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Hard to believe that I’ve been here in Africa for 5 years! But that’s the way it all adds up. I arrived here in the first week of December, 2005 and was assigned to the recently established community that was responsible for the Parish of St. Catherine of Siena.
When I visited Kenya during my 2001 Sabbatical I was shown a plot of land that was a coffee plantation. This was a property that had been given to the Archdiocese of Nairobi by a local family for a new parish. At that time it was hard for me to envision where a church would be and where the people would come from. It was also, beyond my conception that I would ever be a part of that – soon to be established - parish. Yet here I am almost ten years later living and working in an ever growing church.
This photo was taken from the balcony of our House Chapel overlooking the Makuti Church and the nearby Banda where meetings and classes take place. Most of the coffee trees have been removed in preparation for building the new church structure as soon as enough funds are found to allow us to begin this process.
Dominicans have been in this part of East Africa – in one way or another –  since the 1960’s when they were instrumental in founding a diocesan seminary under the name of the great Dominican theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas. Fr. Kieran Healy, O.P. from the Western Province came here in the 1990’s to help bolster the Dominican presence at the house in Kisumu – in the north west part of Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria
Our Vicariate is made up of about 30 members of whom 7 are friars from the US. The rest being Africans from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Our East African territory would also include Sudan but we don’t currently have any friars who come from there. This photo was taken at a recent assembly of (most of the) Friars from the Vicariate.
Dominicans are often referred to as “Hounds of the Lord” due to a play on the Latin words, Domini Cannes – “Domini” Lord and “Cannes” being a form of Canines or Dogs/Hounds. I have recently taken that term to heart and am responsible for the care of our dogs: two Dobermine/Rottwheiller females that were first trained by Fr. Kieran Healy. One of the dogs, Kate, had four puppies in August. Two that look like the mother and two that (we think) look like the father.
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Kate the mother, Blackie, Simba and "auntie" Nellie.
(I 'm the one white behind the dogs!)
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We auctioned off two of the puppies as part of our fund raising activities in November and kept two for our own use: Simba –The Kiswahili word for “Lion” since he takes after his father’s coloring and Blackie a female who looks more like the mother. The puppies are still in their terrible twos and chew everything and anything that they can get in their mouths. They are also hyper-active but their mother doesn’t take much gruff from them. It’s interesting to note that the “auntie” takes more interest in the puppies than the mother does and she often breaks up their fighting and keeps track of their where-abouts more than the mother does.
A Typical Day for me here in Africa often involves getting only one project accomplished especially if that involves leaving the Church compound and going into town. The main, north-south highway going through the heart of Nairobi connects the port at Mombassa on the Indian Ocean with the north-western border to Uganda. In the five years that I have been in Kenya that road has been greatly improved but the improvements only brought more traffic to an already limited highway. Right now they are building a super highway complete with flyovers (what you in the US call overpasses) which are pretty new to the Kenyan road systems. But that new highway, coming from the eastern, fast growing section of Nairobi, intersects with the already crowded main highway and the construction of the fly-over means long delays going into town when four lanes of traffic are reduced to two. It means the difference between what would have been a 15 minute trip now becoming 40 to 50 minutes.
I have learned patience and to live with the reality of being happy when I can say that I got at least one thing done when I had to go into town.
Brother D hits the local airwaves! As I put the finishing touches on the latest Letter From Africa: Christmas 2010 I am scheduled to do a radio spot for the Catholic Radio Station Radio Waumuni FM – the Kiswahili word meaning, believers.
When I arrived at the studio outside the city limits of Nairobi I met the broadcaster who was the host of the program which will be aired on Christmas Eve. That’s the first I knew of the scope of what I was being asked to do: explain the true meaning of Christmas in light of the Church’s call to Peace and Justice.
 Fr. Jude Mmassy is one of the Dominicans that I live with at the parish. He’s originally from Tanzania. I took him along with me, not only as driver (since I didn’t know the way to the studio amid the convoluted construction of the Thika Highway project), but also as moral support since I knew that he has been involved in radio communications here in Nairobi as well as with Radio VERITAS which is run by the South African Dominicans in Johannesburg. It was an interesting experience and, even though it was recorded to be played later, it was just like live broadcast.
Fr. Jude – pictured right, told me afterwards that I did OK and I felt that I was comfortable with the way the 30 minute program ran. I’ll be sure to listen to it on Christmas Eve as yet, another experience in my developing ministry here in East Africa.
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Nairobi Music Society Choir
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I still sing with the Nairobi Music Society Choir and enjoy the weekly rehearsals and the chance to meet and interact with a variety of Kenyans. We usually schedule two maybe three concerts per year and just had our Christmas Concert in mid December.
We performed a variety of Christmas music and carols and also a Mass by French composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier which was based on a variety of Christmas Carols. Another American Dominican Priest, who also sings in the choir, was given the solo part of intoning the Gloria and Credo which he did very well – having had that experience in real life situations.
I am happy to say that the training sessions that I’ve done with lectors who do the readings at our Masses has had very good results and has also included some of our youth who are often better at reading than some of the adults. We often have one of the readings or the responsorial psalm done in Kiswahili. The little children have their own Liturgy of the Word in another place and join the rest of the community at the “sadaka” (collection.)
Here I am with Joseph Leserio our catechist and sacristan giving him some pointers on how best to do a particular reading. I will also have a week-long training session with our novices in January with focus on the organization and arrangement of the Liturgy along with practical training in public speaking. Our Novitiate is located in Kisumu in the north-west part of Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria. I’ll probably get there via a 6 hour bus trip which allows me to travel through parts of the country where it’s not uncommon to see African wildlife very close to the road. The only drawback to this mode of travel is the fact that the bus driver will often allow a preacher or sales person - aka snake oil salesman – to do his thing on a portion of the trip. I’m sure the driver gets some kind of kitu kidogo (a little something) in this arrangement but I’ll be sure to have my ear plugs handy.
I continue to enjoy my bi-monthly jaunts into the Nairobi National Park to help with the animal census. I usually am able to take visitors or other interested persons along with me and we are always rewarded with spectacular views of all the various animals in the park. The fact that this park borders right on the edge of the city limits and is not fenced on the southern end amazes my visitors. But I assure them  that an electric fence keeps most of the animals out of the downtown area of the city. When I take non-Kenyan visitors they get into the park for free and don’t have to pay the usual entrance fee of US $60.00! The Kenyan Wildlife Service maintains the roads in pretty good condition but does nothing to interfere with the natural migration of animals in and out of the park.
Can you count how many Giraffe there are?
I continue to pray for the gift of tongues but fear that, at my age, the language learning chip is just not there! While most Kenyans easily speak three or four languages: their mother-tongue; the language of the neighboring tribe; Kiswahili and English, I am left struggling with just a small vocabulary which doesn’t include the variations in actual word usage. When I’m moving around – especially in the villages – the little children will run up and say, “Hello! How are you?” I’m able to say, “Misuri. Habare yako – Good. How are you?” Then they run after me shouting, “Zungu, zungu – an aberration of the more proper, “mzungu” which means almost the same as the Mexican, “Gringo.” It’s also not at all uncommon for little children to see my hairy arms and begin “petting” me since most Africans have very little body hair.
The African Dominicans that I live with chide me on what they call my Shopping Center Ministry due to the fact that I do most of the food buying for the house at our nearby, local shopping center. And they are right to say this since I do have many friends both among the regular shoppers and many of the store-keepers. Almost all of these people know who and what I am and I am often drawn into conversations with them on various religious issues. After all, Jesus spent a lot of his time in the market places since that’s where the people gather so I’m not out of step in this regard.
Advent to Christmas
During Advent the colors behind the altar and at the entrance to the Makute Church changed from dark purples and blues to brighter colors and sparkles to symbolize the approach of Jesus, the “Light of the World.”
The Advent Wreath was placed in front of the Altar with it’s four candles spiraling upwards to give more of an indication of the journey towards Christmas that we are on.
 Christmas here in Kenya is very different from my experiences in the US. Almost all Kenyans “go home for Christmas.” That’s why I was so surprised my first Christmas here to find that there were very few people at our Christmas Eve Mass or the Mass on Christmas Morning. When one of my friends at the local Shopping Center asked me if I was “going home for Christmas” I responded, “for all intents and purposes, I’m already home this is my home.” He quickly shot back, “No. I mean will you be going to the home where you grew up? Where you came from. Where your family lives.” When I told him that there really wasn’t any actual place that I could go back to – since the home where I grew up is no longer owned by anybody in my family – he just looked at me with sadness in his eyes. This was an experience that most Kenyans would never have. They always have that place where some family still lives and where they can go back to and gather with all the rest of their family for special occasions like Christmas. But that is changing as more and more people intermarry and move away from their original homesteads but for the time being, it’s still something of the ideal. In the end I’ve learned that the life of the Church goes on regardless of how many people are present. Abraham’s familiar dialogue with God over the eminent destruction of Sodom always keeps me on track: “… would you still do it if there were ten less than 20?”
So at Christmas the colors behind the altar became mostly Gold in color for the newborn King breaking through the darkness of the night represented by the dark blue. We added some sparkles – stars to guide us in our journey. Our Advent Wreath moved to the other side of the altar and became a kind of Christmas tree now with red candles. The Creche is an African artifact created out of a large gourd with all ten figures inside made out of banana leaves and straw. It sits in the middle of the wreath where some would have placed a white candle to represent Christ. I think the Creche is as good a symbol of Christ’s presence as a candle!
 
This coming year will mark certain milestones in my life. It’s as much a surprise to me as to others that I will be turning 70 in June. Turning Seventy sounds like something that happens to bad milk! (quoted from George Carlin.) I’m now going to be as old as my father was when I thought, “I’ll never be that old!” Yet… here I am … but thankful that I still have pretty good health and, for God’s sake, I’m still able to be here in Africa when most of my contemporaries are retired and sipping pina colatas poolside!
 This coming year also marks my 50th Jubilee of being a vowed Dominican Brother and I will be able to celebrate back in the US at McKenzie Bridge and at the House of Studies – St. Albert’s – in Oakland.
I’ll be in Oregon over the Memorial Day week/weekend (more details on that will be forthcoming) and the celebration at St. Albert’s will be on Saturday, 18th June when my classmate, Brother Frederick Narbares and I will renew our vows at a mid-day Mass followed by a Garden Reception.
This picture of me was taken on the day of my First Profession of Vows, 20th May, 1961 I make the claim (open to correction if necessary) that Brother Frederick and I are the only class of lay brothers (what we used to be called up to the mid ‘60s) to make it to this milestone. I’m sure that’s the case in the Western Province and perhaps amongst all the US Domincan Provinces and maybe even in the entire Order’s recent history. I’m sure someone will let me know if I have made this claim erroneously.
Let me know if you can attend either of these celebration so I can plan accordingly and send you the necessary information about times and places. In the meantime, you are in my prayers at this Christmas Season for the Light of Christ to shine brightly in your life and on the paths of your journey into a New Year, 2011.
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