On the first of December I marked my one year anniversary being in Africa. Hard to believe that time passes so quickly. Looking back I can only say, “Thank you, Lord, for all the many blessings that you pour into my life and for keeping me safe and healthy.

Even though time seems to pass so quickly, daily life in Kenya goes at a much slower pace. At the parish – St. Catherine of Siena – where I help out we recently celebrated our 4^th anniversary and we are still in the temporary “makati-roofed” church since our building plans have been sidetracked by local bureaucracy and backlogs.

While other people have begun projects and erected new buildings quickly we choose not to pay a bribe to anyone in city since doing so promotes the continuation of corruption in government. So we wait patiently for all the necessary permissions. In the end I’m sure it will all work out.

A couple of weeks ago I took an eight hour bus ride to the south east of Nairobi to make my annual retreat. It was a grueling trip which was made worse by a bus driver who was acting weird driving with his door open, flopping in the wind and oncoming traffic! The fact that the last 45 kilometers (27 miles) were under construction (read: uneven, rutty, dirt road and bumper to bumper vehicles) and the traffic moved at a snails pace we arrived in Mombossa 2 ½ hours late and in the dark.

I had lodging at a guest house run by the Consolata priests and brothers, an Italian congregation doing missionary work all over Africa. The attraction, for me, was the fact that it was right on the beach.

Many of you know of my love for time off at the sea and this was a new experience for me and my first time swimming in the Indian Ocean! What a delight to be able to jump right into the water which was comfortably warm in the middle of what would be winter for most of you. It reminded me of many happy times spent at the beaches of Oregon with the only difference being I had to get used to watching the sun RISING over the ocean horizon rather than setting. And then there was the fact that there were always monkeys running around!

I had a nice room with a porch facing the ocean and enjoyed my early mornings watching the sunrise and walking on the beach. When the tide was out there were many tide pools to investigate and I began collecting many shells, etc. and also managed to step on a spiny sea urchin and had quite a time getting all the thorns out of my foot.

I was happy that an older, African priest was on retreat the same time I was there and he was more than accommodating in saying Mass whenever it was convenient for me. My room had a complete bath and was very comfortable and I had my private prayer time out on my porch. The meals were nothing to write home about but I was, after all, on retreat. Since my trip down was so horrible I flew back home – an easy one hour flight!

Around home I am still the shopper which has the advantage of being able to get things that I like to eat. At the end of November I finished a twelve week course called, “African Culture: an overview” at the local, co-op seminary. Besides the three hour weekly classes we were required to spend an additional three hours interviewing various individuals from all areas of the city and from different tribal/clan groups. I even went with my research assistant to his up-country, rural home where I spent the weekend meeting his extended family and living in a makati (thatched-roof), mud hut! This excursion required a seven hour bus trip north and then a half hour ride from the center of town to his home on a boda-boda – a bicycle with a crude seat on the back. I wish I had gotten a picture of me with my backpack sitting on this bike and taking off down the main street. Very soon the road got narrower and narrower until it turned into a lane, then a path and finally a trail, barely wide enough for us to get through without brushing against the bushes. It was an experience which I said, “Everybody aught to have - - - once in their life!

I have been teaching a Sunday afternoon adult catechism class at the parish. Since many of the people don’t have a fluent ability in English I type up my notes and one of our lay catechists translates into Kiswahili. I was amazed that I could say a sentence of about 15 words and she would take about five minutes to get the same point across. I’m happier to do it that way since I know that she makes sure that the people can understand what I’m talking about.

I have also been doing some liturgy training with our own Dominican brothers on the last Friday of each month. We’re having fun working with the brothers who have a difficult time pronouncing some of our “American English” words. The “L” and “R” sounds are especially troublesome and the word, “BIRD” comes out sounding like “BAAD” and none of them can say “squirrel” anywhere near close to correct. I still sing in the Nairobi Music Society Choir. We just did our pre-Christmas concert which featured a rather complicated piece by Benjamin Britten called “Cantata: St. Nicholas.”

On the first Sunday of every other month I go early in the morning to the Nairobi National Park and take part in the animal survey. We are given a map and a “zone” to work in and a check list of all the animals. It gives me the opportunity to get into the park free and a chance to see the animals up close. The park is somewhat controversial since it is almost right near the city center and there are more and more encroachments of people building right up to the park boundaries. It is only fenced on the city side and the animals are free to come and go on the southern end of the park. After awhile, though, you get tired of counting zebras and Thompson Gazelles so spotting a lion or a rhino is always a treat.

I’m still working with our two dogs – Doberman/Rottweiler’s - which is very different from my beloved “Kenzie.” They are slowly coming around to responding to good training. We can now walk them without a leash and they are beginning to understand the words, “no” and “come.” I’ve even gotten them to sit with a dog biscuit right in front of their noses – waiting until I say, “Okay.”

I am still struggling with learning Kiswahili but getting better and better at it and my computer program is really helpful. I’m sure it will all come together in time. I now have a Kenyan driver’s license and can usually find my way around without getting lost of involved in a collision. The only drawback is the fact that my quest of a few years ago to become a “gentle driver” has been lost here in Africa since you are not able to get anywhere without being aggressive! On a couple of occasions I have actually gotten out of the car to unplug a bottleneck where none of the cars could move and nobody was willing to “give in.”

All in all, though, I continue to enjoy this new experience of life in Africa. I am still taking my time adjusting to a different perception of how to live in Kenya. There are so many things that I still don’t understand about the culture and I see that it will take a long time before I can honestly say, “Ah. I understand now where you’re coming from.”

My prayers still include mention of you and my memories are just as vivid of life back in the states. I pray that you will have a joyous Christmas and New Year and hope that you will remember to write to me. The easiest way is still via e-mail The address is still the same: brotherdaniel@opwest.org Also, with international telephone service getting more and more reasonable, you could always call me. My mobile phone (what you call a cell phone) number is 0274 255 662. You have to figure how many and what numbers to add to that to get out of the US. Just remember that we are 11 hours AHEAD of time on the west coast.

Snail mail generally takes a little more than a week to get here but please be careful not to send either money or checks as they seldom get to their honest destination. The easiest way to give a gift is to send it to:

Western Dominican Mission Foundation
P.O. Box 15367
San Francisco, CA 94115-0367

Earmark it, “Africa” and it will be forwarded to me in a safer manner.

Our residence address here in Africa is still the same:

St. Catherine of Siena Dominican Community
P.O. Box 230 Village Market
00621 Nairobi – Kenya

As ever,

Brother Daniel

In Africa Year II

    A little over a year ago I had just arrived in Kenya at the start of Advent to begin my assignment in Africa.  My first Christmas was a new experience and I was still more like a tourist than a resident.  This year I have settled in and the reality of being a real part of this country - with its own customs which are very different from those that I grew up with - is just beginning to settle in.  Many people have asked me what Christmas is like in this part of Africa.

    Kenya is split in half by the Equator and Nairobi is just into the southern hemisphere. We have just passed through our LONGEST day of the year while most of you have  experienced just  the opposite.  It does change the perspective  a little especially in the area of  liturgy in that many of our “western liturgical symbols” just don't pay out here in Africa.  The sad fact is that so many of the urban cities in Africa have attempted to duplicate the commercialism of the west as if that were a sure sign of living in the modern way.  The malls and shopping centers have all bought into the “Western idea of Christmas” and have white Santa Clause's and garish decorations with songs like, “Jingle Bells” playing on their sound systems.  I couldn't help but think, “what do the words to that song mean to Africans, '…dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh, bells on bob-tail ring, laughing all the way?'”  I am living in a different culture.

    Take, for example,  my experience of buying a Christmas tree.  Let me first tell you that, having spent that last 15 years of my ministry in Oregon where we could easily find on our own property any number of acceptable Christmas trees, the choices around here were VERY limited.  This is a picture of the tree that I got for the Church. 

    I wanted to buy a 'living tree' that we could then plant on the property but it needed to fit on the divider between the dining room and the chapel in 
our house.  Waiting to go to the various “street-side nurseries” on Christmas eve obviously put us in a “buyers market” and so the tree that I finally selected - which started out costing 3500 Ksh. (about $50 US Dollars) ended up costing  only 1500 Ksh.  And that price also included the six foot cut tree for the church picured above!  

    But first I have to tell you how we managed to get such a bargain.  If I had been by myself I would have ended up paying twice as much.  Shopping with my African superior, Fr. Martin Ndegwa is always sure to bring the price down.  Whenever he  and I go out shopping I usually drive.  When we pull into any road side merchant area all the salesman swarm over to  ME shouting, “Papa, buy this.  Papa, I have the best deal.”  That's when I tell them, “Don't talk to me.  I just work for him (pointing to my African brother).  You'll have to deal with him.  Please don't talk too much to me or I might lose my job and it's all I have.”  This leaves them absolutely dumbfounded.  They don't quite know how to equate this arrangement of a white having a job as a driver for an African.  And Fr. Martin plays right into it with rebuttals like,  “Hey park the car over there off the road?  Can't you do anything right?”   It gives us a little edge on purchases and we have fun with it.

    I couldn't find any ornaments for our house tree and none of us could figure out how to get the strings of lights to stop blinking!  I miscalculated the height but it still gave us a Christmas symbol visable from both our dining room and our chapel.

Our house tree is a living/potted tree and sits on the divider between our dining room and the House Chapel.

    As you saw in the previous letter our church is still just a temporary structure and the compound is about a mile from our residence.  Therefore, we can't leave any significant decorations in the church since there is now way to secure the building.  This means that everything must be set up in the morning just prior to the celebration and means that many of the things that I was accustomed to do in previous assignments just can't be done in these circumstances.   So in desperation I have put much of my energy into decorating our house even though some of the African Dominicans tell me, “these aren't the things that we would do in our homes.”   It's then that I realize that a Christmas tree is a northern European custom and one that doesn't have much tradition here in Africa.  Yet there are many styles of "African Crib Scenes" and I used a little niche in the bookshelf in the Chapel for our "creche."

I used a batik of an African crib scene for our Chapel
and replaced our Advent Wreath with one with white candles.

    “I'm dreaming of a white Christmas” and other northern-European Christmas carols and traditions make no sense over here in Africa and twinkly lights are almost unheard of.  One African told me, “When I was growing up we didn't have electricity so we didn't even think of putting up lights at Christmas.”

    So this is my biggest challenge as I begin my second year in Africa to search out what are the really important aspects of life and celebration for the African people.  Hospitality seems to be one of the main links to how life is lived in this part of Africa.  Maybe it's because many people don't have much in the line of material things but they can always be hospitable. If I go to someone's home to drop something off or pick something up - or any other business - I have learned that I must first accept their hospitality.  Usually this would include tea and some little biscuits after I had been given a bowl of water and the opportunity to wash my hands.  At first I used to say, with pseudo-politeness, “Oh, no thank you.  Don't go to any trouble for me” which would be considered very rude.  Africans would never think to just knock at someone's door and jump right into the questions at hand.  That is considered too forward and you need to take time before you get around to the point.  This, of course, runs contrary to our Western sense of efficiency and one more thing that I have to get used to.

    Africans also seem never to want to hurt your feelings and so they often tell you what they think you want to hear.  This especially frustrating when you ask for street directions and they tell you how easy it is to find such and such place which turns out not to be correct at all.  A telephone conversation which ends with, “I'll call you right back” usually ends right there.  Time efficiency is not one of the qualities that Africans yearn for and one that I must learn to live with!

    To my credit, though, I try my best to relate to the locals.  I'm usually the only “mzungu” (foreigner) riding the public transportation around town and there was only one other white person on the bus to Mombossa.  I want to relate the best I can to the local people and not appear like so many of the people who work for the various embassies and UN who so often come across as aloof.  I still have to work on getting used to the typical African food.  We have a lot of beans, rice, maise and “ndizi” (bananas) which are served cooked much like squash and in a variety of ways.  Not my favorite food.  Our Tanzanian cook is not real experienced cooking meat.  I did manage to get her to stop trying to cook goat and I no longer buy “mutton” which always ended up unpalatable.  Living in a community where two of the brothers are vegetarians and the third could go either way leaves me as the 'odd man out.'  Who was the famous person who said, "Life is a learning experience?" and at 65 + years I'm still open to learning new things!