On 6^th Monday we had our senate meeting. All the priests of the diocese and two nuns who are also working in the diocese were present. We had given early the paper for discussion. It is from Vatican about New Evangelization.  Something like 18 pages and many questions attached to it. The meeting was begun on time and we had good discussions on the topic. There were also questions about catechism and its implementation. The church all over the world finds that there are lack of young members lesser and lesser present in the church celebrations. So there have been lots of catechetical books from Arch diocese for discussion. Now I have given the opportunity to go through all these books and see how we can implement and need to go through these books. I have to find time before next senate meeting and prepare about these books. At 12 we had Eucharistic celebration in the Cathedral. The main celebrant was Fr. Angel, who was also a missionary in India for a long time and who is now here in the diocese of De Aar. It was rather a busy and good day.  At the end of the day I saw that Bishop was painting a statue of the Sacred Heart. I was rather surprised to see our bishop turning into a painter too. He is a man of surprises, he cooks, paints, cleans, does his laundry, he goes for shopping (though it is changed). He does all things are capable to be done by him. This was for a parish, where they will have a meeting of Sacred Heart sodality at the end of the Month. He did it very well.

On 9^th was my third year of Priesthood. It is also the priestly Ordination day of our Bishop. He celebrated his 27^th year of his Priestly Ordination. So on the night there was some special cooking by our bishop. Something like that of Dosa in India. He mixed rice powder with egg and cooked in the oil. It was rather good. So a new way of celebrating Priestly Ordination day. Now the time is going fast, I can’t believe that we are already in the middle of the year.

Something strange that is going on in here in South Africa is the rain. It even rained in the week and there were big damages done to the lives of the people in South Africa. According to the news agencies there will be price hike for the entire livelihood in SA, due to heavy rain there is lost of millions of Rand in agriculture and in the meat production. Let us see how it is going to affect the society.

The workers are in the house and breaking the old kitchen into two, a small hall and a small kitchen. They are also into the rooms coming to make bathrooms. So already one room is under construction along the old kitchen. Soon I too will have to shift to other rooms as they will come to the room and office of Bishop. So now lots of moving to different rooms as the work progresses.

On Friday I went to the traffic officer’s office to get a new license to drive in SA. First the man said you can drive here with Indian license. Then as he looked into my license and saw that the duration of Indian license is twenty years, but here it is only five years. Now he was amazed to see that. He was laughing about it (he looks like a stupid man to laugh at my INDIAN license). I am sure that he does not know about the rule and regulation of the country. Because first he said you must have a permanent residence address and then only one can get a license to drive in SA. But the priest who is from Zambia has a license though he does not have a permanent residence certificate from the government of SA.  When we said that, he has asked us to come on Monday again and we will discuss about it. Now I have to see what he will say on Monday.