Dear Friends,
I hope this letter finds everyone well and happy! The year is sailing past so fast that I can’t seem to get anything done that I want. I suppose it is old age, incompetence or both. I have a new parish, St. Cornelius, that really needs a cleaning. It looks like a junkyard. There is stuff everywhere and snakes are setting up shop in suburbs, together with scorpions and poisonous centipedes. We are getting good rains, so grass and weeds are choking footpaths, etc. It is not an area that one wants to stroll around at night!
We are busy planting rice, but have hit a speed bump, since we ran out of seedlings to plant. Thank God we had some heavy rain, so the fields are underwater and grass won’t grow easily. I think it will be a good two weeks before we can plant again. Everyone is doing rice fields. Fields that lay dormant for years are being plowed, since the price of rice is so high. The married men who work for me have gone home to do their own fields but will return when we have enough seedlings to continue planting.
Our nurse Kate is in Bangkok doing three months of advanced Thai study. Our Thai nurse, Eeu, just had a baby girl and will be gone for three months maternity leave. The lady that arranges all the home visitations and does all our dealing with hospitals and clinics just had her tonsils yanked. So we are quite shorthanded and the OUTREACH program is suffering.
The kids are all doing well. Some have been hospitalized with breathing problems, etc. After receiving 7 new kids in May, there have been no new additions. Our ability to house new kids is being challenged right now. Only the kindergarten has room for new babies. The wee ones continue to grow in age and not much grace. The sweetheart of the year, Maggie, has turned into a hellion, and is the most imperious little pup I have ever met. I am reading the Bible to find out if the Anti-Christ could perhaps be a little girl. Little Eileen has the personality of a toad. Nin Nate has some milk teeth in front that need to be chiseled out. I call her the Baby Crocodile, and she loves the name!
Sarnelli House has had a rash of kids being hospitalized. The latest was blind little Miss Nut. She had a cold that was getting worse. We worry about TB. Her classmate, Mr. Bank, is quite lonely with her not around for companionship. Miss Dtan is also a lost little waif who cannot get her CD 4 count up long enough to go to school. She will need operations as well on her eyes; eye lids and mouth. She cannot see well, so doesn’t get invited to play games. Other children are not always so kind.
I hope all is well. The children pray for all their donors every evening. The Lord has really been good to us. Just surviving the inflation here is a miracle! Again, thank you so much!
Father Mike
