Meet Some of our Friends

We have been staying at the Flora Hostel in Nairobi. It is run by the Consolota Sisters. It’s almost like being in the United Nations! We have had the opportunity to meet people while eating meals. Some are here for medical treatment since we are only about three blocks from the Nairobi Hospital. Some are here taking language courses, like us. Others are here on business in town or just passing through, Nairobi does have the largest international airport in all of Eastern Africa.

Today I thought I’d introduce you to some of our friends. These three gentlemen live in Hola, Kenya. It is about eight hours from here in a very hot and dry place. Father Louis is originally from Spain. He has been in Africa for about twenty years. He is running a formation house for young men that want to become priests. They currently have two in seminary, five studying at university, about ten in secondary schools and several younger boys still in primary school. Edwin and Fredrick are taking online philosophy classes through a university in South Africa. They have had to come to Nairobi several times to take exams. To do that they have to report to a university here so their exams can be proctored. Once Edwin and Fredrick complete their philosophy courses, they hope to enter the seminary. In our humble opinion, they would make great priests.

Mary and Faustina became great friends even though language was a huge barrier. Faustina had studied in Italy for eight years and trained as a medical technician. She is from Tanzania and was in Nairobi studying English. She felt that it was
important to be able to speak English to help with her work. She knew about as much English as we did Kiswahali, but we did learn from one another. Since Mary also knew Spanish, at times they would resort to Italian and Spanish when they weren’t able to communicate clearly. Although we weren’t able to visit much, it is possible to enjoy one another’s company. She loved watching M*A*S*H with us even though she didn’t understand exactly what was going on. We spent several nights playing games including scrabble. We were sad when she had to leave to begin work. In this photo we had taken her to Fairview Hotel for a treat the night before she left. Aren’t the gardens beautiful?

Sister Teresa and Sister Sia are Maryknoll Sisters. We met them briefly in February and they invited us to come and visit. Since they live clear across town and have busy schedules it wasn’t until last week that we were able to meet again. We love
them and wish we had more time to get to know them. Teresa and Sia are two of the three members of the Maryknoll Peace Team. Three sisters make up the Peace Team: one American, one Vietnamese and one Tanzanian. They work together with groups from different tribal background to open dialog and promote understand and peaceful ways of conflict resolution. They arrived in Kenya about six months before the election only to discover that Kenya wasn't as peaceful as people had thought. Their first meeting was held only three weeks after the post election violence. Suddenly their task included not only peace building, but healing and reconciliation. They are doing wonderful work. We are going to meet again for lunch on St. Patrick’s day

Sister Sabrina spent one month going to ACK Language School taking private lessons. She is an Italian Sister of the Most Precious Blood. She has been in Kenya for two years and already had a pretty good Kiswahali vocabulary. There are two Italian and five Kenyan Sisters that live in Machakos, Kenya. They run an
orphanage for about 75 children. Sister Sabrina has such a quiet, calming presence. She would be great working with children. We also wanted to take her out for a treat before she left. So Mary and I took her to Savana, a coffee shop about two blocks from here for a cup of coffee one afternoon after class. The waitress was so surprised to see a Sister in a coffee shop. (It WAS the first time Sabrina had been in a coffee shop.) The waitress kept saying, “I haven’t seen a Sister in so many years!” It was pretty funny.

Samaya is a Canadian that is working on her doctoral dissertation. One of her contacts was one of our MKLM. She was interviewing HIV positive women living in the Kibera slum. Her research question involved looking at how communities treated positive women. She was so impressed with the women, but so disappointed to discover the promised assistance from NGOs isn’t always delivered. Of course, the government isn’t doing much either. The living conditions in the slums are awful: no running water, homes don’t have bathrooms, most homes are made of scraps of metal, plastic or wood with mud floors. When it rains there is no way to keep the water out. With her last round of interviews, many of the women were sick because it had been raining and was damp. There was no way they could keep warm and dry. Samaya is one gutsy lady. She doesn’t know Kiswahali but still won’t let anything intimidate her. She would leave each morning about 6:30 in order to get to Kibera riding on public transportation. One day she got on the wrong bus. I’m not sure where it ended up, but it was in a dangerous area of town. The bus driver wouldn’t allow her to get off the bus for her own safety. Several Kenyan women realized what was going on and they escorted her off the bus and helped her find transport to where she needed to go.

Living at Flora has been a true education in itself. There are so many wonderful people doing such courageous things.