Kathy Flatoff and Mike Garr checked me in at language school yesterday. They then proceeded to head back to Mombasa where they have to return to their mission jobs on Monday after spending a few days with me in Nairobi getting me settled in. Dee Dungy remains with me in Nairobi where she will be taking a second level Swahili course while I start my first level class.
I will be doing my Swahili language studies at the Consolata Language Center, which is run by the Consolata Missionaries – an Italian Catholic missionary congregation that includes Priests, Brothers and Sisters. A number of other languages are also taught at the school including English, Spanish, German and Arabic. The language center shares the campus with a seminary and a philosophy school.
Two immediate surprises about the school and my class work here. The first is that the second level Swahili class, which I’m scheduled to take, starts right after the first class ends with only the weekend in between. The original plan was for me to spend a break between classes in Mombasa to get acquainted with the city, see where everyone lives, practice my Swahili and get a general lay of the land there. With the two Swahili classes back to back, I’ll now be in Nairobi at the school until the middle of April and then head to Mombasa after that.
The more important surprise was the sense of community here. I was aware of the existence of the seminary and philosophy school before I arrived, but didn’t really understand how things worked. Not only will I be learning Swahili, but I’ll also have the opportunity to get to know the Fathers, Sisters and Seminarians who are here and interact with them. The way things are set up, I share meals with the Fathers and other male students attending the language school.
Fr. Denis is the director of the language school. He is a graduate of the Consolata Seminary here, did his theology studies in Bogota, Colombia and served in mission in Brazil. He has been at the school for less than a year. I went to Sunday Mass this morning in the main chapel where Fr. Denis was the main celebrant for the Mass. The Mass was attended by about sixty of the seminarians, who are primarily from Kenya and Uganda. The seminarians were very vocal and energetic in their praise of God during the hymns at Mass. Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, the Catholic feast that commemorates the visit of the magi (wise men) to the Baby Jesus. Fr. Denis wove the story of the Epiphany into a call to mission in his homily, which he used to encourage the seminarians as they begin a new semester of study after having been home on Christmas break for the past month. As I’m beginning my own mission journey, I used Fr. Denis’ words to reflect on my own situation. The call and response “God is good/all the time. All the time/God is good.”, which we had used a several times during Orientation at Maryknoll was also used by Fr. Denis during the Mass. It was such joy to celebrate Mass with the seminarians and experience such a profound expression of our Catholic faith – albeit a little different from what I’m typically used to.
At the end of Mass before the final blessing, Fr. Denis proceeded to call me up to the altar and have me introduce myself. After my introduction, Fr. Denis said that from this point forward the seminarians are to speak to me in Swahili only – no English. Given that my Swahili vocabulary at this point consists of maybe a few dozen words, it’s going to be a struggle, but a good one.
“God is good all the time. All the timeGod is good.”
