Answering the Call

“Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.”

I have uttered those words countless times since arriving in Kisumu. For those of you who don’t know (or haven’t figured it out by now), I’m living with the Dominican Friars here in Kenya. They’re the same order of priests who run my college, and some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. Currently on the compound, there are five friars, three novices (men who are in formation on their way to becoming friars), one almost-novice named Agostino, and Patricia and me. Three of the friars here are American and two are African- Fr. Charles is from Uganda, and I believe Fr. Steve is from Kenya. We live right next door to a house of Dominican sisters, but there is a wall separating the two religious homes.

It has been interesting to be living with the friars. I have learned so much about the men who I interact with on a daily basis in Providence, and it almost seems silly that I didn’t know this until now. A big part of the Dominican religious life is prayer several times a day, and living in the community, Patricia and I have gotten to take part in these traditions.

Though we don’t attend all the prayer options we have, we start our day with 7:15 mass. It’s usually just us, the friars, and a few members of the Dominican laiety who live nearby. It’s a nice, intimate setting, and the songs are still half in English and half in Swahili. Then we eat breakfast with the community and are off to school for the day!

We return for lunch around one after the friars and novices have said mid-day prayers, and after going back to school and returning home for the evening, we go to Vespers at 6 pm. It’s a part of the Liturgy of the Hours, which is sung and prayed in community. It’s a really beautiful service, but I think my favorite is Compline, which is after dinner. It’s usually candle lit, and is another part of the Liturgy of the Hours. It’s such a beautiful way to end the day and prepare for the next one.

Prayer has always been a part of my life, but one thing I’ll definitely be taking back with me is the dedication to prayer before bed. I usually try to say a few prayers before I go to sleep, but taking the time out of the day to pause and reflect has been really meaningful and useful during my time here. It’s very peaceful, and a nice way to gather my thoughts.

The Dominicans are such interesting people as a whole. Tonight after Vespers and before dinner, we had “recreation,” as the community has every Wednesday evening. They come together in the sitting room and have popcorn and soda and beer and tell stories. It was so nice to sit and discuss things that are going on in the US and in Kenya and hear stories of other friars who have been in Kisumu (as well as those we know in Providence). Fr. Bert, one of the friars who is here now, was one of the first Dominicans to come to Kisumu. He’s actually now stationed in Raleigh, but he comes back to Kenya as often as he can. As he says, his heart is here. He is such an interesting person, and Patricia and I are trying to spend as much time as we can with him while he’s here. He knows so much about Kenya, about the Dominican tradition, and about certain friars. Fr. Bert is a great storyteller, and I think dinner will be a lot quieter when he leaves to go back to the states. He’s always cracking jokes with the novices and with Patricia and I, and he really looks out for us. He’s very conscious of what we eat and will not hesitate to tell us if he thinks we need to eat more… one morning he picked each of us an avocado, halved it, and poured some olive oil and balsamic on it. That may have been my favorite breakfast!

The Dominicans are not the only religious in Kisumu, and Catholicism is not the only religion. There are School Sisters of Notre Dame right down the road, Franciscan Sisters who co-sponsor Our Lady of Grace School, and Jesuit priests here as well. Other than the Catholics, there are a lot of evangelical churches, as well as a mosque in the village right down the road.

Fr. Bert actually helped to build the mosque early on, and the Dominicans have a great relationship with the Imam there. It’s really cool to hear the call to prayer on the loud speakers that happens 5 times a day, the first one at 5 am. It wakes me up, but it’s nice. I like hearing it, and it’s really cool to be living somewhere so diverse. There is peace between the two religions, and the partnership is admirable.

There’s so much going on to help the people of Kisumu, and they still need so much. But what amazes me about them is their continual response to the call to prayer- even in poverty, they don’t abandon God. Their faith is strong, and I’m learning so much from them.