Pastoral Placements 2010
A series of articles written by students for the priesthood from our diocese describing their Pastoral Placements.
Daniel Fitzpatrick writes about his Missio placement in Kenya:
As a seminarian each summer I have to work in a parish for a month. This summer I was fortunate to spend this time in a parish in Kenya. I had never been to Africa, or even outside of Europe, so I was very excited to be there and see a culture that I had only ever glimpsed on TV.
I arrived in Nairobi with two other seminarians; one form Portsmouth and another from London. We spent the first two nights at the Mill Hill guest house in Nairobi then we were sent out to our parishes. The other two seminarians stayed in Nairobi and went to a parish in Shauri Moyo and I travelled west to a parish in Luanda near Lake Victoria. I was delighted to be going to Luanda as this give me the opportunity to travel and see more of Kenya.
The coach journey to Luanda, via Kisumu, took about 8 hours but that did not bother me as I was delighted to be seeing the country. I was amazed at how beautiful Kenya was and this gave me a further desire to see more of the country. I arrived at the Parish at night and was warmly welcomed by Fr. Tom the parish priest and Fr. Anish the curate.
The following five weeks flew over as I gained new experiences every day. I would visit the two secondary schools and a primary school where I would teach the catechism, I would spend a lot of time visiting people’s houses where they lived humbly in mud huts, I worked in a home for street boys that is next door to the presbytery and I worked with the youth groups throughout the parish. I found the people fascinating and loved being with them.
As they are from a culture I had never experienced and I am from a culture that they had never experienced we had so much to share together. I was amazed by how simply they lived. They made their own houses out of trees and mud, they grew their own food and most made their own clothes. Stephen, the parish catechist, was shocked when I told him that in England we buy food from a supermarket. He could not believe that we would spend money on food when you can grow it or rear it in the form of chickens or a cow, and to a certain extent I began to share his disbelief.
In my second week I attended a mass for the Mumias tribe which was a celebration of one hundred years of the Catholic mission to that area. As a result of this I started to learn about the early missionaries and the tribes of western Kenya. This was a history that I had never come across before and I found it fascinating. I was lucky to be able to travel around western Kenya. I got to Kitale, Eldoret, Kisumu and Kakamega to name a few places.
I will never forget the responses by people when they would see me. Children and some adults had rarely, if ever, seen a person with white skin and would call me ‘musungo’ which means ‘white man’ in K’swahili. Children would be excited to see me and I would frequently see them staring at me and watching how I spoke and acted. This was a strange experience but I could relate to it as I was there observing how they lived and acted. I learned that ‘musungo’ also means ‘rich man’ and I was told by a friend that when most people see me they would just see money. This was uncomfortable for me as I do not consider myself rich and I did not have money to share with them. However I was able to spend time with them and I think that this was the most valuable thing to do. Unfortunately I did get malaria and typhoid but I recovered quickly and still managed to enjoy every minute I was in Kenya.
I am very thankful to Ushaw College for considering me for this placement, to Missio for sending me to Kenya, to the Sisters of Mercy for supporting me and to Mill Hill for hosting me. I will never forget the experiences and the people I met in Kenya. I wish to return one day to see again the friends I made and the places I visited.