Posted: September 5

A time to work and a time to pray

(Rome) I was listening to radio via internet yesterday--my favorite U.S. station, WUMB from Boston which plays folk music—and I heard the announcer wish everyone a good Labor Day. I was not even thinking of it, although it certainly feels like the end of summer, even here in Rome. Once you live outside the United States long enough, the holidays there kind of slip away from your consciousness. The trip back from Zambia was tiring but not difficult, and now I am off to make my annual retreat. The timing is good. Yesterday it was difficult to sit at the computer and take care of office work, so getting away from all of this will be good for the spirit. The trip to Zambia was a break from routine, but hardly a vacation. We met with people all day, everyday in the process of selecting the sites for the digital learning centers that we plan to establish through the Nexus Mundi program.

Zambia is full of impressive and amazing people. Three years ago I visited Radio Chikuni, in the southern part of that Texas-sized country. Fr. Andrezj Lesniara was still in the early days of getting the station going. Now the work is just incredible. They have expanded the buildings, upgraded their technology and integrated the radio programming closely into the work of the Jesuit parish, especially in working with people who are HIV+. Andrezj showed me the new digital sound mixer they have, the latest model from the Netherlands. Each announcer has a card containing his or her own equalization settings to perfectly match their voices; all they have to do is insert the card into the mixer and it automatically adjusts itself to the announcer. Slick. With people like that as part of the network we are establishing, the project should develop quickly.