Kenya Trip Day 13

Students of St. Aloysius Gongaza Secondary School shared with us about Kenyan life and we also shared with them about life in Hong Kong. They showed great interest and were active in class.

Stephanie, a lay missionary from Hong Kong, has been teaching in this school for four years. She has strong committment in her ministry and is willing to share with the African students.



















The way to the school on a rainy day.

Kenya Trip Day 12

African dolls made by women of the Dollicraft Project, Development Program of the St. Joseph the Worker's Parish in Kangemi, Kenya.
We visited a primary school under the development program. I showed them the location of Hong Kong on a map. My two schoolmates of the theology school at Berkeley: James (left) and Kyalo (right)


We visited the St. Joseph the Worker's Parish in Kangemi on the second last day of our visit. It's a Jesuit parish in a slum area and my two schoolmates at JSTB are now working there. I took a class on Spirituality and Morality with Kyalo and a class on Ignatian Spirituality with James. I am very happy to meet them again and know what they are doing after graduation. Kyalo told me that working in a parish was so different from studying. Studying focus more on theory and now working in reality he has to face many practical problems. I can also see how busy he is as he had a meeting soon after we left and could not join us for lunch. But I told him his work is meaningful and can apply what he learnt in class.

We chat for a while and then Anthony, the staff in charge of the development program brought us around to see various projects, including clinic and dispensary, women's project, kindergarten and primary school, etc. We were all attracted by the handicrafts and products made by the members of the women project. Each of us brought something in order to support the project. I bought an African doll and a few giraffe keyholders. They are cute.

Kenya Trip Day 11

Students of a secondary school under Christ the King Parish in Kibera, a massive shantytown in the heart of Nairobi.














Vikki, a Maryknoll lay missionary working as the Education Coordinator of the Christ the King Parish, oversees 10 education projects. She walked with us through the Kibera slum, the second largest slum in Africa, with about 1 million population. On the way, she stop and chat with people from time to time, greeting them with a big smile, saying "jumbo jumbo" (hello). She said that she treated all the people she served as friends.



















Mural of Kenyan life in the Kibera slum, on the stairwell wall at the community library of Christ the King Parish. She said, "One of my goal is to make the Keyans proud to say, I'm Keyan. If the kids embrace this idea, tribalism can be reduced."

Kenya Trip Day 10

We met Sr. Maria Angela early in the morning and she brought us to St. Mary Secondary School where she works for. It is a school located next to the slum area and accept students from the slum. Sr. Maria Angela is proud of her work as she puts lots of effort in running the school. She picked up the work as director of the school only after the violence in December 2007. She felt she was called to do something to help the youth in the slum so that they would not waste their time and being used to fight in riot or violence.

We were impressed by her commitment in running the school. She involves in everything -- from hiring a new principal and teachers, recruiting students to meeting their parents to know their family situation. The tuition fee are paid according to the ability of parents. Sr. Maria would then looks for sponsors to support the daily expenses of the school.

With heavy workload and challenges from the school and the society, she gains strength through prayers. She believes that God always guide her and help her to solve porblems. She compares faith as the root of a tree. When there is wind and storm blowing towards a tree, if the tree wants to stand firm, it must has long and strong root. Faith is just the same. When one face difficulties, the faith will becomes stronger so as to overcome the challenges. We can see Sr. Maria Angela is a strong woman despite thee many difficulties she has to face.

Kenya Trip Day 8 & 9

Chapel of Hekima College (Jesuit seminary)

with Binamungu outside University of Nairobi

I was very happy to meet Binamungu, my former schoolmate of theology school at Berkeley, in Nairobi. Bina is working in a Jesuit secondary school in Tanzania now. When I knew that I would travel to Kenya, I wrote to him immediately and asked him whether we could meet in Dar es Salem or Nairobi for reunion. Finally Bina came to Nairobi and we spent two days together, visiting the museum, the Cathedral, watching African dance and tribal villages, together with my other Hong Kong friends. We chat and share and had a great time together.

He also showed me the Hekima College where he studied undergraduate theology before. We walked around the campus and had lunch there. We shared a lot about our life and vision. I know Bina shoulders much pressure because of the keen competition of seconday school students. He tries hard to balance between the grades of students and promote value education in school, hoping to nurture mature and responsible youth who can contribute to the country in the future. I appreciate his vision and effort very much.

Kenya Trip Day 7

with Quebec missionaries, left 3 at the back row is Fr. Richard.

books of African studies















painting
"sharing knowledge"


Today we visited the Tangaza College of the Catholic University of East Africa. There is an African Studies Program in the Tangaza College and Stephanie is one of the students. Characteristics of African Culture is a compulsory subject of the program. There are more than ten topics in this subjects. Apart from lecture, students have to do field study and conduct interviews with the related persons. Since Stephanie is a lay missionary working in another culture different from hers, she wants to learn more about the African culture. I found this college emphasizes a lot inculturation of theology and how to integrate faith with local culture. I am very interested in its methodologies as it is inter-disciplinary. Maybe we can borrow some of the methods when conducting research on inculturation in Hong Kong or Asia. Thus, I bought some books and will take a look later.

In the afternoon we went to visit the Quebec Missionaries in Kenya. One of the missionaries is Fr. Richard. Fr. Richard had been working in HK for 16 years. I also know him when working in Justice and Peace Commission because he is the chaplain of Catholic Youth Council for several years. He has very good memory and still remember me. I'm glad to meet him again and he is very kind to share with our group. He is more than 65 years old now but just came to Kenya for several years and has to learn a new language Kiswahili. We appreciate him a lot for his commitment, enthusianism and passion in the missionary work. He said once they went sent to another place, they would not look back and miss the former place because they have a new mission. He said they understand the nature of missionary work. Their work is transition for local people to continue. Thus, once the mission is established, they will move to another place. Sharing with Fr. Richard and other missionaries inspired us a lot.

Kenya Trip Safari (Day 5 & 6)

travelling on a muddy road

Lake Nakuru


The journey from Masai Mara to Nakuru was dangerous and adventurous! That day was a rainly day, making the road muddy and slippery. Many cars drove through S-shape on the way and quite a number of cars was stuck in the mud, including our car. Once the tyres of our car were unable to be pull out and all of us had to get off the car to push it. Another time several youth were asked to push the car at the back. Moreover, the road was so bumpy that some of the luggage fell down from the back of the car. It was lucky that the road was not that wet at that time and all the luggage could be saved. However, unfortunately, a laptop computer of one of the tour members was out of order because it fell down from the car. Throughout the journey, I saw how hard our driver Michael in controlling the car but he tried his best to bring us to the destination safely. He did a great job indeed!

We spent our last day of safari in the Nakuru National Park. It's an amazing and wonderful place. Apart from seeing flamingo and seagull, we can appreciate the beautiful scenery of Lake Nakura in the Rift Valley. It's so gorgeous! One cannot deny the mystery of creation and realize the smallnes of human beings. The hundreds of flamingo and seagull also reminds me the movie "Travelling Birds." I really envy the freedom that birds and animals can enjoy. Living in the city and being occupied by the busy office work, sometimes I feel suffocate and want to breath some fresh air.