Father Joeker

By Fr Joseph Panabang SVD

Twin Salmon
I took the wife of our Church President back to the village from the maternity clinic. She gave birth to twins. At the village the people came running to welcome us. I raised my hands and gestured they are twins. Then i got out, took the two big Salmon fish I had brought for the new mother, raised them up to the people and said; “here they are”. All of them stopped aghast, and then  they burst out laughing. Even the mother has to wait for the laughter to fade away before getting out of the car.

Twi or English
Srs. Lourdes and Flora, Fr. Victor and I were in Accra at the Bus Stop Barbecue. They sent me to order for. Back at thee table I was telling hem proudly how I made the order speaking in full Twi, local language. no English. After sometime the order came which caught me by a surprise. It was nine barbecues not four, Sr. Lourdes complained and the bar boy told her that I ordered nine and even said I in English. There upon Fr. Victor who knows Twi very well exploded in laughter. In Twi, ENNAN (pronounced ‘and nigh’) mans four but to the bar boy I must have pronounced it”... and nine”. The two Sisters who had had previously decided not to eat were forded to share the neat. A blessing in disguise.

More Dreams
Still on the wonder of dreams; my fever was very high but somehow I manage to sleep. In my dreams I saw three people in a king of a big competition knocking out easily their numerous opponents one after the other. then I woke up. It was five in the morning to be exact. Who could those three people be? Could it be the Trinity? Could it be the three of us in the parish? I tried all kinds of possible interpretations. When finally I remembered, I took three tablets of Fancidar for malaria before I crawled to bed. Unmistakably, they were the three people knocking out all the malaria parasites because that morning, I started to get well. Also, I discovered Fancidar works better with than Chloroquin.  Dreams, I think at times could also be medium of a divine message. Or, forgive me if I am just another Joseph the dreamer.

At the height of my malaria under the tender loving care of Sr. Lourdes Pilapil, RVM all my dreams were about dead people especially my deceased parents and relatives. Afraid, I asked Sr. Lourdes to take picture of me for it seemed the end was nigh. I heard her calling two of her students who were doing their practicum in cookery. When the picture was develop, much to my surprise, the two cooks in the white uniform were exactly like nurses.