Month: March 2019

On Saturday, I met up with Dee, my fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioner here in Nairobi. Dee lived and took Kiswahili classes at Consolata at the end of last year and continued to live in the Consolata women’s hostel, but take private Kiswahili classes, at the beginning of this year. Dee was a Maryknoll Lay Missioner in Cambodia for eight years prior to arriving in Kenya. She has now completed her Kiswahili studies, moved out of the Consolata hostel and into her own apartment, and has started her ministry work. Dee will live and work in Nairobi, while I am destined for Mombasa. I already have my “one way” train ticket for Mombasa leaving on April 17. I will miss being in Nairobi with Dee, but new adventures and my other fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioners await me in Mombasa. I’m sure I will get to visit Dee periodically as well as see her when she visits Mombasa and at regional retreats that we have during the year in which we all get together for spiritual reflection and relaxation.

Dee’s ministry work is at Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). JRS advocates on behalf of refugees and other displaced people – many of whom are living in camps, but also in cities – in the areas of emergency assistance, education and social work. The JRS East Africa branch, where Dee is working, serves not only Kenya, but also Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan and South Sudan. There are over five million refugees and other displaced people in just these five countries. Although the JRS regional office is in Nairobi, within walking distance of Dee’s new apartment, she will be traveling to camps and cities in these other countries as part of her ministry job.

On Saturday, I took a matatu (minibus) to meet Dee at the Crossroads Mall in Karen, which is about half way in between Consolata and Dee’s apartment. Not only were there things within walking distance of our meeting point that we wanted to visit, but meeting at Crossroads Mall also eliminated the need for me to take multiple matatus required to get all they way to Dee’s place. I’m still challenged when it comes to matatus, but I’m learning “pole pole” (slowly). Dee and I had visited the Crossroads Mall together before, so I knew approximately where it was. All I had to do was walk from Consolata to the Galleria Mall, which is up the street, and get on a matatu outside the mall to take me to Karen. The trip by matatu took about 20 minutes and Dee was at Crossroads waiting for me when I arrived.

The first thing we did was stop and get coffee. Both Dee and I love coffee, but my coffee consumption has been reduced to almost zero since I’ve arrived in Kenya. The reason being is that unless you go to a “western” style coffee shop, in say a mall or shopping center, pretty much all the coffee served here is made from instant coffee – just add hot water and stir. This is what is available for breakfast at Consolata as well as during break at the school. I tried to adjust to instant coffee when I first got here, but soon decided that, for me, no coffee was better than instant coffee, and have switched over to tea. Kenyan tea is made with milk rather than water, but as I usually put milk in tea anyway (the little tea that I did drink prior to Kenya), I’m fine with it. There is usually also hot water and tea bags available to make just tea with water. However, in fact, except for breakfast, I don’t drink much tea either and mostly just drink water during the day. Given that fact that I have not been sleeping very well since coming to Kenya, I’m surprised that I manage to get through the day without coffee. Dee has her own place now, so she can have real coffee all the time! I will mostly like go back to drinking coffee regularly again once I have my own place in Mombasa.

In addition to Crossroads, there are several other new malls in Karen, such as The Hub andThe Waterfront. The Waterfront is to me a misnomer as the only body of water in sight is a man-made lake that is part of a small water park within the mall complex. I had visited The Hub previously with Kathy, Mike and Dee when I first arrived in Nairobi, but had not been there since. The malls in Nairobi are small by US standards, but include some version of a food court (more like a group of restaurants) – many times containing American fast food like Burger King, Pizza Hut, and KFC. Some malls here even have arcades. However, with so many new shopping centers and more being built or planned to be built, there appears to be an oversupply. I do not find the malls to be very crowded and they seem to cater, in any case, more to foreigners than to average Kenyans. Excluding this trip with Dee, in which we managed to visit all these malls in one day, and my occasional trips to the Galleria, which is the easiest shopping in walking distance from Consolata, I don’t frequent the malls in Nairobi very much. Not only are the pretty expensive when compared against what I’m used to paying for things in the US, but also more prone to terrorist attacks.

After walking around Karen, Dee and I took a matatu to her apartment. Before we actually went to her apartment, we visited and bought food at yet another shopping mall called The Junction, which has a market and is in convenient walking distance from Dee’s apartment. Dee’s apartment building is about ten floors and her apartment is said to be on the sixth floor, but is in actuality on the eighth floor (as the first two floors are not residences and are not included in the floor designations). I mention this because, these apartment buildings, which are dotted in and around this area of Nairobi in proximity to The Junction, have no elevators! 

While walking around on Saturday, we both had a craving for American fast food, of which I’ve eaten none since arriving in Kenya, even though it is available at most shopping malls. While at the Hub, we decided to eat at Burger King. OK, not the healthiest meal choice, but we were looking for something familiar and comforting. While the menu, with some modifications, particularly in the beverage department, looked ostensibly like the standard Burger King menu you find in the US, the food and drinks themselves were not the same. They did not live up to what our taste buds were expecting. The food didn’t have a lot of flavor.  We were expecting that Burger King taste that we all know and love (or at least love when we have a craving for it), but were unfortunately severely disappointed. 🙁 Maybe I’ll try some of the other fast food options in the future.

Other than the fast food experience, I had a great time with Dee. I stayed over at Dee’s on Saturday night and we took matatus together back to Consolata early on Sunday morning. Dee came back with me to Consolata to go to Mass as that weekend’s Mass for the Consolata seminarians was being held at the Brookhouse School. Usually, a few students from Brookhouse come to the Consolata Seminary Chapel, where I usually attend Mass, for Sunday morning Mass. This was the first time Consolata has said Mass at Brookhouse and it sounded like this is something that they hope to now do a few times a year. The Mass was held in an auditorium at the school.

The Brookhouse School is a private, co-ed boarding school,  consisting of about 800 primary and secondary school students, that is adjacent to Consolata. Classes at Brookhouse are taught in English. Brookhouse is one of the schools in Kenya where the elite, rich, and powerful in Kenya send their children. The school also hosts a number of international students. Although the fee structure varies by grade level, the fee per term for boarding and tuition maxes out at about the equivalent of $7000 (USD) per term. There are three terms in an academic year, so you can do the math. Needless to say that this is well out of the reach of almost all but a very few Kenyans.

Fr. Deo, one of the Fathers with whom I live and eat while at Consolata, celebrated the Mass. All the Consolata seminarians where there and they led the singing as well as served at the Mass, while Brookhouse students did the readings, the Psalm, and the Prayers of the Faithful. During his homily, Fr. Deo stressed, in what I thought was a very non-judgmental way, how privileged the students were to have the opportunity to attend a school like Brookhouse and that with that privilege came a responsibility to give back to others. He exhorted them, as they go forward in life, not to forget their love of God and to express that love in works of mercy to those in need. He told them that they need to work to improve the quality of life for all Africans. Most of the students at the Mass were from Kenya with a few from neighboring countries. After Mass, Fr. Deo gave a blessing to those students who were in their final year at Brookhouse and asked them where they would be going to university after leaving Brookhouse. Everyone of them answered that they wanted to go to college in either the UK or the US. The unfortunate thing is that most of them will probably never return to Africa to live, work and help make a better life for the people here. If they do return, I pray that they become part of the solution and not part of the problem. Here’s what I mean.

Fr. Deo’s homily along with a few other conversations that I heard in the past week, got me thinking about life here in Kenya. Of course I’m an expert (or not) on the subject now having lived here a whopping total of three months.  Kenya has a wealth of natural resources and its people are, in general, well-educated and hard-working, but the country is not anywhere close to reaching its potential. One of the primary reasons is corruption. Corruption is so rampant in Kenya that the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) names it as one of the four problems addressed in its Kenya Lenten Campaign – along with Environmental Conservation and Protection, Family Values, Socio-Political Inclusion, and Respect for the Rule of Law.

The Kenya Lenten Campaign was put together by the KCCB to increase awareness and inform the public of problems affecting society. Through the Lenten Campaign, the Kenyan bishops ask people to join them in addressing these problems and advocate for change. During Lent, we are all called to examine our own lives and transform ourselves. If each person does their part, through prayer, we are confident that God will do the rest. 

For the Lenten Campaign, the KCCB put together a very nice booklet that tackles each of the five issues addressed in the campaign. Each week, one of the issues is supposed to be examined and reflected on. The campaign booklet gives a story of a concrete example where each issue has occurred in Kenya, analyzes the situation in light of the Church’s social teachings, and gives readings, a spiritual reflection, reflective questions and questions for examination of conscience. For example, with respect to corruption, the bishops ask each individual to truly examine the ways we often overlook the role we play in sustaining systems that reward dishonesty and scheming. The campaign is intended to be used by parishes, families, Small Christian Communities and individuals, so that each person can do their part in helping to address these important issues in their individual lives and in the lives of the communities in which they live. Several of the Small Christian Communities in Kibera, with which I have been blessed to worship, are using the campaign material as the basis for part of their weekly gatherings during Lent.

The Kenyan bishops state that corruption is a disease, eating away not just at Kenyan politics but at the economy and society in general. They say that the theft of public resources keeps food away from the needy, medicines from dispensaries and siphons off funding needed for public services. The bishops go on to state that corruption in Kenya is growing at unimaginable levels, with the situation getting worse by the day through shameless thefts of public and private resources by those charged with safeguarding them. Many people have been disenfranchised  and the economy and social life of Kenya has been compromised. The bishops see the root-cause of corruption as impunity, which has led to a select few highly connected individuals who believe that they are untouchable. Stated pretty directly, wouldn’t you say? But what disturbed me even more was the fact that the bishops concluded by stating that Kenyans seem to have now accepted corruption as a way of life. In other words, that the Kenyan people have lost all hope.

I ask that each of you please keep the Kenyan people in your prayers, especially during this Lenten season as we prepare ourselves to commemorate the passion and death of our Lord and the good news of His resurrection. Pray especially that the people of Kenya will have hope in a better future. As echoed in these words of the prophet Jeremiah, God will bless those who trust in Him.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord; the Lord will be their trust. They are like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It does not fear heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still produces fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

God is good.

This week I had the opportunity to visit yet another wildlife attraction in Nairobi. Kenya is full of them.  I love visiting the parks to see, and in a some cases, touch the animals. This week I went to the Giraffe Center, a park that was created to protect the endangered Rothschild Giraffe, a subspecies of giraffe that is found only in the grasslands of East Africa. The center is within walking distance, albeit a fairly long walk, from the Consolata Language Center where I’m currently studying. As I mentioned previously, I’m trying to see as many things as possible in and around Consolata while I’m here at the school. It’s not that I could never come back to this part of Nairobi once I leave the school, but it’s much easier for me to visit attractions that are in proximity of the school while I’m boarding here. There is no easy way to get to the Giraffe Center from Consolata using any form of public transportation as the center is a little off the beaten trail. It took me about 1 1/4 hours for me to walk to Giraffe Center (and as what goes up, must come down, it took me about 1 1/4 hours to walk back home later). However, it was well worth it. The only real transportation option is a pikipiki, which means motorcycle, that you ride on the back of. Pikipiki abound all over Naorobi. You can find them on many major roadways at intersections. At the Galleria mall, which is right down the street from the school, there are always at least 3 -4 pikipiki there waiting for passengers at any time. Although I have been daring enough to touch a lion and a crocodile here in Kenya, I have not yet had the courage to ride on the back of a pikipiki. I’m not sure if I ever will, especially given the fact that many passengers don’t even wear a helmet as not all drivers provide one. Add to that the condition of some of the roads and the way the pikipiki weave around cars, I’m not sure I’m that brave (or more likely careless). In any case, I really needed the exercise anyway as walking is really the only exercise I get here and I don’t do enough of it. It was not only a beautiful day to walk, as most days are in Nairobi, but I got to explore different places on my way to the center, which is I mentioned is off the main road and so I have not walked that way before.

At the Giraffe center, you get to hand feed the giraffes. When you enter the center, you are given a bag of “giraffe food”, consisting of dried pellets made from leaves, which I learned are from the branches of acacia trees, that the giraffes really like.  The giraffes are fed most of the day by tourists and also free to roam around their large enclosed area to find and eat other food. You feed the giraffes by holding the pellet between your index finger and thumb and let the giraffe use their long tongues to take the food from between your fingers. Although, there are signs that say to only use your hands to feed the giraffes, a number of people put the food between their lips and have the giraffes take the food that way. That wasn’t something I felt compelled to do.

At the Giraffe Center, you can get right up close to the giraffes. There is an elevated viewing area where you can feed the giraffes “face to face” and even touch them. However, you need to be careful. While the giraffes don’t bite (unless possibly if really threatened), they do head butt. One guy barely escaped being clobbered. The giraffes have pretty big heads and I’m sure it would hurt. I also learned not to get to close to the giraffes when they are drinking. After drinking from the water container, one giraffe proceeded to splash water on everyone who was close by. Some people got soaked! Fortunately, I was up on the elevated platform when this happened and so out of range of the water. I nearly captured the event on video, but had just stopped recording when this happened.

At the center there is a lot of information posted about giraffes and the guides at the center periodically give about a ten minute talk and answer questions. One new fact that I learned is that giraffes can kick with enough force to take out a lion, that is seriously wound or even kill. That was another reason why I’m happy that most of the viewing at the center is from the elevated platform.

It’s interesting how the giraffes all have different personalities that you can actually discern in your encounters with them. I guess it shouldn’t come as a big surprise as most of us are aware in difference in personalities of our pets at home. However, in my mind, I mistakenly lumped all species of wildlife together into a single entity, like giraffes, when in fact each animal is unique and different. As I discussed in my last post, every creature has its own value and significance. I needed to be reminded of that fact.

I didn’t necessarily mean for these blog posts to be so serious and filled with theological reflections (and I’m certainly not claiming to be a theologian), but when I sit down to write my posts this is what comes out. So, I sit back and let our Lord take the lead, praying that I’m doing what he wants me to do. If I’m not accomplishing exactly what He wants, then I’m at least trying my best.

I have been watching a set of bible study videos online. The very first video sets the table to the series with the statement “we’re standing in the stream of salvation history.” Well, that got me thinking about salvation history and using the analogy of a stream or river to describe it. So here goes yet another reflection. This is what I came up with.

Think of creation, which is ‘in a state of journeying’ (as it did not spring forth complete from the hands of God as described in the Catechism), as a river flowing towards its mouth, where it meets its final destiny, which for creation is God, the source and final destiny of all things. However, with creation, the journeying toward the mouth of the river is still a work in progress. The ultimate perfection, to which God has destined it, is yet to be attained. 

God willed that we be active and willing participants in the stream of salvation history. Each of us, in some way guides the river, with our thoughts and actions, what we do and what we have fail to do, in other words, we guide salvation history by the way we love God and each other.

For we who exist in a particular time and place in this stream, it is very difficult, if not impossible to see the effects that our actions (or inactions) have on the course of the river (stream of salvation history). Most of the time it feels like we have no effect at all. However, we know that in God’s plan, everything matters and everything has meaning. Being inside the stream, we don’t have the perspective to see the path that is being tread – like standing in the middle of a river and not being able to see where it is headed. But if you stand on a mountain overlooking the river, the direction of the river is clear. As God stands outside time and space, he sees the big picture. He gently guides the course of the stream by nudging each one of us to follow Him, but always respecting our freedom to make our own choices. Remember that everything is grace.

God knew us and had a plan for each and every one of us from all eternity. As the prophet Jeremiah tells us “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.” God placed each and every one of us into this steam of salvation history at a unique time and place for a particular purpose. A time and place where He willed that we make our contribution to the direction of the flow of the river. When you think of things this way, you can see how special and unique each of us is.

As rivers don’t flow in a straight line, so it is with the stream of salvation. As the saying goes, “God writes straight with crooked lines.”

As I thought through my river analogy a little more, I realized that rivers flow in a path of least resistance. At first I thought that this is where the river analogy breaks down. Given the state of our world, and the suffering and evil that exists in it, it seems hard to fathom that this is the path of least resistance – at least the path that leads to its ultimate perfection, which is its final destiny. However, I then thought of the problem of perspective again and the fact that we see things only from within the stream. However, if we look at things through the eyes of faith, truly believe what Jesus said “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”, and the fact that doing the will of God is what leads to true happiness, we can perhaps see things differently and the river analogy may in fact still work!

God’s plans are always accomplished. The prophet Isaiah tells us “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.” As the quote by Eldridge Cleaver goes ‘You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.’ I think we are basically being told that we can do this hard way or the easy way, you decide.

Trust and let God be in charge of our lives. Be joyful knowing that His plans for us are always perfect, even though this may be challenging for us to see given that we are seeing things from perspective of standing in the stream, that is, in the moment of today’s trials and suffering.

God is good.

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon at the Nairobi Safari Walk. The Safari Walk, which is adjacent to the Nairobi National Park, has a raised wooden boardwalk trial that allows you to walk around and see animals in a fairy open environment. The animals – such as lions, rhinos, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, ostriches and monkeys – are in fenced-enclosed areas, but the enclosures are fairly large and the animals are free to roam around in their respective natural habitats. The Safari Walk park spans about 27 acres of wilderness, so the animals are fairly, although granted not completely, free.  In addition, there are plenty of baboons that roam around in the park and will come right up to get you! While walking along the boardwalk (and occasionally sneaking in a little closer), I was able to experience the wildlife at close quarters – much closer than I would have ever imagined. I’ve been to a number of zoos in my life, including the San Diego zoo multiple times, but I have never quite experienced anything like this.

The Nairobi National Park is touted as being the only national park within the boundaries of a capital city. What a blessing to have a park like this so accessible within a city of well over 3 million residents. The park and the Safari walk are about a 35 minute walk from Consolata, where I am living while studying here in Nairobi. Some of the other students were heading into the city center to shop, but as I really wanted to see the park and am running out of time in which to do so while living right next door at the school, I decided to just go on my own. I am so glad I did. It would have been nice to have gone with others, but a tour guide, who is actually one of the animal caretakers, walked me around the park. He was awesome and really made the whole experience so special for me as I got to talk with him while he shared lots of information and ensured that I had the best view of everything – including venturing off the boardwalk and up really close to some of the animals!

I had such a good time at the park that I know feel a little bad about how I got in. The Safari Walk, like all the national parks in Kenya, has much different admission prices for residents of Kenya vs. non-residents. Case in point, the admission to the Safari Walk is the equivalent of about $35 for non-residents adults (about equivalent to what it would cost if a park like this existed in the US) and only $3 for residents (dirt cheap). I am currently in Kenya on a tourist visa and have applied for a work permit. However, things can take a long time here, so it might be a while before I actually have my approved work permit in hand. I was previously told that if I show a copy of my work permit application at the national parks, I would only have to pay the resident rate. However, when I got to the park, they told me at the ticket counter that just the application was not good enough to get the resident rate. As I was pleading my case with one of the ticket agents, a park official came up to me and joined in the discussion. In addition to showing him my work permit application and telling him that I was  previously told that I could get the resident rate with just the application, I also went on to tell him that I was a poor missionary (OK, at least true for my current state in life. I had to rationalize things somehow.) who will be living and working in Kenya for at least the next four years and that I would soon be moving to Mombasa, where I will not have easy access to the park. After a few moments, he told me that he would make a one time exception for me and as long as I promised not to use the ticket to also get into the National Park itself on a resident rate, to which I readily agreed. As the purchase of most goods and services Kenya involve bartering, a lot different than in the US, this was my first real victory since being here. Had I known how good a time I was going to have, I would have gladly paid the non-resident rate.  When I had looked at some of the reviews for the Safari Walk online, a number of people complained about the higher cost for non-residents and the fact that at times, a lot of the animals were not out and so not able to be seen. I did not find that the case at all and, in fact, if certain animals were not out, my guide would make sure that they came out to see me. Case in point, when we got the the area where the hyenas are, they were sleeping under a tree that was a ways away from the viewing area on the boardwalk. My tour guide told me not to worry and proceeded to  enter into the area where the hyenas live, grabbed a branch, and proceeded to use the branch to walk up the hyenas so that they would walk around and give me a chance to see them at a much closer distance. How is that for customer service?

I not only got a chance to walk along the boardwalk with the tour guide, but a number of times he took me up even closer the the animals. First, he had me go up to the monkeys and hand them something to eat. There are signs all over the place to not feed the animals, but hey, he is the caretaker who feeds them every day. Later on, we went inside the outer gate enclosing the environment where the lions live, and right up to the inner fence, which was the only thing separating us from the lions. As you can see in the pictures, the lions were right up against the fence and we went over to where they were lying down. He then somehow got me to sit against the fence and then to reach through the fence and touch the lions paw, which he did beforehand to show me, and I did for just a brief moment. I think because I was afraid to just leave my hand there and so touched the lion with more of a jerky motion, the lion growled a little. He told me not to be afraid and that I could touch him longer. At that point, I drew the line and told him that I would like to leave the park with all my fingers still attached. My guide was also able to get these awesome pictures through the hole in the fence using my cell phone camera. All these pictures were taken with my cell phone. No telephoto lens was used. My other up close and personal encounter was with a crocodile as my guide again took me off the boardwalk and up to the fence enclosing the reptile, where he had me reach through the fence and touch the crocodile’s body.

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I’m not sure if touching the animals was the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but after watching and listening to my guide, I had total confidence in what he was telling me, and in retrospect, I’m glad I went through with it. Thanks be to God I still have all my fingers intact! It is interesting how much more relaxed things are here. Could you ever imagine a zoo in the US allowing you to go right up to cage, let alone putting your hand through it to touch an animal. At home, just straying off the boardwalk would have gotten me thrown out of the park. Again, in my own defense, I only did what the guide asked me to do.

After the tour guide finished the tour, which took about 45 minutes, I was so taken by what I had seen that I decided to do the entire walk all over again. This time I did the walk on my own, staying only on the boardwalk, but going more slowly and taking even more pictures. All in all, I ended up spending about three hours at the park.

The beauty and wonder of the wildlife at the Safari Walk get me thinking about creation. It also so happened that a few of the Catholic online publications that I read also recently had some articles touching upon this topic, which only added to my thinking even more about it. I tend to think of creation in terms of its role in God’s unfolding plan and our responsibilities as stewards of this gift, which has been freely given to us. As I believe as a Catholic that God is being itself, I believe that creation, or you may also say the universe, unfolds in God as nothing exists apart from God. As the Prologue to John’s Gospel tells us, all things came to be through the Word, and without him nothing came to be. I see creation as the canvas on which the story of how God invites us to share in His life and how we respond to that invitation unfolds. Creation is a gift freely given by God as God is love itself and love can do nothing other than give of itself. So, God created the universe out of nothing as an expression of that love and as a manner in which to share it. Genesis tells us that God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. I’m not going to even attempt to tackle the question of evil here, but will only make the statement that the nature of love is that it can not be forced, it must be both freely given and freely received. Thus, creation is marked by freedom, not necessity, as God did not need to create, but we are blessed that He willed to do so.

However, creation was not complete without man in it and so man is not separate from creation, but part of it. How awesome that with man in creation, creation can seek to understand itself and ponder its own meaning. Man can wonder at the beauty of the universe and how everything fits together.  We also see that the world was not made complete from the beginning, but rather is in a state of journeying. That is, creation is an ongoing process. The Catechism tell us that creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created ‘in a state of journeying’  towards an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. As St. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians, “so that God may be all in all.” So man, together with creation, are on this journey together.

I say all of this as a preamble to my reflections on my rereading and thinking about some of Pope Francis’ teaching on creation that my trip to the Safari walk inspired. Pope Francis tells us that there is a mystical meaning to be found in things, such as a leaf, in a mountain trail, or in a dewdrop, as well as, in a poor person’s face. We are called to not only discover the action of God in our soul, but also to discover God in all things. He says that our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. Pope Francis also warns against viewing different species merely as potential resources to be exploited, while overlooking the fact that they have value in themselves. That is, in God’s loving plan, every creature has its own value and significance.

Who would have thought that a trip to the zoo would be so transformative! God is good.

Last Sunday, I went went back to the Kibera slum with Francis, the Consolata seminarian, to meet with the Small Christian Community (SCC) with which we have been worshiping on Sunday afternoons. Small Christian Communities are much more prevalent in Africa, where the Catholic Church is undergoing tremendous growth, than in the US. In rapidly growing environment of Africa, SCCs have become an integral part of the pastoral structure of the Church. SCCs are groups of about fifteen people who come together in a family like setting for prayer, scripture reading, catechesis, and to discuss topics relevant to the Church or the daily lives of the community members.  SCCs form a community of communities within the parish and remain in communion with the parish to which they belong. At Kibera there are several dozen Catholic SCCs, each organized into subgroups of centers, which come together once a month as a larger group. In addition to the monthly gatherings in the centers, the SCCs meet weekly in the home of one of the members within Kibera. SCCs form a faith sharing, inclusive community for the members to pray, reflect, share, care for and serve one another.

I first became interested in SCCs during my orientation program, which I completed at Maryknoll in Ossining, NY from September to December of last year, prior too coming to Kenya. Fr. Joe Healey, a Maryknoll Father, who lives and works here in Nairobi, came to the US and did a one day session on SCCs as part of the orientation. Fr. Joe, who has written several books on SCCs, gave the orientation class a great introduction to SCCs and how they promote evangelization within the Church. I was very excited to meet Fr. Joe in NY as I am interested in the topic, having been a catechist in my parish for a number of years, but also because I was going to be living and doing ministry work in Kenya, where Fr. Joe lives and works. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting up with Fr. Joe at the Maryknoll Father’s house in Nairobi a few times since arriving in Kenya. According to recent research that Fr. Joe has published, there are over 180,000 SCCs in East Africa and over 45,000 of these in Kenya alone. SCCs are a big part of the Church here.

When SCCs meet, they pray together and reflect on the Bible, usually the Gospel of the following Sunday, trying to connect it back to their daily lives. At the SCC with which Francis and I meet, we typically say the Rosary together, then Francis reads the Gospel and gives a reflection of about ten minutes on that passage, then each individual will talk about things that they want to discuss and pray over with the community – all in Kiswahili (although they try to accommodate me by letting me speak in English with Francis translating as necessary). Since starting this pastoral work with Francis, I’ve been so impressed with his reflections. Not that I can understand much of them, as he does his reflection in Kiswahili, but I can see the way he delivers the reflection and the way the community members are drawn into and react to it. The communities in Kibera have wanted me to read the Gospel from the first time I visited, but I didn’t feel capable of doing it. However, now the time had come to go for it and read the Gospel in Kiswahili. Not only that, but I agreed to give the reflection, albeit in English, with Francis translating. So during the preceding week I practiced reading the Gospel in Kiswahili to myself, even though I didn’t really understand and was not familiar with every word in the text. Luckily Kiswahili is easy to pronounce (the jury is still out on how easy it is to learn to speak and understand) and everything sounds just like it is written. The problem for me is the way the language is structured, as a number of prefixes and suffixes are added to words, particularly verbs, to convey the person, tense, mood and objects of the action, and so each word is in a sense a unique combination of these. The Gospel I read included words like ‘Watakuchukua’, which translates to ‘they will take you’. In retrospect, this is not a hard word to pronounce. I’ve certainly come across words a lot more complex. In any event, although not perfect, I think I read the Gospel well enough for everyone to understand me.

The Gospel that I read, which as I mentioned is for the following Sunday, is St. Luke’s account of Jesus being tempted by the devil after having fasted for forty days in the desert. In my reflection I tied the temptations, which are principally concerned with the pursuit of wealth, power, honor, or self gratification, back to the Beatitudes – Jesus’ great prescription on how to be happy that I reflected on in previous blog posts. Each of the temptations that Jesus undergoes in the Gospel reading are temptations that relate to things that we experience in our own lives and which directly undermine the happiness that Jesus wants for us as spelled out in the Beatitudes.  In my talk, I reflected on each of the temptations that Jesus underwent and the role of temptation in our own lives. I talked about the fact that temptations are only empty promises and will not ultimately make us happy, the reasons why we give into temptations, using the apt words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans as a guide – “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.”, and why I believe God allows us to undergo temptations. Jesus was tempted, why should we expect anything different in our own lives. The good news is that having been fully human and tempted in all things as we are, Jesus can completely sympathize with our weaknesses and stands in full solidarity with us. Ultimately, I believe that temptations help to transform us by shining a light on areas of our lives that need attention.  I ended with a discussion of the fact we are all tempted in different ways and have different imperfections that need to be addressed. It is easy to look at someone else and say I would never do anything that bad. However, you may not be tempted in that way, so the fact that you have not done what the other person has done may be just a result of the fact that it is not something to which you are susceptible. We all have our own weaknesses, temptations and failures. Jesus directs us to look inwardly when he said “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” After I was done with my reflection, one of the community members asked us to pray for her as she said she experiences a lot of temptations in her life. My response was that we all do and that we all need to pray for each other. The Gospel confirms this need for ongoing vigilance in the face of temptation as it ends with the line “Having exhausted every way of putting him (Jesus) to the test, the devil left him, until the opportune [emphasis added] moment.” 

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday and I attended Mass in the morning in the Seminary chapel. As always, I enjoyed sharing in the celebration of the Mass with the seminarians, given the energy and love of God that comes through in their worship and music. I also like attending Mass at Consolata in general, whether in the seminary chapel or the Father’s chapel, where daily Mass is celebrated, as there are almost always multiple priests concelebrating the Mass. Some Masses, even daily Masses, will have four or five Consolata Fathers concelebrating. For me, this somehow makes the Masses even more special. Fr. Deo, one of the Fathers responsible for formation of the seminarians, was the principal celebrant and homilist for the Ash Wednesday Mass. In his homily, Fr. Deo touched on several Lenten themes, but the one that stuck most with me was the need for humility. Fr. Deo used the words that are used when the ashes are applied – “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” – to launch into the need for us to be humble. However, while Fr. Deo was preaching, another bible verse, from that day’s Responsorial Psalm that was read at the Mass prior to the Gospel, popped into my head. The verse is  “For I know my transgressions; and my sin is always before me.”  from Psalm 51. I’m guessing the reason that my mind made this association is that the line “my sin is always before me” is one that I often hear Fr. Wanyonyi, another Consolata Father who teaches and is the head of bible studies at a Catholic university here in Nairobi close to Consolata, say when he enters the dining room. Having heard Fr. Wanyonyi say this many times, I have reflected on it quite a bit. However, I don’t approach this verse from the standpoint of being a miserable sinner, which I am,, but from the viewpoint of the humility that Fr. Deo was touching on in his Ash Wednesday homily. After all, as St. Therese said “Everything is Grace” with the full quote being “Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father’s love—difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul’s miseries, her burdens, her needs – everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness – Everything is a grace because everything is God’s gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events—to the heart that loves, all is well.” To me these words from St. Therese pulls together perfectly the thoughts expressed in both the reflection on temptation that I did at Kibera (difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul’s miseries, her burdens, her needs) and Fr. Deo’s call to humility (because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness) in his homily on Ash Wednesday. However, as stated at the conclusion of the quote, do not worry as for the heart that loves and is humble, all is well.

God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. / Mungu ni mwema kila wakati. Kila wakati, Mungu ni mwema.

Last weekend I got a short break from language school and headed to Voi, for our Maryknoll Lay Missioner (MKLM) Kenya Region Lenten Retreat. The retreat was  graciously rescheduled to better fit with my school schedule. Last weekend was the break between classes (for me between the level 1 and 2 classes) and so there were no classes scheduled for Monday. Yes, only a one day break between classes! I actually made it a slightly longer break by also taking the preceding Friday off. As we had our final exam on the Thursday, which I thankfully passed and was thus allowed to take the second level class, Friday was just a review of the exam and class wrap up and I didn’t end up missing any new material. I got an opportunity to review my exam when I returned to the school.

Voi, is about 189 miles or 304 kilometers straight line distance (“as the crow flies”) from Nairobi – obviously longer if you drive or take the train, as I did. I’m still trying to get used to kilometers and kilograms. Remember when the United States was finally going to convert everything over to the metric system? What ever happened to that? I think we got as far as introducing two litter bottles of soda, but that’s about it. It turns out that the United States is one of only three countries left that doesn’t not currently use the metric system. Look it up! For those of you dying to know, the only other two countries in the whole world that don’t use the metric system are Liberia and Myanmar. Even the British, who invented the “Imperial” system we currently use in the US, have mostly abandoned it in favor of the metric system. Given how divided every issue is these days, the conversion to the metric system is not going to happen anytime soon, certainly not in my lifetime. This is really too bad as the metric system is so much easier to work with (as everything is based on factors of ten), however, I just don’t have a gut level feeling for it. Being trained as a scientist/engineer, every course I took in college used the metric system, I just never have had to apply it to everyday life. Living in Kenya, that will now change for me along with getting used to cars driving on the opposite side of the road. I can’t tell you how disconcerted I still feel riding in a car that is driving on the wrong side of the road :0). The other big thing that messes me up here is telling time in Swahili. In Swahili, the first hour is what would be equivalent to 7 o’clock our time. So when I have to say the time in Swahili, I not only have to remember what the numbers are in Swahili, but also do the time shift in my head at the same time! In Kiswahili, to say 5 P.M., you say “saa kumi na moja jioni”, which literally means “hour eleven in the evening” with eleven being written literally as ten (kumi) plus one (moja). Try that at home.

With my skipping the last day of class on Friday and Monday being the one scheduled break day between classes, I was able to use these as travel days to and from Voi and spend the weekend with the rest of the Kenya MKLMs at the retreat.  Dee and I took the train from Nairobi, which takes about 4.5 hours each way.  This is a vast improvement over the 10+ hours I understand the trip took before the new train service was launched in May of 2017. The railway, which currently spans Nairobi to Mombasa (we only went as far as Voi on this trip) is the largest infrastructure project in Kenya since gaining independence from Britain in 1963 and plays an important role in Kenya’s tourism industry and economy in general. Construction is already underway to expand the rail line past Nairobi, with the ambitious goal of eventually expanding to provide travel to and from neighboring countries.

Dee and I took the train from Naibobi Terminus, the new train station here in Nairobi serving the new rail line. The security at the train station is much tighter than train stations in the US and closer to security you find at an airport. We had to pass through two separate security checkpoints, in which both we and our luggage were scanned, in order to enter the waiting area of the terminal. At the terminal, we met up with Pat and Ilona, MKLMs who live in Voi and were hosting the retreat, but who were in Nairobi for a few days and now heading home. The train has assigned seating and Dee and I sat together. We had to buy our tickets together, in a single transaction, to get seats next to one another. The trips to and from Voi were nice. We got to see a few animals out the window on the way, but not as many as I had been told to expect. This might have been due to the fact that Dee and I talked most of the way and weren’t really paying great attention to what was going on outside the train.  Although Dee has been boarding at Consolata since I’ve been here, we don’t really see each other that much. The women’s hostel is separate from the Consolata Fathers’ House where I stay, as well as from the men’s hostel, where most of the other male students stay. We also eat separately – separate dining areas and at different times. As Dee reminds me all the time, I live a privileged life here at Consolata :0) In addition, Dee was taking her second level Swahili class with a private teacher outside of Consolata, at a location a 45 minute walk each way from Consolata, so she is away most of the day on weekdays. Thus, the train gave Dee and me a good opportunity to catch up and talk. Dee is now finished with language school and is moving into her own apartment here in Nairobi and starting a ministry job. Dee will be working with refugees with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). I will hopefully visit her apartment and see where she works before I leave Nairobi and head to Mombasa in April. Where Dee will live and work is closer to the Maryknoll Sisters’ House, where I stayed the first few days when I arrived in Nairobi before checking into Consolata.

When we got to Voi, it was great seeing Kathy and Mike again for the first time since they “abandoned me” at the school when I first got here. :0) I also finally got to meet and get to know Coralis, our Kenya regional director, in person after numerous phone calls, emails and texts both at home while getting ready to leave for Kenya and since getting to Nairobi. Also as the train down to Voi was fairly crowded and we weren’t sitting together, this was the first meaningful time I got to spend with Pat and Ilona. I had a wonderful time eating, talking and spending time with everyone during the retreat. Our dinner meals tended to be very long affairs as the wait time for food after ordering was extremely long (and I mean measured in hours), but this gave us more time to talk and be together.  As I mentioned in previous posts, the concept of time in Kenya is different than in the US. This is another case in point.

On Saturday morning, we toured St. Agnes Primary School, the Catholic school were Ilona works helping preschool children. I don’t yet completely understand the educational system here in Kenya, but it is very structured. Comparable to Nursery School and Kindergarten in the US, there are a few years of early childhood education in Kenya before a child enters primary school. In Kenya, the school year begins in January and ends in November. Students get three school vacations during the year – in April, August and December (between grade levels). There are a little less than 300 students at the St. Agnes Primary School. The student to classroom ratio is about 33:1. However, as I understand it, there are two teachers per classroom who alternate between teaching and assisting students.

After our visit to the school, we headed to the Voi Wildlife Lodge, which is located at the edge of the Tsavo East National Park. The Lodge overlooks a watering hole where animals come to cool off and drink water. This is where we spent most of Saturday relaxing, talking, meditating, praying, snacking and watching the animals – elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebras, warthogs, baboons and other assorted wildlife. We also spent a little time in the pool at the lodge cooling off. Watching the animals was quite an experience for me. I’ve been to plenty of zoos in my lifetime, including big ones like the San Diego Zoo, but nothing compared to this. Seeing animals in the wild like this not far from where we were watching was incredible.

On Sunday morning we left for the Tsavo Children’s Village (TCV) Project site, arriving at the Marungu Outstation before 8:30 AM for rosary and prayers followed by a Eucharistic liturgy at 9 AM. There was no Mass as there is no priest available to celebrate Mass at this outstation. The liturgy was led by a member of a local parish, who also gave a very nice homily – given what I could understand as all the prayers,  liturgy, readings and homily were in Swahili. At the end of the service, we all took turns introducing ourselves and saying a little bit about what we are doing in Kenya. I did my introduction all in Kiswahili. It wasn’t perfect, but I did well enough to at least be understood. 

After Mass we toured the TCV project site a bit. TCV is a planned village for orphan children in the coastal area of Kenya and their caregivers. In addition to home care, the project will include programs to empower the children and caregivers to be self sufficient and integrate into the larger Kenyan society. At full capacity, somewhere on the order of one orphan per week will enter the program and another re-integrate back into Kenyan society. This is the ministry project that Pat works on.

At the tail end of the TVC project site tour, it started to pour. This was the most significant rain I’ve experience since being in Kenya. As part of the retreat, we each prepared a reflection to share with the rest of the group. Each person chose something from a reading upon which to reflect. The reading which we all chose from was St. Mark’s account of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13). We ended up doing our reflections at the project site standing under umbrellas in the rain. This actually made it even more special for me.

I based my reflection on Mark 9:4 – “And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus”. My reflection tied this back to Jesus saying ”Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish them but to complete them.” as well as Jesus also stating that “not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the law until its purpose is achieved”. Although His teachings were considered radical at the time, and still are by many today, Jesus emphatically states that His teachings are not meant to undermine the moral values in the Law of Moses, as these are absolute values rooted in the nature of God Himself, but rather to complete them. Tying this back to my previous discussion of the Beatitudes and Jesus desire for us to share eternal happiness with Him, I talked about how Jesus completes the law by teaching us transformation of the inner person, not simply the following of a set of rules. Jesus presents his teachings as virtues which will ultimately lead to happiness. Jesus teaches us that love should be the motivation for all that we do. In the Transfiguration, Jesus manifests His divinity, but roots His humanity in the fulfillment of the prophesies and law that are all part of God’s plan for us to be happy with Him forever. Rather than constricting us, the law is in reality the way to life. Jesus told us that He came so that we may have life and have it to the full.

After the Reflections, we visited World War I (WWI) Historical Exhibit at the Taita Hills Lodge. Having read and watched many documentaries on WWII and not much on WWI, I have to admit that I didn’t even know that there was an East African campaign in WWI. In WWI, Kenya (then British East Africa) fought alongside the British and served as a fighting ground between the Germans and the British from 1914 to 1916. A series of battles that began in German East Africa (what is Tanzania today) resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people. The lodge where the exhibit resides is next to the battleground area where the fighting took place

After the WWI exhibit, we visited the home in Voi where Pat and Ilona live, which was very nice. Pat and Ilona treated us to snacks and drinks while we were there. We also had a brief regional business meeting to discuss a few items that we needed to talk about as a region.

On Monday morning, Dee and I headed back to Nairobi on the return leg of our train trip. We arrived back at Consolata in the late afternoon. Like my trip to Ruiru last weekend, this was another special weekend for me – this time with my Maryknoll community.  I’ll end this post by sharing a quote from Fr. John Horn that I came across this week and pondered a bit – “The great paradox about Christian maturation is that it depends upon growing in childlike trust. This is how we come to mature and grow in stature within Jesus’ heart.”

God is good. (I hope by now that you know the response. See previous blog posts for help. 0:)