Father Frank Flynn earned the reputation of being a rugged, indestructible bush
missionary.  In one famous direct encounter between Frank and his motorcycle and
an oncoming lorry, it was almost a standoff.   Frank has always lived
simply but remembers how Maryknollers tried to improve their living conditions
from the early days "which earned me at Kiagata and other Maryknollers the
uncomplimentary but justified remark  [from the Missionaries of Africa] that we
bought a ‘fridge’ and built a whole mission around it."        

    If we staged
a wordless pantomime of the main traits of different Maryknollers, the portrait
of Frank would show him looking inside a car engine.  After arriving at one of
the Maryknoll houses, Father Lawrence Flynn commented: "The ten-mile trip with
Frank took three hours because every five minutes he stopped to take the engine
apart."

   
Father Joe Trainor accidentally dropped his glasses down the outdoor toilet at Tatwe
Parish.  The houseboy Johannes "fished" them out for 40 Tanzanian shillings
(about $6).  Later Frank Flynn arrived on his motorcycle covered with mud and
said: "I would have gone down there for only 10 shillings (about a dollar and a
half)."  Trainor commented: "You look like you’ve been down there already." 
Incidents like this helped Frank to always make the List of "10 Best Dressed
Maryknollers."