricks. A village chapel requires about 20,000 bricks, and a few classrooms of a school would take more. The problem is that the bricks really need to be fabricated before the heavy rains come, so we are working hard to get this done over the next couple of months. Here are a couple of photos of the technique in operation for the construction of the chapel at Dzatikpo:
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These next three show me blessing the foundation for the chapel at Dzatikpo, the chapel taking form, and a young volunteer doing his part. We’ve hired skilled workers, but many volunteers from the villagers have been pitching in as well.
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A Catholic Primary School at the Mission Our next major project is the construction of the first few classrooms of a Catholic primary school at Atchanvé that can start accepting at least some students for classes this September. During my last visit home many of you may have seen these next two photos of the existing “public” school here. The first one shows some students standing in front of one of the mud and thatch classrooms, and the next one shows students crowded inside another one. Hundreds of children here in the village don’t attend school at all, so you can see imagine what a need there is.
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Sister Colette has a lot of enthusiasm, and she didn’t want to wait until our school is built to get started. So with a help of a young assistant she has already begun teaching 65 kindergarten kids, dividing them into two groups and holding classes in a couple of large rooms at the convent. This next picture shows her standing with about half of them in front of a baobab tree in the courtyard.
The uniforms only cost $3 for the girls, and $4 for the boys including their khaki shorts. We bought the material in bulk in Lomé and had a tailor here in the village make them. If we have this many kindergarteners this year, then once the actual school is built we could have as many as 90 for the next school year. That means we may need three classrooms just for them! We can’t afford to build the whole school at once, so our goal for September is to build those three classrooms plus two more for first-graders, in addition to an office and a storeroom, an enclosure for a kindergarten schoolyard and some latrines. Then as the students advance to the next grades we can add classrooms each year. The school will be named St. Martin’s, because it will be a sister school to the school and religious education program of St. Martin’s Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland which is our sister parish in the U.S. I served there from 1993-2002. We already have the students at St. Martin’s helping out, and we are looking forward to strengthening ties in the future. Last year during my
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home visit the parish responded beautifully to a special collection that we took up for this purpose, but this is a big project and we need a lot more help. What will the new school look like? I’ve hired the same contractor who is doing the chapels to build the school as well. Workers have already begun digging up the ground and making the bricks for our school, and a second brick press is set to be brought here in a day or two. This next photo shows a primary school that the contractor built in another area of the country using the same technique, so if all goes well our school should look something like this:
We Need a School at Klokpoé, Too! Of course there are other villages in the parish that need schools as well. I’m thinking in particular of Klokpoé, which is one of our largest secondary stations. Three years ago in that village some of our parishioners were dissatisfied with the existing public school, so they began their own improvised Catholic school with classes held in stick and reed shelters. When Sr. Colette and I visited them last week we were both extremely impressed with their initiative. They started with the smallest children and have added a class each year, just as we hope to do here at the mission. I was amazed to learn that they are already up to 124 students in the first three grades. They have no kindergarten, but the first year they recruited 26 children for the first grade, 34 the next year, and this past September 64! I would love to help them out with a school building, because they absolutely deserve it. We wouldn’t have to build the whole school at once, but we should build at least four or five classrooms to get started.
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Klokpoé, like our other secondary stations, in addition to belonging to our parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe, has its own patron saint as well. Theirs is St. Therèse of Lisieux, sometimes known as the Little Flower. I’m delighted to report that, although a sister-school relationship hasn’t been formally set up, the school children at Little Flower School in Bethesda, Maryland recently raised over $3700 which will be used for their namesake school in Klokpoé. In addition to providing the three very dedicated young teachers with further formation, we will use the funds to give them a raise (they were receiving less than $12 per month from what the parents could scrape together), for tuition help, uniforms and school supplies, and for school equipment. Perhaps we can even set some of the funds aside for construction until we can find a way to raise the rest of what we need to provide Klokpoé with a decent school building. If anyone has any ideas on fundraising for that, by all means let me know. Here is Sr. Collette with the students and teachers in front of the three classrooms at “Little Flower” school in Klokpoé:
Summary of Current Projects Our Lord has truly blessed the mission here, and I am so grateful to him and to you also for helping so generously. Just to give you an idea, here is a quick summary of the projects that are either currently underway or will be very soon, God willing:
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Atchanvé – construction of a Catholic primary school & gas station Tsikalé – major project using solar energy to bring water ½ mile to faucets in the village Kpédjé – reparation of a water tower & defunct water system (solar pump, faucets, pipes) Dzatikpo – construction of a chapel Amavégan - construction of a chapel Kpoguéré – construction of a chapel Kpévé – replacement of a broken pump and pipes for their well Dafolenyamé – drilling of a small-bore well Dzogbedzi - drilling of a small-bore well Klokpoé - drilling of a small-bore well The non-profit that we applied to here in Togo to do the last three has some pretty strict requirements for villages regarding the opening of a maintenance account, so we helped these three very poor villages with funding to get that account started, and we also gave them a hand in setting up a “water committee” in each village that will oversee the operation of the pump. Villagers are charged a tiny amount for the water (usually 1 or 2 cents for 30 liters) which then goes into an account for future well repairs. We want everything we do here to be sustainable over the long-term. We try to keep a good spiritual perspective on all this. I tell our parishioners all the time that spreading the Gospel must always come first, that all these projects should go hand in hand with that and contribute to it. That way, we will truly bear “fruit that will last” (John 15:16), as Jesus calls us to do. Each time we finish a project in these villages we will undertake door-todoor visits to evangelize. We’ll invite the people not only to come to the Mass and celebration on the day the well or chapel will be blessed, but also to consider becoming catechumens, to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord” (Ps. 34:9) who has blessed them with the well or chapel. If they are already believers, we’ll encourage them to return to their faith if they have been away, or to grow even stronger in it with God’s help. I have no doubt that our home visitors will find their own faith strengthened by giving this kind of witness. I know the above list of projects makes it sound as if there is a lot being done here, and I suppose from one point of view that’s true. But there are so many more people here who not only should be reached but can be reached. There is so much more that can be done. I often think that, compared to eternity, the time that any of us – no matter how young or healthy – has left in this life is just not much. We are all flawed instruments, but we shouldn’t let that keep us from being in a hurry to do as much good as we possibly can before the Lord calls us home. "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work." (Jn. 9:4). So let’s do the work of the Father now, all the while being careful that everything we do flows from our relationship with Christ his beloved Son, through prayer and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. How You Can Help Some have inquired about how they can help. Not everyone can come to Africa to serve in the missions, but all of you can be a part of this mission, both spiritually and materially. Your prayers and sacrifices are by far the most important and powerful way for you to help. They are
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already doing so much. And please know that you yourselves are being prayed for also. Shortly after the nuns moved in, Sr. Pauline showed me a copy of their schedule, including their weekly prayer intentions. You’ll be glad to know that during the first week of every month they pray for “Father Ryan’s intentions and the intentions of his friends and benefactors in America”. So there you have it! Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say that there are some who give by serving, and there are others who serve by giving. Here are a few examples of the needs that your donations could help meet: Just in case there is anyone out there would like to build a beautiful chapel for one of our secondary stations, it can be done for around $35,000. (You may even be able to name it after your favorite saint!) At this moment funds for the schools at the mission and at Klokpoé are the highest priority. $8000 would pay to build one classroom and furnish it with desks and chairs made by a local carpenter. $5500 would pay to replace a broken pump at a well in one of our villages $2000 would buy pay a year’s salary for a registered nurse at the clinic $500 would pay for a generous replenishment of a lot of our medicines $150 would pay for diesel fuel for the mission pickup truck for one month to drive to our secondary stations for Masses on Sundays, for emergency evacuations from the clinic, and trips to Lomé for supplies. $60 would pay a month’s salary for our midwife $25 would pay a year’s tuition plus a uniform and school equipment for one student $10 would pay for six weeks of school lunches for one student Contributions can be sent to Togo Mission, P.O. Box 130, Gaithersburg, MD 20884-0130. Here’s another way you may be able to help. At the end of this report I have appended a list of items that we need for the next shipping container, which in the weeks ahead will be filled and sent to Togo from St. Martin’s Church. Please take a look - if anyone is able to help with this by donating items or by lending a hand in other ways, please call the number provided. Let me finish with one last photo on the next page. In many countries the Feast of Epiphany is a special day for children, so we thought we would have a celebration for the children here in Atchanvé. Someone had included a piñata in the last shipping container from the U.S, so we filled it with candy and used it on this occasion. It was in the form of a star, which was perfect for that day, since it gave me a chance to explain to the children the story of how a star guided the three kings to Jesus. Of course, they had never heard of a piñata much less seen one, but there’s nothing like a little cross-cultural sharing, right? As you can see, they had no problem getting the hang of it. May God bless you abundantly, and keep you in his care. Father William Ryan
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P.S. Links to previous mission updates can be found at:
http://www.stmartinsweb.com/documents/TogoUpdateMarch2008.pdf http://www.estovir.org/NewsandEvents/LatestNews/tabid/132/articleType/ArticleView/ArticleID/25/PageID/9/Default.aspx http://www.strose.com/files/Fr-Ryan-Mission-ltr-10-18-06.pdf
ITEMS NEED FOR SHIPPING CONTAINER TO BE SENT TO TOGO
- Donated used items should be in good/working condition. - To coordinate your donation, please contact: Wanda or Victor Canino at Tel. /Fax: 301-840-0348 - For monetary donations, please make checks payable to: Togo Mission, Inc. PO Box 130 Gaithersburg, MD 20884-0130
CATEGORY Clinic Clinic
QUANTITY 1
ITEM adult scale (in Kilograms or with both Lbs and Kg weight) analgesics
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Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Clinic Food Food Food Food Food Food Food Food Food Gardening Gardening Gardening
5
many several 8
many 1 1 6
2
3
many many
3 4 various
anihypertension medicine antacids antibiotics anti-diarrheals anti-emetics anti-fungal and other mouth medicines of all sorts anti-hemorroidals antihistamines antiparasitic medicine antiseptics anti-spasmodics delivery instruments - any and all bedpans breathing tube (large, medium, newborn) bronchial dilator (for asthma) canes (no wheelchairs or crutches) chrome cabinets on wheels with 2 shelves chrome trays for medical instruments cough medicines of all sorts, incl. for dry cough dividers for between beds at clinic and elsewhere emetics eye salve eyeglasses (used - can often be obtained from Lyons club) hanging baby scale - must have kilogram readings hospital bed with crank insecticides IV stands (not fragile (i.e. Brewer Co brand good) laxatives local anesthetics mouthwash multivitamins, minerals non-steroidal anti-inflammatories one-step stools skin creams IV accessories IV solutions ready to use. splints stretchers Bisquick Pancake mix (large boxes) canned food items-not expired canned fruit canned tuna fish canned vegetables Crystal Light cartons (all flavors.) Oatmeal Packets (assorted flavors) - Boxes pancake syrup peanut butter (crunchy) - plastic bottles hedge clippers (good quality) iron rakes packs of flower seeds (not expired)
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Gardening Gardening Gardening Gardening Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware
2 2 3 4 25 2 3 many 2 5 or 6
3
pruning shears very long garden hoses with roll up wheel to store watering cans (very large, preferably galvanized) wheelbarrows (large sturdy) 18 W light bulbs - 60 cm long (23.6220 in long=~ 2ft or 24 inches battery charger for D size batteries (8-12 at a time) blackboard paint for plywood camping lanterns (good quality) interlocking rubber floor mats (multicolor) memorial plaque for the mission center and the convent micro flashlight for keychain, operated by squeezing together with fingers outdoor padlocks (good quality) Paint - Duron Pro Kote Supreme Semi Gloss Interior Latex Enamel White Base large containers of 630 Fl oz, 18.63 liters or 4.92 gallons each plywood-large pieces of best quality smooth – for blackboards rechargeable D batteries (best quality) rustproof window screening ideally 5 ft high (or 3 ft 8" high minimum) to be framed for shipment -100 square meters safes screws / plastic anchors Signs (weatherproof) solar floodlights wire for chicken coop armchairs barstools - without back battery operated wall clocks battery pack for De Walt portable drill - DAW 9096 18V XR NiCd cans of spray starch cardboard boxes (easy assembly) cartons of toilet paper clothes stands with hooks at top door bottom brushes (customized sizes) good quality Tupperware containers kerosene or solar refrigerator lightweight bedspreads (twin size) microwave ovens (new or gently used) Motor oil for Honda all-terrain vehicle - GN4 Genuine 4 stroke SAE 10W-40 SJ Motor oil for Yamaha Motorcycle - Yamalube 4 stroke engine oil SAE 10W-30/API SJ night tables for beds (small) packages of 60 terry towels pillow cases pillows plastic bureau type piece of furniture raisable ironing board
Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Hardware Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household Household
20 200 100 sq meters 2 Misc 4 or 5 call first 4 4 10 1 4 20 1 4 Misc several 12 2
6 5 32 16 1 1
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Household Household Household Household Household Household Misc Misc Misc misc Misc Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq
1 3 3 several 2
many 1 many 4 4 1 2 6+ 4 4 2 2 4 1 2 1
Office Eq Office Eq Office Eq Religious Religious Religious Religious Religious Religious Religious Religious Religious School School School School
1 2 remaining 6 2 many 3 4 or 5 for 20 servers 4 for 20 servers lots lots 2
roll of plastic sheeting (transparent) round upright coolers with faucets (not too large-best quality) sturdy kitchen pots used carpets (clean, in good condition) water filters with lasting supply of changeable cartridges) wrinkle free material for Cassocks (red) for altar servers with surplices (white)-not heavy material artificial flowers with stands & hangers cans of polish for ciborium and chalice hand cymbals signs for school, clinic & other locations. Call for more info wall decorations (assortment) black ink Canon cartridges PG-40 for Canon printer Pixma ip 1600 Canon BCI-3eBK Black Ink Cartridge for Canon Bubble Jet S520 printer Canon copier cartridge S35 for Canon printer/copier imageClass D320 combination safes - (call first) computers (not too old, good working condition) desks desks HP#92 black ink cartridges for printer HP#93 tricolor ink cartridges for printer HP#99 photo cartridges for photo printer HP96 black ink cartridges for printer laptop projector megaphones (D size battery operated) printer cable for HP DeskJet 5440's AC Power Adaptor 09572084 (cable that goes from the computer to the power adaptor) printer cable for HP DeskJet 5740's AC Power Adaptor 09504401 (cable that goes from power adaptor to wall plug) scanners (one to be donated to Archdiocese of Lomé) shelving material on ground next to priests' garage 2" candle runners bells for servers to ring at Consecration of Mass candles (2" wide x 9" height) crucifixes (for classrooms, convent, etc.) electric sanctuary lamps kneelers red material for tailor to make cassocks for altar servers, including red buttons or snaps wall pictures of St. Martin (the saint) white material for tailor to make cassocks for altar servers backpacks (for small children) ballpoint pens bicycle pumps (floor type, good quality) books (very simple in French)
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School School School School School School School School School School School School School School School School School School School School School
lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots lots 4 or 5 lots lots
books with large pictures and little or no print (for kids too young to read) chalk (white and colored) cloths coloring books crayons dolls of all sorts figurines gouache (paint, not watercolor) Hula Hoops in general, any school supplies accepted except large numbers of books in English Khaki material for school uniforms little individual writing slates (hand held blackboards) loose-leaf paper markers (all sorts) mathematical blocks notebooks nylon thread pencils, erasers, glue, colored pencils, piñatas (assorted, 2 should be star shaped) plastic toys (cars, animals, bicycles, motorcycles) playground equipment of all sorts (swing sets, slides, merrygo-rounds (sturdy in galvanized metal (rustproof); alternatively heavy duty plastic) poster paper, any colors reams of paper including colored paper (can be used with holes) scissors (safety kind) simple puzzles (all sorts, age appropriate for ex. Simple sturdy jigsaw puzzles) Nothing requiring use of English instructions watercolors and paintbrushes
School School School School
lots lots lots lots
School
lots
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