Fr Pat’s departure from Fiji has been delayed for a few days because of a wait for a transit visa. So while he waits we can catch up on his work in Pakistan.
I work in the parish of Badin in southern Pakistan. TB is a big issue in Pakistan – kids as young as one year old suffer from it. They live in poor conditions - water is not clean and the sewerage system is not good. We have a TB clinic and we try to educate them about hygiene etc. About 60 to 70 people come to the clinic every weekday morning. Two employees do outreach in the villages on Thursdays to follow up with patients who have stopped coming to the clinic. A small fee of about 20 cents is charged so that they feel they are contributing.
We have an ambulance in the parish which I normally drive. One day I drove the ambulance to bring six Sisters here to experience the tribal apostolate. I met them at the train station dressed in overalls. “So you are the driver,” they asked. “Yes, I am the ambulance driver.” Only when we reached the church did they find out I was a priest.
We have a primary and secondary school with about 460 students in the church compound. During the COVID 19 outbreak the classes were divided with half coming on successive days to achieve social distancing. So every student came to school for three days a week. Masks and hand sanitation were used. Most of the teachers are Catholic but there are more Muslim students than Catholics.
Our Christians are spoiled. At school enrollment Muslims and Hindus fight to get a place. But we priests have to announce registration over and over at Mass to get our Christians to enroll their children. They think that they own the school!
Some of our Catholics abuse Columban and Church generosity too. But if they come to me I ask them questions. There are genuine cases of course, but chancers too. One guy asked for 22,000 rupees (around U.S. $100) because he was preparing to harvest the mango orchards. He came twice to me but I said no. A week later he came to the TB clinic and asked for the fare for a patient in the village who needed to go to Karachi. He asked for 22,000 Rupees. We called the patient and were told that his clinic was in one month’s time and he had no knowledge that this fellow was coming to ask for money on his behalf!
by Fr. Frank Hoare
