Ninajifunza Kiswahili ... I am learning Swahili.

Greetings from Flora Hostel.

I've now finished my second week of Swahili classes. We have two teachers who alternate time with us. Most of our time is learning grammar and general vocabulary, with some time for practicing conversation and comprehension. It seems like my brain is full of new words that I cannot find when I am looking for them.

Cindy & I outside our "shule"

Mwalimu (Teacher) Bill posing with us in our classroom.

Last weekend, three Maryknoll Lay Missioners who have been in Kenya for 22 years all combined met with John, Cindy and I to welcome us to the region and provide us with local orientation. It was great to learn from their experiences and start to get to know them. They are coordinating the site visits that we will do in February to help in our decision about whether we will settle in Kitale or Mombasa for the next three years.

Our MKLM welcoming committee. The drink in front of me is my new favorite: minty pineade. Pureed mint leaves in pineapple-lemonade.

Our welcoming gifts - Kenyan kikoyi from Mombasa.

Language school has occupied most of my time thus far. The three of us have ventured out and walked a couple miles in two different directions to see some of the city and to run errands. We haven't taken any of the local transportation yet, but I am sure it will be an adventure when we do. There are two main types of buses: the matatus, which are about the size of 15-passenger vans, and coach-style buses. Both types provide local transportation, with signs on the front with the number of their route.

A matatu stopped at one of the bus stops in Nairobi.

We have been fortunate to meet other travelers in our hostel. One of the highlights of today was practicing my Swahili with a young woman from Tanzania. She is staying at the hostel, also for three months, but to learn English. I told her that I would bring my dictionary to breakfast tomorrow to facilitate communication! There are many, many nationalities of people both at our language school and at the hostel, including Indonesia, South Sudan, Italy, Australia, Burundi, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Scotland, Ireland, Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Japan, and Kenya, of course. It has been a pleasure to chat with the students learning English during our breaks.

At language school, we have a half hour break in the morning to drink chai. Chai is the Swahili word for tea. And you thought you didn't know any Swahili.... We are served chai, prepared in boiling hot milk, with sugar provided on the side.

John with Mwalimu Sylvia in the outside area where we usually take our chai breaks and chat with other students.

One of the interesting facts about Swahili is that there is no verb for “to have”. Instead “to be with” is used. So in Swahili, I don't have a new sweater, but I am with a new sweater. I bought one today, since Nairobi is cooler than I expected. We walked to a local market, where the vendors each set up a stall with second-hand clothing.

This week I have been saddened by the news from Haiti. I know that many of you reading this blog have made donations to help reduce the suffering there. My prayers are with you who are so inspired and with those who are mourning, coping, struggling, and assisting in Haiti.

This week marked the first birthday of one of my nephews. Being far away gives me extra time to reflect on what it might mean to “be with” instead of “have.” I hope you all find time to be with people you love this week.

Blessings from this side of the ocean!

- Mary

And for comic relief ... a sign on our walk to school. It appears that cars, not owls, hoot in Nairobi.

Karibu to Kenya!

Karibu (Welcome) to Kenya! I haven't learned prepositions in Swahili yet.

We arrived in Nairobi on Saturday afternoon and spent our first night at the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers house. On Sunday afternoon, we moved into our new home for the next 3 months, the Flora Hostel.

Highlights/first impressions so far:
- There's so much green! The parts of the city I've seen so far seem much more spread out than I expected.
- It's raining intermittently, cool, then hot in the sun, then cool again, then humid.
- Vikki, the Maryknoll Lay Missioner in Nairobi has been so helpful in taking us to all the places we need to get settled and helping us acclimate.
- Fr Doug and Jotham, a Kenyan on staff at the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers, showed great hospitality in our first stay with them and are both good cooks! The other four priests and seminarian made us feel welcome, too.
- I think Charles and Damianus, the night guards at the Flora Hostel, might be willing to help me practice my Swahili.

Not-so-highlights:
- Jet lag.
- Mosquitoes.

A little bit about my new home:
It's a property in town with several buildings, run by Italian nuns. I have a small bedroom & bathroom in one of the main buildings at the end of the hall so it's very quiet and I hear the rain well. There seems to be a variety of nationalities of people staying here from the other guests I saw at dinner – African, Indian, and European. There's a room down the hall with a sink for us to wash our laundry and indoor clotheslines. We eat in a separate building at 7:30 am, 1 pm and 6:45 pm. Mass is available in their chapel every day in English at 6:30 am (being that I'm waking up at 4 am, I might make it!) and on Sunday in English and Swahili. Our first meal was dinner last night of soup, chicken, cooked greens, cabbage/carrot salad, rice, and potatoes. I don't think I'll go hungry!

It is fitting that we ended our long journey on the day, we as Catholics, remember the journey of the three magi, who came seeking a newborn ruler they did not know. We come, also seeking Christ, in a land we do not know, but also hoping to follow his way and to carry the Love that we have known into this new place, into new relationships, and into the nitty gritty of life.

A few first impressions of Nairobi in pictures:
An interesting Santa greeted us as we left the airport.
And some fake elephants added to the ambiance as we drove into Nairobi.
But more interesting was the giraffes - yes, these are real - along the road from the airport in a national park.
Some first glimpses of Nairobi show a modern city.
Lots of green trees & plants - a beautiful place.
My room in the Flora Hostel
Karibu!

Wishing you all the same sense of being loved
Mary

Arrived!

Hi all, Just a quick post to say I'm here! Tomorrow we will be settling into our new home (through April) for language school.

Wishing you all a wonderful and grace-filled 2010,
Mary

Here We Go!

Winter in Ossining NY, photo courtesy of John Korb

In many Christian traditions, advent is celebrated as a time of preparation for Christmas. It is a time of waiting to relive anew the mystery of a God who loves so much that he must be with us and teach us how to live.

This year, my advent includes another type of preparation - for leaving a place and people I know and love and - for arriving in a new place that I hope to grow to love and people I hope to fall in love with as I learn their struggles and try to walk with them on their journey.

Last week was one of both dreams & details: from selling my car & packing my things to the heart-moving moments of saying farewell to a sacred time & place and people who have touched me by their experiences, their love of others and their commitment to join me on this journey.

I now have two weeks with my family in the Midwest. Besides trying to soak up every moment with family & friends, I am finalizing my packing and the other details when you leave the country for a few years. I leave Iowa on Dec 31st, New York on Jan 1st and arrive in Nairobi on the 2nd.

For those of you who are the praying type, I'll take any prayers you have that I might stay centered in this transition. For others, I'll take any good wishes - and comments on the blog are always appreciated. To all, I am grateful for this chance to go and yet to be connected to you still at home, even if only through our thoughts of each other. I hope somehow to maintain connections through emails, an occasional text message or letter, and this online journal.

My co-missioners - the Maryknoll Class of 2009. Left to Right
Sr Genie is off to Tanzania, Sr Anastasia to China, Erica and Nan to El Salvador, Sr Laura to Panama, Minh to Bolivia, John & Cindy to Kenya, Lindsay to Cambodia, and me.

The Maryknoll Lay Missioners have a Commitment Ceremony, in which we sign a covenant with the organization that we will faithfully serve the poor in the country to which we are assigned through May 2013.

The culmination of the orientation is our Sending Ceremony. We began by carrying in symbols of our country of assignment. Mine was a small sculpture of a Kenyan woman at work grinding corn, in the back left.

Watch a few moments on YouTube by clicking here >>> Sending Ceremony

After we are called forth by former missioners in the language of our new country (Swahili for Kenya), we are given a mission cross and blessed by the organization leadership.

One fun tradition is the ringing of bells to send off missioners. This was started the first year Maryknoll sent 4 men to China in 1918 with the more solemn ringing of one bell. Now the entire community rings bells and noise-makers as a more festive tribute.

I was delighted that my parents came for the Sending Ceremony and were able to meet the other missioners & their families.

The "Kenya Klub" - Cindy, John & I wish we could take Sister Paula & Sister Noel with us in our suitcases. They are absolutely delightful and combined spent 81 years in Kenya. They offered us lots of insight about what to expect and kept us laughing & reminded us of why we are going.

The original bell which rang for the first missioners. We sent each other off on Sunday as each car drove away with bells ringing - and probably woke up the neighbors. I was the last one to leave, but one of our fellow missioners now on staff at Bethany was there to ring the bell for me.

Here we go.

Community Life

Somehow November has disappeared on me! Highlights included:

• Surprising Mom & Dad for their 40th Anniversary
• Central Park & other adventures with new & old friends
• Vigil for Latin American martyrs at Fort Benning
• Dialogue Education Training
• Thanksgiving with the Fathers, Brothers, Sisters & Lay Missioners

A photo montage of community life ...

Bethany from the front yard - before all the leaves fell.

Bethany from the back yard
Discussions in our classroom
A snapshot from class
The beautiful view from the classroom
Celebrating together on the patio
Making apple cider
Cooking!
Off for an adventure to DC
On retreat with the Franciscans
This one needs no caption
Girls night out at Sleepy Hollow
An expedition to New York City!
Surrounded by love. =)
Out for some Southern Cooking
The crosses remembering those killed in Latin America by foreign military trained in the US - including two Maryknoll sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clark in 1980 along with two other church women.
Our Thanksgiving day feast - I am so thankful to be here and for the love and support of so many!

Discernment - Am I ready?

The first weeks of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners orientation program are considered a time of discernment. It has been a time of learning about the program and about ourselves so that we can make an informed decision before committing for 3 1/2 years overseas.

It seemed a challenge to ponder once again a decision when I already felt like I already made when I sold my house & moved away from friends and family.

As is no surprise to most of you, I have decided once again to go. I feel that there's no place I'd rather be.

One activity we were asked to do was to write our own mission statement.
Here's my first attempt:

As a believer in God's boundless love, I seek to follow Jesus in serving both the people struggling to survive in Kenya and the US Catholic community that supports me, by joining my life story with those in poor communities in Kenya, working with them to improve basic living conditions so that we all might have life abundantly.

The beauty of the fall season emerging around me has been incredible. Each day has been more beautiful than the last.

Our front yard!


Croton Falls - just a few minutes away from where I live.
Croton Reservoir & the infinity edge that feeds Croton Falls

Rockerfeller State Park Preserve - where we spent our last day of discernment
Stone barn Center for Food and Agriculture adjacent to the park

Check out the little turtles sunning themselves on the rock.

The Maryknoll Orientation Program Class of 2009:
Back row: John, Sr Anastasia, me, Lindsay, Nan, Stephen
Front row: Sr Laura, Minh, Cindy, Rena, Sr Genie, Erica

Wishing you all the abundance of the season!