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“LETTER FROM AFRICA” Christmas/New Year’s 2008 – 2009 A randomly produced letter from Dominican Brother Daniel Thomas, missionary in the Dominican Vicariate of Eastern Africa, assigned to the Dominican Parish Community of St. Catherine of Siena, Nairobi, Kenya Post Office Box 230 - Village Market 00621 Nairobi – Kenya
– 254 724 255 662
The Church wisely gives us twelve days to celebrate the birth of Jesus from 25th December until 6th January. I’m using that time to get this Letter From Africa together and out to all of you my friends who have kept in touch with me all through the years. Here’s where I do most of my work at the computer. Each of us has a room that is divided between the bedroom and a small office and includes a complete bathroom. Advent, Thanksgiving, Christmas Advent, the time of waiting for the coming of our savior saw us fellow Dominicans waiting for the OK to move into our new residence on the compound with the Church. Patient waiting has been the go word for the Dominicans ever since the parish was established in 2002. The “makuti structure” pictured below was intended to be only a temporary structure until such time as a more permanent church could be constructed. The building in the photo is the third incarnation of that temporary structure. “Makuti” is the Keswahili word meaning thatch and is made from palm fronds woven together into pieces 2’ X 3’ that then form the roof of a structure. The first structure lasted only three weeks and came down in a strong wind storm. The second structure lasted a few more years but eventually began to sag and lean because wood beetles used the main support poles for their dinner. We wisely took that structure down before it fell down on its own. The one pictured is the third incarnation of the temporary church. I guess that’s what keeps us a real Missionary Church. The growing parish community has also waited patiently and even without having electricity on the site. There were many hurdles that had to be breached with city planning committees, use permits, the power company and powerful and influential neighbors who blocked almost every attempt to get power to the church.
The New Dominican Residence The residence for the Dominican Friars was also a long time in coming to completion. Plans were approved, funded, re-adjusted and put on hold several times. Ground was finally broken around the end of September, 2008. The final structure was finished 32 weeks past the contract date and officially handed to the Dominican Community on October 13, 2008 but the electrical hookup didn’t come until we had actually begun moving from the rental house about a mile away into our new residence.
The above picture was taken from the top of our 4 story water tower. The house is built at the highest end of the sloping site and faces due south with the sun rising just off the upper left edge of the photo. You can just pick out the makuti church in the upper left corner of the photo. Whoever laid the plans out either knew what they were doing or really lucked out: the dining room faces east and gets the rising sun which I think is so important as it energizes people right at the beginning of the day as they are taking their breakfast. How can you not have a good day if it begins with an awareness of the warmth of the sun shining into your life?
A Room With A View Early in the construction process I visited the site at various times during the day to get a sense of where the sun comes up and goes down. By virtue of my being “mzee” (a respected elder) I was given the option of first choice of rooms. I chose the room on the second floor far right end which overlooks the church and most of the property and gets the advantage of both the rising and setting sun. I can sit out on my little balcony in the early morning or late afternoon and witness spectacular suns rising or setting. It’s also a nice place to sit and have my lunch. The House Chapel, also on the second floor, faces east and accesses an open-air deck which is a nice place to quietly pray when there isn’t too much wind blowing. It was my suggestion that we take some time to see how the chapel actually works before making any permanent decisions as to how best it might be appointed and set up. So we’re still using the simple camp-chairs that we used in the old chapel until we see what we really need to make this a simple, but beautiful place to worship God.
My Fourth Christmas In Africa It’s hard to believe that this is my fourth Christmas in Africa. I arrived here on 1st December, 2005. In these last three years I have been keenly aware of how many of the aspects of our liturgical cycle are intrinsically tied to northern hemisphere natural phenomenon. Here in Kenya we are about 35 k south of the equator and our days and nights remain pretty steady all throughout the year. We also don’t have clear-cut distinctions between the seasons with the only changes being that it is somewhat colder in June, July and August while November, December and January are hotter months. This turns upside down most of the notions that I based so much of my liturgical art upon. When the date of Christmas was set to coincide with the change that comes after the winter equinox - when the days are just beginning to get longer and the invincible sun is going to get stronger and stronger - that only works in the northern hemisphere. The same thing happens around the season of Lent. Since Kenya is blessed with being able to grow crops pretty much all throughout the year there isn’t much evidence to support the fact that life is coming back and the earth will once again produce a plentiful harvest. Again, in the northern hemisphere which is often just coming out of a harsh winter Lent, as springtime makes symbolic sense. At that time in Kenya we are just going into our “Long Rains” with lots of wetness and a chance for people to plant another crop. All of these realities have challenged my manner of using art to highlight the different Church liturgical seasons and celebrations. The history of the Church in Africa from the 1600’s is heavily influenced by foreign missionaries – mostly from Europe – who brought with them their northern European customs, images and liturgy. At that time there was no possibility of adapting signs or symbols to an existent culture and the result has left us with many trappings that are very alien to African Culture. One of the few images that has survived the missionary presence is the Christmas Créche. However, it is usually portrayed with the use of European or Italian figurines which are anything but African in style. At one church I even saw a crèche that had little styrofoam packing peanuts strung together and hanging about to crèche to imitate falling snow a phenomenon that is mostly unknown to Kenyans. This year, I took as my Advent Motto, “Let go and let Africa…” and sought to search for the real roots of an African celebration of Christmas. I didn’t want to just recreate an American Christmas as I’d done in the previous years and besides, nobody in the community was begging me to do that. So I let my primary focus be the African style crèche situated in our house chapel.
Father Martin Ndegwa, the superior, lights the candles at the Advent Wreath turned Crèche which is made from a large gourd with figures formed with straw and banana leaves. Believe it or not, there are 10 figures inside: Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus, a shepherd, three sheep and the Three Kings with their respective gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. The angels above the Crèche are also made from banana leaves and fill the heavenly sphere with their Glory to God in the highest as they play on their harps and pipes. In the makuti church we set up a Christmas tree and placed the crèche figures beneath it. A couple of parishioners hung a few sparkely streamers here and there in the church and that was the extent of our decorations. When I asked one of the church ladies what her family would have done to decorate the home at Christmas she told me that they would have made ring-loop chains (the kind we used to make in grammar school) out of colored paper and strung them around the doorways and windows. Nowadays they just buy K-Mart-style tinsel garlands – just one more slip into emulating western ways.
Even though we have a decorated Christmas tree in the church this is a symbol that is not part of the African cultural experience. For most Kenyans, the idea of cutting down a living tree and bringing it inside the house to be decorated with colored balls and lights has no roots in their celebrations. The whole concept of lighting up the darkness of winter has little significance for people here in Africa. And nobody in Kenya would have any romantic or sentimental connection to singing songs like, “Jingle Bells” or “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” After people celebrate the Christmas Mass, the main attraction for Africans is the gathering of the family which usually takes place at the ancestral family plot. “Going Home” for a Kenyan is key to the celebration of Christmas. In fact, when one of the parking attendants at my local shopping center asked me, "Daniel will you be going home for the holidays?" My response was, "David. I am home! This is all I have. I don't have any place in the US that I could call home since the house that I grew up in has long ago been sold and my sisters and brother are scattered around and living in places that don't have any emotional connection for me." The man looked at me - almost with tears in his eyes - as this is something that almost all Africans would never experience. The sense of home and where you come from is deeply rooted in Africans. In fact, as soon as you hear the surname of a person you know exactly where they are from and to which tribe they belong. Everybody in Africa has someplace that they can call home. This is why our Christmas Masses were scantly populated: almost everybody had gone home to be with the family over the holidays. When Kenyans get together at Christmas the meal is the central point of celebration. In many ways it would be seen as a progressive meal in that a live goat might be slaughtered as family members are arriving and enjoying some beer or another local brew. A charcoal grill, a jiko, is prepared and the goat – and maybe some chicken – is cooked. Of course there would be the other traditional foods such as ugali, sukumu-wiki, githeri, mukimo, and matoke. The actual eating would be in a much more casual manner than most Americans are used to. As the various foods are ready the people would begin to eat – often standing around the jiko or sitting nearby. A formal table setting where everybody gathers at the same time with food being passed around would be alien to most Kenyans. Africans don’t see the sharing of gifts as important as the gathering of family and friends. The sharing of their life stories over a hearty meal and giving of thanks to God for all the blessing of the previous year while, at the same time, praying for his protection in the coming new year. This seems to be the essence of the Christmas celebration. This Year’s Christmas Celebration That being the given, here’s how I celebrated my fourth Christmas in Africa. Fr. Martin brought a large leg of lamb and some assortment of beer. Five of our askari (watchman/guards) all gathered around. This was a collection of people from all over Kenya: three Samburu – the tribe most closely related to the more well-known Maasai from the north, eastern part of Kenya. Benson, James and Lengasiuk; Michael a widower whose three young children are being raised by his family in Meru where he comes from; and Francis Moregi, a Kakuyu. Fr. Martin then left to join his family in the north part of Nairobi. As parts of the lamb got cooked people began to eat. One of the guys fixed the only other item on our menu that day, Uguli which is a staple for many Kenyans. This is a concoction made from white corn flour mixed into boiling water with just a dab of butter. It is cooked and stirred and worked until it begins to look like overcooked mush and can form into a ball inside the pot. It is then turned out onto a plate and cut into pieces which people take and work in their hand until they form it into flattened piece that can be used much like a Mexican tortilla to scoop up other foods. As we ate our Christmas dinner I was told that this was very much the way most of these people would have celebrated Christmas if they were with their families. It was my privilege to be guest of the askari for Christmas dinner. The fact that they considered me family touched me deeply and made this Christmas special in an African way.
With Advent comes New Beginnings: our new residence; a unique Christmas celebration for me; a New Year to look forward to … 2009! We’re all on our way to somewhere and we pray that our journeys keep us safe and bring us a measure of peace and happiness. A year ago at this time Kenya was in great upheaval over botched elections. Now, a year later we seem to be more at peace but we all have a long way to go in this world before there is universal peace. May this journey of 2009 bring us to that peace. Part of my journey this year will bring me to the US for an early summer visit. 2009 is a milestone year for me and I hope to attend my 50th high school class reunion the last weekend of May. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of my entering the Dominicans on 16th September, 1959. I’ll be in the states – mostly on the west coast – from about that last week in May until the last week of July. I know that I won’t be able to visit with everyone but I hope some of our paths might cross in those weeks that I’m in the states. For all those who have supported our missionary work here in Kenya through the Dominican Mission Foundation in San Francisco, thank you. In these times of shifting financial means, your gifts to help our people in this part of Africa are very much appreciated. Gifts can always be channeled to us through the Dominican Mission Office: 2506 Pine Street – San Francisco, California 94115-0367 - (415) 931-2183 or you can contact them via this e-mail address.info@dominicanmission.org. As always, I write back to folks who write to me. |
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