The Watatulu people with whom I work in Tanzania are very traditional, but three of their young women recently became the first girls of the tribe to go to secondary school. Two of them had run away from home and come to me for help because their parents were arranging marriages for them. I intervened, citing a new law that says parents can be prosecuted for refusing to let their daughter go on for higher education. That—plusmy chancy guarantee that the girls would not become pregnant—made them concede, reluctantly.

Now, a year and a half later, all three girls are doing well and their parents seem proud of them, though that may be more because they are not pregnant than because of their grades. One of them is at the top of her class of 102 students at the Catholic boarding school.
Daniel Ohmann, M.M.


While hiking on the outskirts of Seoul, I was approached by a Korean woman who asked directions to a spot famous for its panoramic view of the city. I told her I was going there and would show her the way.

As we walked, she asked what I was doing in Korea. When I said that I was a missionary priest, she put her hand over her mouth as if in dismay. She said she had been baptized nine years earlier in Kwang Ju as the only Catholic in her family, but moved to Seoul shortly afterward to work as a teacher. Having no Catholic friends here, she hadn't been to Mass in nine years.

I took her name, address and phone number and later asked our secretary to phone the parish nearest to her and request the pastor invite her to Church. A week later, I called her and found that the lost sheep had returned to the fold. With all the people on the path that day, why had she picked a foreigner who spoke Korean? Obviously, someone was praying for her.
Gerald Farrell, M.M.


Recently a group of Maryknoll Brothers, Sisters, priests and lay missioners working throughout Asia gathered in Japan for an interfaith religious seminar on Esoteric Buddhism. We traveled to a famous Buddhist temple in the Nara Prefecture and on the way we stopped to rest. The weather was cold and windy that day, so some in the group wanted some hot coffee. As we entered the resting service area, those who do not work in Japan were amazed at all the different kinds of vending machines found in this place. These machines are the latest in technology. Some of these vending machines even have video cameras inside showing how the coffee is being brewed. As some of our Maryknollers were standing mesmerized at the way the coffee was being prepared, a member of the group observed, "We look like we just came out of the jungle."
Roberto Rodriguez, M.M.


I have served as a Maryknoll missioner in Taiwan and Hong Kong for more than 36 years, but that's still not enough to avoid all the cultural pitfalls. We foreigners are used to making mistakes in the Chinese language, but people are usually kind and forgiving. I have never forgotten one of my earliest cultural blunders. The Chinese, even if they are fervent Catholics, always set a place at the funeral meal for the deceased and serve the guests an ordinary or even somewhat tasteless meal to express their sadness. I was invited to such a meal, but I arrived after exercising and I was tired and thirsty. I don't know how I could be so culturally ignorant, but when the meal was nearly finished, I glanced at the large glass of fresh chilled orange juice and said: "If no one wants the juice, I'll be happy to drink it." A person next to me played down this foreigner's lack of etiquette by whispering: "No, no, Father. That's for the deceased."
Elmer Wurth, M.M.


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