My dear friends,
We have been out of touch across the great savannah of space and time…we came back so late a few days before our safari that the computer access was closed down, so let me catch up on what we have been about. It is strange to imagine your own lives very involved and moving forward even as we absorb so much that is new and holding-of-our-hearts.
On Friday, 7/10, we went to the Vincentian formation house, visited their wood working shop where they receive apprentices to learn the trade. They make furniture. Their grounds are incredible, lush with roses and eucalyptus, sucomoweeky which is like kale, corn which really works to grow here, and banana plants with hands. We went from there to the Daughters of Charity who were most gracious with tea. We visited their Dream project for persons with AIDS and HIV+. It is as modern and responsive to both confidentiality and treatment as any place in a 1st world country. Their attention to the whole team (physicians, nurse practitioners, lab tech, nutritionists, social workers and cooks) was so much apart of the atmosphere of Kenya. They begin their day together with a prayer and the information about the day…guests, concerns, etc., so that all of them are updated on what is needed. It is part of what it means “to be there.” A part of the gift of the Vincentians is that CJ, our traveling companion who is on MPA’s board, is responsible at the UN for the North American Vincentian Family. Then yesterday, she gave a presentation to the men who are in training with the men’s branch who are rectors and leaders from all over Africa. It felt like the collaboration of the world is gathering here to begin new plowings of life.
I have felt that sense of a new rising of religious commitment both at this retreat house where we are staying and last night at the Marianists. There were students there from University of Dayton and from University of Cincinnati who are doing service. It is like the young people across the world are coming from a great emergence of sisterhood and brotherhood that Jesus talked of when he prayed “that all may be one.”
Then on 7/11 we went to Kaputei where Jamii Bora is building their housing project. The women met us singing and dancing. It is a greeting that gathers you in to join in the dance and feel welcome totally in soul. We were greeted by them and introduced to the whole hope of these slum dwellers for their own homes, for fresh air and for taking charge of their own lives. They led us through the best practice that some had gone to Britain to learn. It includes the making of concrete blocks, and of roof tiles that are tested for durability. They have constructed over 700 homes, some which are occupied and some waiting for residents. They showed us the water treatment plant which includes a bore hole that brings up fresh water in this desert place, and we saw the goats come running to lap up the runover. It is something to have real drinkable water in their homes. In the treatment plant, they recycle the dirty water for flush toilets and for use with their gardens that are already lush and growing. I had such a sense that Africa is an old country grown young, and we in the US are a young country grown old. That contrast is evident in everything from our structures of plumbing and bridges that are falling apart to how difficult it will be to insert green structures of solar and wind. Compare that to a world here that will never have land lines but just skipped to cell phones which nearly everyone has or borrows. It is also in souls in a people where we are stuck in our economic structures of “how do we find work?” while the people here have somehow captured in their businesses the idea that “we can do anything,” It is in our own sense of helplessness with political systems that are so rigid whether in state or in our own religion, while here is the fearless desperation of “we will begin small and grow past the sky which is no longer the limit.”
Still, here too, these wonderful lush gardens are surrounded by guards and gates and barbed wire and hedges too thick to penetrate. At night, guard dogs howl and there is corruption and the violence that is bred from poverty. So while we follow the road rules and the methods of engagement in business that are basically trusted at home, they are embedded in a world that is dishonest and not trusted so often because it needs so much, just for food.
The pride of the people as they showed their homes, the boys’ school, their world that is rising up out of the desert is hard to convey…it is their world…the ownership is profound and we had a sense of the price of it, having seen the one-room slum homes with no ventilation or toilets that were safe and healthy. One young boy, 15 years old and about 4 feet in height, told me of his dream to become a pilot. These street boys are very bright and as they have opportunity for education, they can achieve their dreams. The girls still have no school there and struggle with girl choices of pregnancies and survival. The plan is to have a school for them as well. Wilson, who had been a thief on the streets, showed us his home and talked about how he could never have imagined that he could own his own home which cost $5000. It would sell for half a million shillings because it was so well constructed, but had been achieved because they built the home themselves. He was also realistic to say that there is not dependable electricity (they use solar) but to get electricity out to Kaputei will require much negotiation. Still now there are not enough people out at Kaputei for their self-sufficiency of businesses. It will happen, but now is a time of challenge as the people qualify to come. Jane, who had been a street beggar and a prostitute, had made her way to Kaputei through her tailoring and now shares her home with two others who had been prostitutes. She shared the excitement that her boy could go to the playground that morning with no concern on her part for his safety. As we came across that playground, we saw one of the young men had on the tee shirt that we had brought, compliments of SLUH, that said “Rock the Vote in honor of Obama.”
Then we went to the safari which everyone in the world should experience.
I put into my cells the feel of the roads, the smell of the air, the long looks of the valleys so vast and eternal, the sounds of the Masai cow bells. I loved the zebra rompings when we first arrived and discovering that zebras are Africa because there are so many all over the rising hills and plains. The giraffes show up all over trimming the acacia tress. We saw a leopard sleeping in the top of a tall tree so camouflaged. A line of wildebeest on migration skirted the leopard at the insistence of the leader and avoided attack. A lion and his lioness moved around all of our caravans, very indifferent to all the safari vans watching. The elephants, mommas and babies, lumber across the barrenness, and we saw the daddy alone trumping around the savannah. There were warthogs and ostriches, gazelles and topi. It is a most amazing world. Our tents were luxurious…with beds draped in netting, large clean bathrooms, and a deck. We were conducted to the lodge by a Masai warrior with his bow and arrow. We all thought we would get skinny in Africa…we have never eaten so much.
So, to all of you at home, be blessed. You are here with us in our hearts. We miss you and we wish you all were here with us.
Breathing deeply of all of Africa, Mary Lou, Toni, CJ, and Vanessa
Love from all of us 4 Musketeers, soon to be 3 as CJ goes on to Cameroon
Sr. Toni is a Woman of Achievement
Sr. Toni will be recognized for her achievement by the Hellenic Spirit Foundation at the Athena Awards Luncheon on Novmeber ... Mary Lou’s Update: July 9, 2009
Dear Friends,
I want to tell you about yesterday and today--these days have left us limp and awed, weeping and rejoicing, ... 
