HAPPY FAT TUESDAY

        Happy Fat Tuesday y’all. I’ve been in Nairobi a little over a week now and with some luck I’ll be departing tomorrow (Ash Wednesday) for Tanazania. This special day is probably not the best day to travel but my options are a little limited. I’ve really been enjoying my time here visiting the priests that reside here and old friends who, like me, are just passing through. I’ve also really enjoyed the daily 7 am Masses at the chapel where the priests reside, next door to my accommodations here in the Maryknoll compound. There are usually 3 or 4 priests, a brother, a seminarian and a couple lay missioners in attendance, so it is packed. The homilies are short but great and we are done by 7:30 am and ready for breakfast. What a great way to start the day.

      They tell me it has been unusually dry lately and the rainy season does not start until April. It has also been very warm (85F) as is typical this time of year. Actually I don’t notice the heat so much since it is so dry due to the high elevation of Nairobi (6,000 ft). Also it is nice and cool at night (65F), like Kowak, my village. Anyway we got a nice shower Sunday and Monday (yesterday) and a pretty heavy rain last night, so things have really cooled off and it has been very pleasant. We even had a roaring fire in the fireplace the last two nights which we all really enjoyed, especially the two children here this week.

      Anita and Curt Klueg arrived by train from Mombasa late Friday evening (1 am) with the kids after a 30 hour trip; 9 hours of delays. They are finishing their second three year contract here in May. Both girls were born in Mombasa and are now 8 and 9 yrs old. They are cute as they can be. The family came to renew the US passport for the oldest, Rehema. Bethany will get hers renewed next year.  We all attended the wedding and reception of our young Maryknoll bookkeeper , Francis and his bride Winnie, at the Kenyatta Univ chapel on Saturday. The newest lay missioner for Kenya (Teresa) also attended. She is about 26 yr, old and came with the Kluegs as she is attending language school in Mombasa. 

         Teresa and the newly ordained Fr Lam from Tanzania and Margaret from Kitale are all attending a 3 day course at the Tangaza University given by Maryknoll and Fr Mike Kerwin’s instructors on mission integration. If I had known my departure was going to be delayed I probably would have attend it myself. I was fortunate to attend two 3 hour classes there last week at this Catholic university. The morning session was for 30 seminarians on Small Christian Communities for youth (YSCC); youth meaning between ages 14 and 28 years of age. It was given by Fr Joe Healy who teaches there every Thursday. The afternoon session was about Peace and Justice in Africa.

      Most parishes in East Africa have from 20 to 60 SCC that meet and pray together weekly. Each SCC is limited to about 20 members. The YSCC are becoming very popular but it is hard to limit them to 20 members. These are for the unmarried youth of each parish, so when they become married they are required to join the older members in the SCC. They may start forming SCC for young married adults.  The SCC concept is really the heart of most parishes in East Africa because the members get to know each other so well and care for each other as the need arises. It seems like this is something we could really use in the US churches. There are already 160,000 SCC in East Africa; see smallchristiancommunities.org.

     I also got to see my friends Russ Brine and Cindy Korb for a few days. Cindy was heading back to Kitale after 2 weeks of physical therapy for back pains. She and her husband are from near Kansas City and teach in Catholic schools in Kitale. They will return home at the end of the year after two 3 year contracts.  They have a very good blog called “kenyaforus.blogspot.com”.

       Russ is also in Kitale and has been there 15 yrs. He was on his way to Cambodia to investigate a new mission site as his 5^th contract ends in the Spring of 2016. I hope to go visit both of them and the rest of that crew in Kitale this summer, time permitting. I plan to keep busy in Kowak with two new websites and a new blog for the hospital called “kowakhospital.blogspot.com”. My goal is a blog update every two weeks.

        My old MKLM lay missioner classmate, Tara McKinney, was also here for a few days on business for Cross International. It was great to see her again and meet her co-worker David from Florida. Tara is now living in Mozambique, so that was a real pleasant surprise.