CDH trip to Kenya ‘09
For anyone interested in Cretin-Derham Hall’s first justice education trip to Africa (By JEForliti, June 28, 2009)
On June 8, 2009, eight CDH students and three staff left for the western part of Kenya in East Africa, returning 15 days later. It was a memorable journey into the lives and habitat of handshakes, smiles, JAMBO, and “that green spinach-like stuff,” ending with forty hours of “up-country” roads and air planes. KENYA KREW ’09 returned home happy and healthy, having experienced the journey of a life time.
THE KENYA KREW ’09. Led by Mr. Rob Peick, Ms. Amy Bellus, and Fr. John Forliti, the students, all from the CDH class of 2010, were Brian Boyle, Maura Daugherty, Sam Dooher, Louise Gappa, Mary Henry, Megan Kramer, Cecelia Leatherman, and Revalon Wesson.
THE WEATHER. We say “We’ve been to Africa” and friends and family say “Wow, it must have been hot in those jungles and deserts.” Not so, we say. Every day, sunrise around 6 a.m. and sunset around 6 p.m., (such is life at the Equator) with day time temps in the 70’s. Ideal, even with brief afternoon showers. Rabondo’s elevation at 4,000 feet offers as perfect a weather pattern as imaginable. Every day was a perfect day weather-wise. (We returned to the Twin Cities with its 93 degree humid and heavy temp.)
OUR PURPOSE. St. Timon’s Secondary Day School, constructed in 2003-04 with donations from generous parishioners of St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis, received a $10,000 grant to bring the benefits of computers to the students of St. Timon’s. The KREW from CDH spent a week teaching computer skills, thus launching a remote area of the world into the information age. The Kenyan students lapped it up with enthusiasm and genuine excitement. It was a thrill to watch it unfold.
SOME BACKGROUND. Prior to the construction of St. Timon’s, girls from this remote area and only a few boys (whose parents could afford boarding school) might have acquired a high school certificate. With an enrollment of 200 plus, St. Timon’s has become a beacon of hope for the entire community. Five of its eight teachers are paid by the government, the others volunteer and receive modest stipends from monies raised by the Rabondo Community Project USA, Inc., a charitable organization begun by Mr. Timon Bondo and located in Golden Valley, Minnesota.
TYPICAL CHALLENGES. In the Third World, personal safety, safe drinking water and food safe to eat for Americans have to be top priorities. We experienced more than adequate levels of safety in all three categories. A few of us had some minor discomfort on a couple of days, but nothing to halt full participation in every activity. Warnings about mosquitoes and malaria were taken seriously so we had taken the prescribed medications, but mosquitoes were few and apparently friendly!
ACCOMMODATIONS. Our two choices for lodging in the Rabondo area had been the Sugarland hotel in Awendo about 15 kilometers from St. Timon’s, which would have required transportation to and fro daily, or the Rabondo Community Project Guest House, a two block walk from the school. The latter was the better choice. Equipped with electricity and rain water tanks for showers, the Guest house was staffed by two cooks, a housekeeper/launderer, and a “house-boy”, making our stay comfortable. With plenty of bottled water for cooking, brushing teeth, and drinking, we had no worries about that. The food was Kenyan, well prepared and plentiful: casseroles of beans and rice, some chicken and beef, local vegetables and fruit (fresh pineapple every meal). Single rooms for CDH staff and shared rooms for CDH students were equipped with bed nets.
SIDE TRIPS. Our African experience began with three days in Nairobi. One day we visited Kibera, one of the largest slums in the world, and on another we enjoyed a safari in Nakuru National Park. Nakuru offered four rhinoceros, a million flamingoes, baboons, monkeys, deer, water buffalo, and other species. Kibera offered people making the most of very little, a lesson in human ingenuity, courage, and hope. In Rabondo, a visit to the SONY sugar factory put us in touch with the one major industry near St. Timon’s, a 1930’s factory with poor working conditions and minimal pay.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS. There were several. Our stay at the LaSalle Center in Nairobi provided a brief look at the work of the Christian Brothers in Africa. Minnesotans, Brothers Dominic Ehrmantraut and Tom Sullivan picked us up at the Nairobi airport with our eighteen suitcases full of educational, medical, athletic, recreational, and clothing donations. The LaSalle Center is home to several Brothers-in-training representing Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and India. Comfortable accommodations and terrific hospitality.
A visit to the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy gave us a look at a project whose purpose is to give girls living in the slum a chance at life, giving them an education and reason to hope. We saw their crowded classrooms and witnessed an inter-school match between the girls and the Academy’s faculty. Abdul, founder of the Academy, was our guide. A CDH grad, Ryan Sarafolean, had worked with Abdul in the past and plans to go back in the Fall with funds raised in Minnesota.
In the Rabondo area, our first Sunday there, we participated in the Corpus Christi procession and Mass at St. Monica’s parish in Rapogi, the central parish church of the Rabondo community. The procession swelled to some 800 plus people with participation of the parish’s primary and secondary school students Also on the compound is a hospital. The entire service lasted about four hours with the typical celebration of Mass and its nearly continuous singing and praising God. Our whiteness was of interest, especially to the children. “Muzungu” they called us. “White folks!”
Although the Kenyan school year does not end until November, the graduation ceremony for St. Timon’s was held early in honor of our visit. Unlike at home where our seniors tend to slack off months before graduation, Kenyan high school graduates have to pass national exams so their motivation keeps them on task until November. The ceremony began with a prayer and two poetry recitations by students, then moved into a long series of speeches. Speeches are important in Rabondo so anyone with a hint of prominence in the community enjoyed some time on stage.
The two main speakers read from their texts and were sure to list (for our benefit) the school’s priorities for further development. I was honored to be the Chief Guest, offering a prayer to the “graduands” — as they call them– that they would be learners life long, be courageous in the face of challenges, and cherish their strong faith in God and Jesus Christ. I was also honored to hand out the diplomas. A moment of silence was requested to honor Jim Ryan whose family contribution was key to the construction of St. Timon’s. Jim had passed away just two weeks earlier.
Our second Sunday in Rabondo was punctuated with Mass celebrated in the dining hall of St. Timon’s. As the sole celebrant I was assisted by a seminarian, Brother Cavin, from St. Monica’s who translated English into the Luo native tongue and gave the homily. These Christians know how to sing! Men’s voices in counterpoint with women’s made the music truly impressive. Some participants had walked for two hours to get to Mass.
Their sense of community and the gospel call to love their neighbors was evident in the offerings the poor made to others even less well off.
Again, while the community was gathered, expression of gratitude to “the U.S. visitors from CDH” could not have been more effusive. They loved us! And hope to have more reason in the future to express gratitude. Current priorities specified by the Principal, Samuel Omogi, are these:
1) Text books (3 per student for 200 students each at $3,500 US)
2) 70 stools for the science laboratory (c. $2,000 US)
3) 40 student desks and chairs (c. $2,300 US)
4) Library building (foundation is complete, $14,000 US to build)
5) A dormitory for girls, another for boys (c. $50,000 US)
Other items on the wish list are a school bus, additional classrooms, a kitchen, and a bursary to cover school fees, uniforms, and texts for orphans.
MAJOR GAINS. While we were there negotiations were completed for a bore hole (a well) to be dug within the school compound that will furnish safe water to St. Timon’s, to the primary school’s seven hundred plus students, to the dispensary, and to the Guest House. Work is expected to be completed by October, ’09. Funds were provided by Rotary Clubs of Alaska and White Bear Lake, Minnesota!
Another major gain is the advantage that computer technology will give to St. Timon’s students, thanks to the grant from the Augustine Foundation and the introductory instructions given by the CDH Kenya Krew ’09. As Mr. Omogi put it: Rabondo has now entered the Information Age!
All in all, the CDH trip to Kenya was very successful: no one got sick, no one got lost, our luggage followed us without incident, CDH represented the US
with grace and were received with outstanding hospitality. One student admitted that, prior to our arrival, some Kenyan students thought we Americans might act in a way that would lead them to “despise” us, but instead they found us wonderfully friendly and gracious. It was mutual.
Contributions can be directed to RABONDO COMMUNITY PROJECT USA , P.O. Box 27954, Minneapolis, 55427. Any questions, feel free to call me (Fr. Forliti) at 651-488-4514 or email at jeforliti@comcast.net