MMM Resource Person for Accounts Software

Today we will drop in on Sister Kathie Shea who belongs to one of our MMM communities in Nairobi, Kenya.

Oooops - too bad - we've just missed her! With luck we might catch up with her at Nairobi International Airport. Shes flying to Uganda today. If her flight is delayed, shell probably be one of those passengers with their eyes transfixed on the screen of their notebooks.

Kathies life these days is really lived out of a suitcase! She was in Angola for three weeks in June. The month of May was spent in Tanzania. In April she was in Ireland as one of the Delegates representing East and Central Africa at our General Chapter. March she spent in Malawi, February in Rwanda and January in Ethiopia.

She broke her own record last year by being in the same country, Kenya, for six consecutive weeks in July and the first half of August! Not in Nairobi though! She was up country in Lodwar - the big town in the heart of the Turkana Desert. From there, she travelled by landrover southward to the very isolated village of Nakwamoro on the banks of the Turkwell river.

Kathie - who holds a Masters Degree in Business Studies from the University of Notre Dame in her native USA - is the MMM resource person for Accounts Software in Africa.

The next five weeks in Uganda will be spent working with the Mobile Outreach Program that serves families and people and villages who are affected by HIV/AIDS. A volunteer married couple are due in Uganda from Ireland soon, and Kathie wants to make sure that the Accounts are in good order for them to take over the supervision of the books.

As soon as she gets home to Nairobi and gets her clothes washed, she will be packing again this time for Nigeria. In the space of five weeks, she will work with our three Area Administrators there, and with the administration staff in some of the hospitals.

Does she like this challenging job? Sure - this is what I trained for, she will tell us. Besides, good stewardship and accountability are the best ways to ensure the sustainability of our projects. It is not an easy life but I enjoy helping the Sisters in our different missions to take on this challenge.

Is she not scared of flying so much in these dangerous times? She will not say yes or no to that question. But when she received an Award from her Alma Mater, Fontbonne Academy in Massachussests, in her acceptance speech she quoted Eleanor Roosevelt, urging the students to look fear in the face. She reminds us that you only grow in courage and confidence when you do the thing you think you cannot do. Come to our website again tomorrow, when we will drop in on another MMM Sister elsewhere!