Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hello again!

    So today I taught music in the morning and then I went to the cancer hospice run by the Hawthorne Dominicans and played guitar for the patients there.  The hospice is a three minute walk down the street from the Dominicans compound.  All of the patients at the hospice are terminally ill.  When we got here we were told that there were thirteen patients.  I finally made my way over to play guitar today and there were only five left.  I went  into the first room and the two elderly women in the room did not speak English so I was a little thrown off concerning how to communicate with them.  The superior sister then sent in a translator, which was good.   I played a few acoustic songs for them, and then they asked me (through the translator) to sing....so I did......I am not a confident singer.  I went into the next room, and the elderly woman there was very close to death so I played a few songs for her and then I left her in peace.  I went into the third and final room and there were two men in it.  One spoke English fluently, which was nice.  The other did not, so the translator told him that I did not speak Kiswahili and then left, which was fine.  The man who spoke English loved the music I sang.  When I sang Be Thou My Vision for him, he smiled and said that he was so happy.  I asked him what he had done for a living and he told me that he was a primary school teacher.  It was really nice to be able to do that for them and they asked me to come back again, so I assured them that I would.

    I went back to the school afterwards and the boys and girls football teams were having their end of the year celebration.  They invited me in with them and so I sat down with them and we had soda, popcorn, and cookies.  It was nice.  One of them stood up and thanked me for bringing the Jerseys, which was very nice.  Another thanked me for the boots (cleats).  I am only mentioning this because many of  you donated to make it possible to bring this equipment, and so just know that they appreciate it very much.  One of them said that there new jerseys "struck fear" into the opponents, and so they won.

The students are going to play guitar at mass soon.  They are almost there.  They have learned how to play the Alleluia and are now learning a song.  I heard three students singing the Alleluia today; still awesome.

    This morning I wrote a history of the Father Tom's Kids program and Our Lady of Grace School for the website.  I was handed a history that was written a while ago, and needed some modification, and a brochure with an incomplete history on it, so I compiled and edited them to create, hopefully, a more complete and understandable, history.

     I have put more pictures up on facebook.  If you copy the URL below and paste it into your URL bar, it should take you to them.  The pictures of me in the tree are from a few days ago.  The younger students were having a hard time getting the mangoes to fall out of the tree, so  I climbed up it, and started shaking it.  It began raining mangoes, and it was hilarious.  The kids would hear one coming, and then duck and run away, and when they heard it hit the grass or the sidewalk, there would be a big rumble to see who would get the mango.

      I have had many questions about why people can not comment on the posts unless they are registered users, so I looked into the settings of my blog, and found the setting for comments and changed it so that anyone can comment.  So if you would like to, you are now free to comment without being a registered user.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150711816390089.705210.774375088&l=c4e27247ba


Thanks again for reading!


God Bless,


       Kevin



2 comments:

  1. Thanks Kev' for the update! It's an amazing experience to be led where God leads you. Those moments with the terminally ill brought great joy to them & a powerful memory for you! Keep up the great work.

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  2. Hi Kevin,
    You are having an adventure of a lifetime and making a difference at the same time...thanks be to God!!
    Love, Nana Ann

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