A New Perspective

It’s only been a few days since I moved into Mercy House. The rest of the crew moved in ahead of me while some of the work was still being completed. Whenever you move into a new place, you have to get used to being in a new environment , and some places take a little more getting used to than others, which poses both a challenge and an opportunity.

One of the features of Mercy House that I have to adjust to iis the fact that the doorways are somewhat shorter than standard in most places outside the Shire. For you Lord of the Rings fans, you know what I mean. In case you are wondering, the Shire is where hobbits live, and hobbits are fictional characters of midget stature. I’ve already twice whacked my head hard. (Ouch!)

Anyhow, I got to thinking that our six foot nine friar, Br. Francis, has spent most of his life trying not to slam his head in what to him are hobbit-sized door frames. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe the little inconveniences of life wherever one may be are meant to help us see things from a new perspective. In a way, maybe God is just opening me up to appreciating things in a new way, for example seeing the Sudanese and their culture (which is very different from my own) with new eyes.

On a different note, in my short time here I’ve adopted a motto: “Every day a new adventure.” So far it has proven true.

Last Sunday we celebrated Mass in Katire. There was a lot of excitement as we were leaving the village. It happened on the main road, which seems more like a hiking trail than a city street. It turns out that a cow had gotten lose and took off running down the road. Both people and dogs were desperately lagging behind. A couple of guys convinced us to let them jump on the back of the Land Cruiser so they could get ahead of old Bessie. In a flash we were in hot pursuit of a mad cow. At one point we were driving parallel to the cow as we raced to get ahead. We cut off the cow at least three times, but it was just too clever. I think her name must’ve been Houdini.



Failing in our first attempt at rustling up cattle, we got a second chance a few miles up the road when Bessie’s evil twin was blocking the roadway. Another crazed cow gone wild. What are the chances? This one nearly charged into our vehicle. Again we proved to be unhelpful. Better luck next time I guess!

Funny thing is that I was expecting lions, tigers and bears. All we’ve run into so far is cows. Oh my!!!

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