Knights' Ball - Saturday February 25th 2012

http://www.prestonfield.com

The Knights' Ball, the main fund-raising event of the Order of Malta in Scotland, will take place in the glamorous Prestonfield House, Edinburgh, on Saturday 25th February 2012 Tickets are available now via the Knights' Ball website.

Dundas Castle Conversazione

The Christmas Conversazione, graciously hosted by our Companion, Lady Stewart-Clark. was a huge success and has already raised more than £7000 with money still coming in. The professionals, actress Lorraine McIntosh, opera singer Ann Archibald and reader Lofty Buchanan were joined by a group of Sixth Formers from St Aloysius' College, Glasgow, to start Christmas with a bang. Many thanks to all and to Lady Bruntisfield who masterminded the ticket-sales so successfully. The money is now going to two of our Kenyan projects, the Marsabit Famine Relief programme run by Malteser International from Nairobi and the village hospital at Lamu. Many thanks to all who supported the evening in any way,especially our principal sponsors, C.R.Smith, and Margaret and Matthew Reilly of Suburban Taverns, Glasgow, who donated the wine.

Hay of Seaton Memorial Lecture

Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the Order of Malta, will give the Hay of Seaton Memorial Lecture at Aberdeen University on Monday 16th April. The lecture will be repeated on Wednesday 18th April in London. Further details to follow - the website has some background to the lectures, albeit very out-of-date: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/​hayofseaton/background.php

Christmas Conversazione - 12th December 2011

The Christmas Conversazione in Dundas Castle on Monday 12th December is fast-approaching and all the seats have been sold. The readers will be the ever-green Lofty Buchanan and the delightful Lorraine McIntosh. As well as her fame as a singer/song-writer with Deacon Blue, Lorraine is the star of Ken Loach's film "My Name Is Joe", and Lone Scherfig's "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself", as well as several episodes of "Taggart" and "River City"; she has just finished a highly-acclaimed run of "Men Should Weep" with the National Theatre of Scotland. The carols will be performed and led by this year's Kibera Companions of St Aloysius' College Sixth form, and Ann Archibald, a former principal soprano with Scottish Opera, E.N.O. and Royal Danish Opera will perform some arias. The event is generously sponsored by C.R.Smith.

Directions to the Castle, kindly lent to us for the evening by one of our Companions, Lady Stewart-Clark, can be found HERE.

Kibera Ceilidh

Many thanks to all who supported the Kibera Ceilidh on November 25th in Glasgow. More than £2000 was raised after expenses and this will be a substantial donation to the rebuilding of Laini Saba Primary School in Kibera.

Monday 12th December 7.30 p.m. Dundas Castle

A Christmas Social Event with cabaret, music, wine, carols and light supper will be held at Dundas Castle, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, EH30 9SS by kind permission of Sir Jack and Lady Stewart-Clark in aid of Lamu District Hospital, Kenya and Marsabit Famine Relief
Ticket: £30 (contact Liam Devlin or Jan Bruntisfield)

Sunday 4th December 2011 Day of Recollection

The Delegation's Day of Recollection will take place on Sunday 4th December 2011 from 10.30a.m. – 4 p.m. at Traquair House, Innerleithen, Peebleshire, EH44 6PW by kind permission of Catherine Maxwell-Stuart.

The cost is £25 and places are limited to 30. (contact: Philip Scrope)

Friday 25th November 7.30 p.m.

Ceilidh for Kibera 7.30 p.m. in Christ the King Church Hall, 220 Carmunnock Road, Glasgow, G44 5AP. Run by the young people going to Kibera in February 2012 in aid of the Community Health Workers of the Order of Malta and Laini Saba Primary School, Kibera. Tickets £10 each from Liam Devlin

Thursday 10th November 6.15: Order Requiem

The Annual Requiem Mass for the Delegation will be celebrated on Thursday 10th November, at 6.15 for 6.30 p.m. in St Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh.

The Cathedral has excellent wheelchair access and there will be a reception afterwards in the Cathedral Hall.

Wednesday 9th November 6 p.m. Duns Castle

A lecture by Angus Hay on the History of the Knights of Malta, followed by supper in Duns Castle, Berwickshire, TD11 3NW by kind permission of Mr & Mrs Alexander Hay of Duns

Tickets £15 (contact Liam Devlin for tickets "petrasancta "at" gmail.com

African Fayre - Thursday 29th September 2011

There will be an AFRICAN FAYRE in St Aloysius' College, 45 Hill Street, Glasgow G3 6RJ on Thursday 29th September at 7 p.m. The Osiligi Maasai Warriors will entertain, with audience participation, the food will be an African buffet by Karibu, and there will be stalls selling African artefacts, as well as drum workshops and other activities.

The event is in aid of Malteser International famine relief for the Marsabit district of Northern Kenya. Tickets are £10 each from College reception, (0141 331 9222)

Walsingham Pilgrimage 16-18th September

There are still places available for helpers on the Walsingham Pilgrimage.

North-East Companions Event 14th September 2011

THE KNIGHTS OF JERUSALEM
A TALK BY ANGUS HAY

1715HRS WEDNESDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2011

THE PARISH CENTRE, ST.COLUMBA’S CHURCH, 5 HIGH STREET, BANCHORY

BY KIND PERMISSION OF CANON ANDREW MANN.

The story of the Knights of Malta

1715hrs Drinks/Tea/Coffee 1745hrs Talk starts 1900 talk ends

1930hrs Mass at St. Columba’s for those who wish to attend.


Cost: £5.00 per person. Payment at Entrance.

Presentations to the Foundation of Hope

The Foundation of Hope is a wonderful Kibera charity founded by one of our young grads, David Dinda. It promotes decency, tolerance and health awareness through sport and performing arts and operates from the upper classrooms in the former St Aloysius Gonzaga High School buildings near Roundabout 42. After they had performed for us, we gave them presents - a camcorder, presented by Lucia, and two sets of football strips, presented by Michael.

Lamu Laboratory

An essential part of any hospital, especially in Africa where TB, HIV and malaria are so prevalent, is the laboratory. Lamu has a highly-skilled lab staff but they have to improvise with very poor equipment.
Here is the staff:

Here are cultures being grown in a tattered old case with an ordinary striplight:

And here are slides with blood being tested for malaria being dried out using a rusty old fan:

Not strictly part of the lab, but here is the blood bank. All blood has to come through the testing centre at Mombasa and kept at a temperature of around 7 degrees. In Lamu it is stored in a domestic fridge and the door opened from time to time to stop the blood from getting too cold.

Babies

In case we forget the focus of this part of our activity - healthy mothers and healthy babies - here are two babies delivered by C section performed by Dr Nurein while we were there.

Lamu Operating Theatre

Although we have narrowed our involvement to the maternity pavillion, it is important to realise that despite Lamu's having no roads and very basic medical facilities, Dr Nurein has to carry out all the functions, medical and surgical, of a large hospital. Just to show that Africa has its fair share of sweaty nightcaps, here is one of Dr Nurein's operations which hit the headlines:

Lamu Hospital - gifts already given

Thanks to the organisational skills of Alice in Nairobi, the Companions and other friends have now given several items of important equipment to Dr Nurein and his team but there is a long way to go. All of the donated equipment is clearly marked as Order of Malta property.
The first picture shows the operating theatre with the old lights, which barely function. Alice has now ordered a new set of lights, whcih arrived while we were there, but which have still to be installed.

This is a good quality domestic fridge, but as well as keeping normal things chilled, it also has to double as the blood bank (see the next entry) which is not desirable as the door has to opened frequently to stop the blood from getting too cold - a rather Heath Robinson solution.

Here is the equipment steriliser:

and finally the two delivery beds in the maternity unit.

King Fahd Hospital Lamu

The King Fahd Hospital, Lamu, is one of the projects adopted by the Companions of the Order of Malta. One of our Companions, Suzanna, is a teacher at a prep school in Cambridge which she is hoping will join us in supporting Dr Mohidin Nurein, the superintendent of the hospital so we made this little film for him to speak to the children of the school directly.

Teaching at St Al's

Painting again

Painting Laini Saba

Companions working in Kibera, Nairobi

Nine Companions are now working in Nairobi and have spent two days painting Laini Saba Primary School.

Kibera Excursion

Companions Kibera Outing now well underway! Lucia, Simon and Danny installed at the weekend, Gerry and Michael in the air, Claire, Viviana, Liam and Charles set off tomorrow, Alexandra and Amy arrive on Friday. Watch this space for snaps!

Grand Prior's Funeral

There was an excellent turn-out of Companions at Fra' Freddy's funeral in Edinburgh today. Wonderful, as ever, to see the Old Rite celebrated with such dignity and Cardinal O'Brien's homily was both affectionate and prayerful.

African Fayre - Thursday 29th September 2011

In St Aloysius' College, 45 Hill Street, Glasgow G3 (city centre, 2 minutes from the M8)


In aid of the Companions charity in Nairobi and Lamu. There will be African food, drumming classes, stalls selling jewellery, beadwork, artefacts etc, face-painting and, the centrepiece: the Osiligi Maasai Warriors. Tickets are £10 (children £5).

Companions Formation Day

The Companions of the Delegation of Scotland and the Northern Marches had a very interesting and enjoyable Formation Day at St Aloysius’ College SJ in Glasgow, on Trinity Sunday, 19th June. The morning began after Mass in St Aloysius Church with a brief introduction by the Convener, Liam Devlin, before the effervescent Lillian Molloy took over with one of her famous First Aid sessions, in which she incorporated some advice specifically for the nine members of the group travelling to Nairobi next week.
After lunch we had an excellent and very scholarly lecture from Angus Hay on the history of the Order. This was very well-presented and greatly appreciated by the audience. After his talk, Companion Kathleen Welsh MBE, former chairman of Dial-a-Journey and still a member of the Board, gave a very interesting brief account of the history and importance of the Dial-a-Journey facility. The Day concluded with prayers and a blessing given by Monsignor Hugh Boyle.
Sadly missing from the day were the Delegate who asked for it to be organised, Henry Lorimer, and Fra’ Freddy Crichton-Stuart , the Grand Prior, who as recently as last Sunday was planning to speak at it. May both these great men rest in peace.

Trinity Sunday 2011

Fra' Freddy Crichton-Stuart

Your prayers are asked for one of our Scottish Companions, Fra' Freddy Crichton-Stuart, Grand Prior of England, who died at home in Edinburgh this morning and had been looking forward as lately as last Friday to coming to talk to us at the Formation Day on Sunday. His greatgrandfather was a donor to the the "new" building of St Aloysius' College at 45 Hill St and attended its opening ceremony. His family was also a major donor to St Aloysius Church. An obituary of him can be found on the BASMOM website. RIP

Kibera - June/July 2011 Itinerary

Sunday 26th June 2011: 20.50: Lucia arrives (alone)
Laurence will collect her and hold a sign saying Lucia B....... and take her to Mary Ward. On Monday and Tuesday, Alice will collect Lucia from Mary Ward and take her out to see some medical programmes

Wednesday 29th June: KL4141 0635 Gerry and Michael arrive.
Laurence will pick them up and take them to Mary Ward. He will hold a sign saying "GERRY & MICHAEL" as "DIAMONDS" might cause a riot! If they want to go out with Lucia during the day, they can fix it up directly with Laurence.

Wednesday 29th June: 20.50: Viviana, Charles and Liam arrive. Shortly afterwards, Claire arrives so we will wait for her.
Picked up and taken to Mary Ward by minibus.

Thursday 30th June: into Nairobi for walk and lunch, then to Nakumatt to buy paint for Laini Saba. Back to Mary Ward by 4 p.m.

Friday 1st July and Saturday 2nd July: 8.30 a.m. All picked up and taken to as near Laini Saba primary school as we can get. We are meeting 6 young St Al's grads there who are going to help us paint the school over two days. Bring PAINTING CLOTHES!

Friday 1st July: 20.50 p.m. Arrival of Alex and Amy at airport. Liam will go with Laurence to collect them.

Sunday 3rd July: minibus pick-up at 9 a.m. to go to Nyumbani Orphanage for Mass and then either back to Laini Saba if the painting is not finished or off to the Giraffe Centre and lunch at Karen Blixen.

Monday 4th – Friday 8th July:Three groups: one to Laini Saba (Viviana, Alex and Amy), one to St Christine’s (Gerry & Charles) and one to St Secilia’s (Michael, Lucia, Claire) All going by taxis to start about 9 and return about 4 p.m.

Saturday 9th / Sunday 10th July: tourism – safari in the Nairobi National Park, National Museum etc.

Monday 11th July: 3 Devlins, Amy, Alex and Claire to airport for 6 a.m. check-in.

Tuesday 12th July: Gerry and Michael to airport for 6 a.m. (to fly back to UK), Lucia to airport for flight to Malawi (time to be advised).

We will have dinner guests most evenings to talk to us, including Thomas, director of the St Al's Grad Programme, Barlet, Thomas' predecessor, David, director of the Foundation for Hope,and Alice, First Secretary to the Embassy of the Order of Malta.

It might be a good idea to bring wellies - even a little rain turns Kibera into a muddy swamp. We have a lot of stuff to bring out so it would be handy if you could bring case 2 in with you on June 19th to the Formation Day.

Memorial Service for Shahbaz Bhatti

Companions will help as ushers and choir-members at the Scottish Christian Asian Fellowship's ecumenical Memorial Service in Pollokshields Parish Church, Glasgow, on Saturday 4th June 2011 at 11 a.m. The service is in memory of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Catholic minister in Pakistan murdered in March by the Taliban for daring to speak out against the country's blasphemy laws.

Directions to St Aloysius' College

click to enlarge the map.

If you are coming on the motorway from the North or East, take exit 17 marked DUMBARTON and go LEFT at the traffic-lights. You are now 100 yards from the College but have to go round the Hill.
At the next set of lights, go RIGHT and then RIGHT again at the third set of lights into Cambridge St..
Hill St is the FIRST on the RIGHT off Cambridge St.
The Convent Building is at the THIRD corner on the right (Scott St). Go down Scott St and you will see a playground on the right where you can park. Please do not park in the small area round the Convent itself as we need the space for disabled Companions.

If you are coming by train or bus, please head for SAUCHIEHALL ST. Hill St is two streets to the north but does not start until Cambridge St. The easiest walk is to go along Sauchiehall St go right at ROSE ST where you will see St Aloysius' Church.

Formation Day 19th June

"Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

The Formation Day is shaping up well, although there is plenty of room for more people. As well as meeting each other and getting some information about the activities and history of the Order of Malta, the purpose of the Day is to help us both be more competent in our (very enjoyable) corporal works of mercy (Martha) but also set them in the context of our Faith (Mary).

We are very pleased that we will have present on the 19th Dr Mohidin Nurein, the medical director of the Lamu Maternity Shelter, one of our Kenyan projects.

Theatre Lights for Lamu

Alice is tantalisingly close to the sum she needs to buy the Operating Theatre Lights for Lamu. If anybody can help with the last £400 or so, please go to her JustGiving page. The difference this equipment will make to he maternity unit is huge.

Sight Aid International Visit - Tuesday 24th May

A charity called SIGHT AID INTERNATIONAL based in East Kilbride, is making visits to St Aloysius Kibera to give eye tests and prescribe corrective lenses. The Companions have been invited to visit the charity, see the eye-testing procedures, the factory and then some presentations on the work in Kibera. If you would like to come, please email me asap. We can go from the City Centre in the minibus,leaving town at 12.30 p.m. and be back by 3.30 p.m.

North East Companions Evening - Postponed

The North East Companions evening on May 18th has been postponed. Another day will, it is hoped, be found.

Henry Lorimer RIP

It is with great sadness that we hear of the death early this morning of our Delegate, confrere and wonderful friend, Henry Lorimer.

Please pray for him, his widow Dede and their family.

Companions Formation day Programme - Sunday 19th June

Here is the draft programme for the day.

9.00 a.m. Mass in St Aloysius Church, Rose St
10.00 a.m. Continental breakfast in Convent
10.30 a.m. Welcome and Introduction
11.00 a.m. First Aid Session - Lillian Molloy
12.30 p.m. Drinks and Lunch
1.45 p.m. Talk: The Knights of Jerusalem Angus Hay
3.00 p.m. Tea and Open Session with short talks on our charities in Kenya (Lamu Maternity Hospital, Nairobi Slums Community Health-Workers) and Scotland (Order of Malta Dial-a-Journey).
4.00 p.m. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament (Convent Chapel)

Companions Formation Day - Sunday June 19th

The Companions Formation Day will be in Glasgow, for the first time, and will include one of Lillian Molloy's very entertaining First Aid Sessions (essential for Lourdes and Nairobi people but very useful in everyday life) and a talk on the history of the Knights of Jerusalem by Angus Hay. There will also be short talks on some current work of the Order, especially in Scotland and Kenya, as those are the main foci of our group of Companions, and a good lunch. The day will begin with Mass for Trinity Sunday and end with Benediction.

Further details to follow but please put this in your diary NOW.

Henry Lorimer

Please pray for Henry Lorimer, Delegate for Scotland and the Northern Marches who was involved in a very serious car accident last night.

St Christine's Primary School now electrified!

Thanks to the group of students lead by Mr Hugh Campbell and with assistance from the Scottish and N.M. Companions, St Christine's Primary School in Kibera now has electrical power and lighting throughout the school. They have sent us two pictures as proof!

Maternity Unit at Lamu

The Scottish and Northern Marches Companions have now bought a much-needed delivery bed for the maternity unit at Lamu. Alice has put information about it on the Order's Kenya site and will be grateful for donations towards the rest of the essential equipment.

Mass Network

At the request of the Delegation chaplain, Monsignor Michael Regan,we are trying to set up a timetable of weekday Masses which members might like to attend but which will in any case provide a prayer network to support the work of the Order.

So far we have three:

ABERDEEN:
2nd Wednesday of the month, 10 a.m. St Columba's RC Church, Bridge of Don, AB22 8RR.
Followed by tea in the Hall.

GLASGOW
2nd Wednesday of the month, 8 a.m., St Aloysius' Church, Rose St, G3 6RJ
Followed by coffee in Co-Motion

EDINBURGH
2nd Wednesday of the month, time tbc, St Margaret Mary's Church, Granton, EH5 2JQ

VISA TIME!

If you are coming on the June Jaunt, you must send your passport SOON to the High Commission in London to get a Visa. You need to include a passport photo and a POSTAL ORDER (not a personal cheque or credit card but they will take business cheques, I think) for £20.

I have customised the form to give you the essential information - you need to tick SINGLE ENTRY visa unless you think you will be back within a year. Here it is HERE.

Send it, along with a return padded envelope to:
VISA SECTION
Kenya High Commission
45 Portland Place
London W1B 1AS

North-East Companions' Evening

POSTPONED!

Community Health Workers receive their polo-shirts

Alice reports from Nairobi that she had a great day yesterday delivering the polo-shirts (two each) to the wonderful Community Health Workers. Petrasancta people will hardly need convinced of the value to morale and efficiency of a clear, heraldic identity and the CHWs clearly value that. It will make them more easily identifiable in the communities to people who need help, so well done everybody. Our next project is to provide them with bum-bags to carry the medicines to their patients.

Companions hit Bruges

A group of Companions joined the College Choir's John Ogilvie Weekend in Bruges to give a concert in St Salvator's Cathedral and to sing Haydn's Mass in time of War at the English Convent, a power-house during penal times which, among many other things, sheltered Stonyhurst College from which St Aloysius College was founded.