Friends Across Borders

The Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Kenya have had the pleasure of hosting the sixteen members of the Friends Across Borders trip the past two weeks.

Here is a description of FAB: “Friends Across Borders is Maryknoll Lay Missioner’s mission awareness program. We invite you to deepen and enrich your understanding of mission by joining us on an exciting mission trip. You will have the opportunity to experience what you could never discover in travel brochures, films or books. You will experience what life is really like in communities where MKLM missioners are living out their faith, and working for, and with, the local people.”

These sixteen people arrived in Kenya on June 11th and will be leaving tomorrow, June 23rd. While here they have visited all ten lay missioners in Mombasa and Kitale to learn about our work. They were able to visit most of our workplaces and interact with our co-workers. Along the way they learned Kiswahili words of greeting and thanks. The final three days was spent as tourists going on safari in Maasai Mara.

Here in Kitale they spent time at both of our schools: St. Monica’s and St. Anthony’s. The traditional dancers performed several dances and songs at St. Anthony’s. District competitions were also going on that afternoon in football (soccer), table tennis, lawn tennis, and badminton so they were able to be spectators Kenyan style. My Form II (sophomore) girls took tea with the group during their visit. This enabled both groups to have good quality time to chat and learn more about one another and their worlds.

Since we live in the tropics we always enjoy time outdoors. Our final day with our FAB visitors was spent in our compound having a picnic resting and informally visiting.

We wish each participant of FAB the best as they return home and reflect on their experiences in Kenya. We know from personal experience, they will never be the same people again.

Click here for more pictures of our newest friends.