On the way off the mountain and back into the town of Moshi those heading home (including myself) had to make a stop at the regional Health Ministry Hospital to get a RT-PCR COVID-19 test. Everyone exiting Tanzania must take this test before they can get on trans border public transportation, such as my Qatar flight. The turnaround time is 48-hours and they cut it to the bone, returning results to us via email after 46 hours. No sweat here (not!). One of our guides uses the acronym TFT, which translates as Tanzanian Flexible Time. In other words, if you don’t make your flight, you, uh, don’t make your flight. Never mind that there are connections, appointments, and obligations at the other end that require our presence.

This is a perfect time to recall and recite the Serenity Prayer, which while it seems a little cliché for a confessor that routinely doles it out. But it seems so applicable:

I am typing this as I prepare to go to the airport. I’m hoping that everything goes smoothly because I do have Sunday Masses to preach and I arrive in Portland Saturday afternoon. I’m not certain what was going through my brain when I set the schedule, but I probably should have built-in a little bit of a buffer. Still, I did not choose the dates for the climb. The group organizer wanted to coincide the final ascent with the full moon (which was amazing). In any case, I look forward to getting back and doing my normal activities at Holy Rosary Church. As usual when I’m gone I do let things accumulate and stay off the work grid. So, I’ll have to face those tasks sooner than later.

I still am planning to celebrate Mass in Doha since I have a very long layover there. It’s a Mass in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday. I love that she caps my entire journey.


4 Comments

Brenda Lee Allor · February 18, 2022 at 2:31 pm

Praying for safe travels home!

Bill Cambra · February 18, 2022 at 4:18 pm

Fr. Corwin. We are all on a journey and must remember your wise words. Safe travels.

Jeff Williams · February 18, 2022 at 5:30 pm

Great blessings to you and to the Church for having you there to say Mass on the summit. Yes, the squeezing of time and how it affects fixed schedules and far away travel have given me no small amount of stress. You did well Father!

Carol Jacobs · February 18, 2022 at 10:02 pm

Safe travels Father… Thank you for the blogs. Beautiful scenery and interesting read…

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