Pat Patton’s Flying Medical Service came today with two dentists from Germany. Since there is no dentist for hundreds of miles around Olbalbal so this is a major event. Many people came to take advantage of the one off opportunity. A good few had extractions and cavities filled. Unfortunately, without an x-ray the dentist could […]

This past week our Spiritan boss here in Tanzania, Fr. Philip Massawe spent a couple of days with us here at Olbalbal. He had the chance to accompany me on a couple of visits to Maasai villages for prayer services and a Maasai mass at Ngoile, the outstation some five miles from the main mission […]

Leaving the mission one day last week to go to a village for a teaching and prayer service, we passed a small herd of buffalo just a few hundred yards from my house. We didn’t think much of it since coming across buffalo, giraffe and many other species of wild animals is a daily occurrence […]

At 10 o’clock last night I was reading in my room and heard loud cries from the kitchen where we cook over and open fire surrounded by three stones to support cooking pots. Malaye, our cook, spotted a red cobra near the fire. Yohana, a just graduated high school student staying with us ran into […]

Yesterday morning Nosikari was cooking corn meal gruel for her children gathered around the fire. A loose branch holding the roof in place fell into the fire and ignited. Before she could properly react a wall had caught fire. Nosikari wasted no time in gathering up her two small children and fleeing from the burning […]

In addition to boasting of a population of friendly welcoming people, Olbalbal can boast, if boasting is in order, of a serious snake population. We have a lot of snakes around here and they even get into the house. My latest attack method is a liberal application“dirty oil” around the outside of the house. By […]

Oiti is the name of a tree with small thorns and also the name of a area of Olbalbal. In recent days many people have come from Oiti to the small government clinic here at Olbalbal complaining of serious stomach cramps and vomiting. The people figured that it must be from the water of a […]

Korduni, the 14 month old son of Niomom who takes care of the house here, was fainting and had a very high fever last week. I took them to the American Doctor’s hospital in Karatu that is a two and a half hour drive from here at Olbalbal. They kept him for two days there […]