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


My email                                             Mobile Phone:  254 724 255 662

In the early days of the Church, when Christians were still very much in the minority, it was necessary to have a kind of code greeting in order to avoid detection and possible persecution.  The first Christian would say, “Christ is Risen,” and wait for the correct response which, as we know is, “He is Risen, indeed!”  Most of us are fortunate to live in places where this kind of greeting is not necessary but we know that there are still places in our world where it is not easy to publicly proclaim the faith. 

Here in Kenya, the Church is still very much “missionary” in that the Faith has had an ominous history due to  both the local-political situations together with the primitive activities of the early missionaries.  They did the best they could but only knew to bring the Catholic Faith – as they had practiced it in their Northern Hemisphere, European homelands – to the people of Africa.  So often, the peripheral side of the Church took root faster and more firmly than the more deeply theological.  Thus the significance of the Easter Celebrations – Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil – are not yet entrenched in the religious observance of the people.  Yet, in the short time that I’ve been here I can see these important liturgical seasons

Rembrandt - Ascension of Jesus developing as people become more and more aware of the proper place and activities of the Paschal Triduum. The addition of working electrical service to the Makuti Church has made it possible to schedule various liturgies and activities in the evening which we couldn’t do before.

Good Friday Stations of the Cross

We still have a ways to go as we catechize the congregation of the importance of this main liturgical time of the Church year.  Our Holy Thursday congregation was sparse and there were just a few people who stayed for the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after the M ass.  Unsurprisingly, however, Good Friday is always a “good draw” and we had about  40  people who  joined in the  outdoor  Way of the Cross.   Our original plan was to go

                  Good Friday  First Station: Condemned                     Good Friday Second Station: TheCross

 very public and process all the way up the street that makes the border on one side of our compound, and then across the connecting road to the dirt road that is on the other side of our compound.  It was intended to be a large circle route lasting about two hours. However, nature took precedence, and hard rain showers during the previous night and early morning turned the dirt road into a mud-bath.  In the end we conducted the “Way of the Cross” entirely in and around our compound.

People were invited to take one of the large Crosses (there were 14 of them) and mark the appropriate station.  Others chose to read the individual meditations and I thought it was all very prayerfully executed.  However, the Africans, very much like many Hispanics, opt for a more dramatic enactment of the Way of the Cross that sees the importance of doing the processions publicly on roads where traffic and the day-to-day activities – much like in the time of Jesus - might be somewhat infringed upon which might cause people to think more deeply about what happened 2000 years ago.  Already the plan for next year is to go back to the more public expression in a “make-or-brake” trek all the way around the block even if we have to swamp through mud!  I’ll wait to see if this actually happens.

  Good Friday Stations Procession

Since our Way of the Cross was much shorter than originally planned  we ended up finished with about an hour

left before the Liturgy of the Passion was scheduled to begin.  The people agreed that we needed to keep to the time schedule since others would come at the announced time. They all agreed to just stay at the church and pray.  Then a curious serendipitous thing happened.  One man had his “palm pilot” and said, “I just found an interesting article about the Easter Triduum on my mobile phone and I’d like to read parts of that and Brother D can explain anything that we don’t understand.”  All 40 or 50 people stayed very attentive and there was plenty of time for questions.  I’m  sure that this session prompted more people to come for the Easter Vigil then had come in previous years. We also used that time for individual confessions.

Easter Vigil

In my early days here in Kenya we celebrated the Easter Vigil at 5:30 in the evening.  I had to shield my eyes from the brightly shinning setting sun!  It turned the Easter Procession - with the new Light of Christ – upside down.  This year, we were able to begin in the dark with a blazing fire and our Easter Candle led the congregation into the church where we listened to a recount of our salvation history with all nine of the Easter Vigil Readings. 

Plans For New Church

We’re still celebrating in the “Makuti (thatched roof) Church”  but plans are beginning to take shape for ultimately building a permanent Church and Parish Hall.  Here in Africa building projects begin and are carried out in stages.  There is little or no way that funds can be borrowed and the Bishop isn’t able to back up any funding so the parish communities begin with what they call a “Harambee” which is a one-day fund raising event in which various groups in the parish challenge other groups to collect and give more money than they did.  Nearby parishes are invited and the Harumbees become a regular, Sunday afternoon social event. The word has a literal meaning, “yo – heave – ho!”

At the end of the day, they take the money raised and begin building.  When the money runs out they hold another Harumbee and so it goes.  Our parish, however, hopes to do fund raising on a wider scale and seek out donations from a wider sector of people.  The parish is seven years old and it’s high time we had a permanent church structure.  Our little makuti church has been rebuilt 3 ½ times and people are looking forward to the time when we can celebrate in a fitting house of worship.

Mass in the Makuti Church                                                 The Makuti Church

Guests and Visitors

Visitors continue to come to Kenya and I have lost track of how many have come in the four years of my stint here.  Dr. Butch Owens, from McKenzie Bridge, was here in early January for his second visit on his way to volunteer his medical skills in Southern Sudan – not the safest place in Africa to visit.  In fact, his time was very suddenly and quickly shortened as it became more and more unsafe for the visitors to stay.  He had to leave so quickly that he didn’t even have time to stop and say, “Kwaheri.” (goodbye).

Fr. Martin Diaz from Salt Lake City was here for a short two week visit in January/February.  I’m sure he got a good impression of life in this part of Africa as I took him with me to all the activities and events that I’m involved in.  Of course, we flew to the Massa Mara to go on a safari and I think he must have been impressed since he took about 2000 photographs!

Fr. Martin Diaz and me in the small plane that flew us to and from the Massa Mara.  Coming back we were in a rain storm and it took all my determination to overcome the feelings of that time almost 40 years ago when I crashed in a plane that was small, but bigger than this one.  (See ‘On Being A Brother: Crash Landing Part 4’) We were sitting right behind the pilot and I could see the instrument panel and way too many dials indicating our altitude and speed.  Hearing the engines groan and sputter and not being able to see anything out the windscreen left me in one of those deja vu, uncomfortable flash backs.

Still, we were able to enjoy our couple of days in the wild.  Lots of close ups with wild animals as the following picture attests.

                                                Fr. Martin and some of Africa’s Wild Life

Nairobi Music Society Choir Concert

I continue to keep busy with activities here in the Parish and with some liturgical and public speaking classes here and there around Nairobi and in other parts of Kenya.   I still sing in the Nairobi Music Society Choir and our Easter Concert featured J.S. Bach’s “St. John Passion,” a beautiful, albeit intricate piece, with tight harmonies and difficult tempo changes but it was well received at two performances in the Anglican Cathedral in Nairobi.

A section of the NMS Concert Choir

More On Animals

And, of course, I still go to our National Park every other month to count animals.  This park is right within the city limits and is only fenced on two sides.  The animals are free to come and go as they please and so there are some times when the animal population is very sparse.  The park staff  only maintain roads and areas where visitors frequent.  They don’t do anything to feed  or control any of the animals.  With city expansion encroaching more and more on the park boundaries the future is very much in question.  The skyline of downtown Nairobi is quite often a odd backdrop to some of the wild animals. The National Park is right up against the downtown of Nairobi

USA Visit

 The Dominicans in the Western Province are holding a Province Assembly in June and I was asked to attend.  Since I wanted to get the most out of the cost of my airplane ticket I’ll get another extended visit which to the West Coast.  They didn’t have to twist my arm to do so.  The Assembly will last for a week at the end of June and is followed by the ordination of five of our brothers.  I will be in the states from the 10^th of June until the last week of July and hope to be able to get around to visit family and friends.  I have arranged to do a slide presentation of life in Africa at St. Dominic’s in San Francisco on Thursday, 17^th June and I will be able to visit folks as I make my way up through Ashland to McKenzie Bridge.  Say a prayer that the volcano in Iceland keeps quiet during the time I need to travel.

I continue to enjoy my time here in Africa and always try to mix in with the locals at every opportunity. People often ask me if I am worried about my safety as I travel around.  I always have to be careful to stay out of some areas of the city where situations are less controlled.  But that happens in any city in the world.  Life in Kenya is exists on multiple levels and I am fortunate that I have the freedom to both move about freely and practice my Catholic Faith without fear of reprisal. I can wear my Dominican Habit almost anywhere and the irony is that there are so many people clad in various native and traditional garb that I am hardly noticed.

The Question: “Who’s got the best outfit?”

The Season of “the long rains!

Now, as we move toward the end of the Easter Season the Parish just recently celebrated the Feast Day of our Patroness, St. Catherine of Siena.  It was a cloudy, rain-threatening day and the skies opened up with a downpour right at the end of the Mass.  Still the people enjoyed a luncheon served by the ladies of the parish and the Makuti Church doubled at a Parish Hall.  The children of the parish were responsible for the danced processions and the choir was especially well tuned with good music.  I am still working on editing the video that I made of that celebration and one of these days it might appear on this web site.  Meanwhile, here are a few photos from that Mass.

      The Sadaka – Offertory Procession                                           Our Congregation at Mass

               The Children dancing the Entrance Procession

The ‘Word of God’ is bought up from the congregation by the dancers and shown to the people by Fr. John.