Monday 26 August 2013

Fr. Joe

Fr. Joe
He has been here for quite a very long time. Sometime I wonder who is more Kenyan, is it him or I? You see, he has been here since ten years before I was born. Equally long, he has been a missionary plying his trade along the coast. He is, to some Christians, the priest (the only priest) because they were born, grew up, got married (and some died) knowing him as such. He however says that some doubt his priesthood obviously because of familiarity. One day, as a parish priest he blessed a newly built church and the Christians doubted the blessings. Apparently, the prefect of Garissa was supposed to come and bless the church, on that fateful day, it rained and the prefect never turned up. Since the celebration was already set, the blessing of the church had to be done by Fr. Joe. A few years later, it rained heavily and true to the doubts of the Christians, the church he blessed was washed away by the floods. The Christians said, “We knew, his blessings could not sustain that church.” Nonetheless, it never took him long to build another better church for them, after all, that is what he does best, setting up firm and better foundations for all that he does!
Mad men
I tend to think mentally ill people around here see him as one of them. Every time we are coming from mass in the morning, there is a mad fellow at the entrance, “nataka kumuona Fr. Joe.”(I want to see Fr. Joe). Fr. Joe always says “Mungu anawatuma wote kwangu,” (God sends all of them to me) and I say, “It is your ticket to heaven Fr. Joe” After all, he knows all of them because he is in touch with all around him!

Br. Arnold



Br. Arnold comes to me very much as my equal yet - humbly put - unequal to me. He has his own simplicity that sticks out crystal clear, possibly embarrassing for a blind person not to see it. I met him soon after my year of Noviciate and after my year of pastoral experience in Hola. He had just finished his Masters degree in philosophy while I was preparing to join St. Bonaventure College for philosophy. Doubtlessly, he knew so much about what I was due to undertake at the college. All the while, he opted to listen to my scattered and illogical arguments time and again. During such encounters, he coined a funny and a sort of preparatory phrase for us who were about to embark upon the philosophical journey. Only later would I come to realize how well thought, yet simple it was; “Hatutaki hiyo dini ya akina Njoroge”. Apparently, Br. Njoroge was taking philosophy and he often engaged Br. Arnold frequently in philosophical arguments. We used to laugh about it that dini ya akina njoroge is not good consists mostly of such philosophers as Nietzsche. It was Arnold’s way of telling us that we are, above all, simple religious irrespective of our great achievements in academics and particularly philosophy which is his area. Being as being!!!!! Yes, he understands, I don’t!



Sunday 25 August 2013

Br. Evans


Br. Evans
            Br. Evans is simply a GG (Gentle Giant). Well, there are other brothers who are taller than he is, but according to me, he seems taller. At times I tend to think he can kiss the back of my head while standing in front of me. Within a little while with him, you realize that he is not just physically huge but also the inside of him. He has this tendency of seeing life in pictures often so remote to common minds. It is the explanation of a picture that you often realize what is in the inside of a person. During his second year in Philosophy, they were advised not to carry with them personal laptops. It was funny how Evans looked at it; he asked me “can you imagine I can’t have a personal laptop? Over there in Kenya a class one pupil will be having a laptop while I, a grown up man, cannot have one” and then he continued laughing. Picture that, to Evans the Giant, “a laptop prohibited” and next to him a post toddler fellow is having all the possible fun with a Uhuruto laptop! Well, the picture didn’t seem to worry him much, instead it seemed funny.

Sunday 18 August 2013

Br. Moses



Br. Moses (Yule wa choma!)



Br Moses
                    Every time I look at Moses, I can’t help laughing. Well, not that he is laughable, but because it is like he has a story generating hormone in his head. This is a brother who will unroll a rib breaking anecdote in the middle of such a terribly tense situation. Back in 2007, while still in Mpeketoni, the formatter called for a meeting and without much say, read Gen 9:20-27 “….. and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father”. They were such perturbing words because after that, the meeting was over and all of us went to the field. We knew it was not just another scripture reading, why would we have needed a scripture passage as if we had not read one during mass that morning? In the field, due to the tension incited by the attitude in which the formatter read the passage, we were all quiet. However, the silence in the field lasted only for awhile. There was Moses, inventing jokes and stories while everyone else busied themselves with hoes and weeds. Within a few minutes, the place was of full of life and the hovering tension was long gone, thanks to the endlessly hilarious stories by Br. Moses. Ask Br. Moses a story you know yourself, he knows it too and if he narrates to you the same story, it will be hilarious to you as if it is new. In short, he has his own way of telling people stories that relevant to their situations!!!