More from Congo

Mbote Everyone!

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

One of the boxes of books I sent in May has arrived! We are hopeful that the others will show up soon. Many thanks to everyone who has helped with that project. Since the students don’t have text books or reference books for classes, it seems to be common practice for the teachers here to copy extracts of texts from tattered, often outdated books onto the board for the students to copy in their notebooks, thereby creating their own “textbooks”. Books are treasured here. Merci beaucoup!

I am beginning to settle in to my new surroundings, new relationships and new routines. The weather has been cool and wet. The scenery is hilly, lush and beautiful. Fruit trees and thatched-roof huts dot the landscape. When the night is clear, the stars are brilliant. The Sisters are taking good care of me, and I’ve started to meet some of the local people.

I started teaching on Wednesday. This school year I will be teaching fourth, fifth and sixth year English at the girls’ “lycee” for humanities and pedagogy. (This is the roughly the equivalent of Sophomore, Junior and Senior years of high school in the U.S.). I will probably have about forty students in fourth year and twenty each in fifth and sixth year. I am delighted at the “small” class sizes and by the students who are eager to learn. I will also probably spend some time doing music and a bit of English instruction at the preschool. Maybe I can send pictures of that. The three, four and five year olds there are precious!

We’ve decided to keep my teaching load light at the lycee, twelve class hours per week, so that I can assist in the development of some VOICA projects including the completion of construction and the furnishing of the volunteer house, establishing the bakery and coordinating plans for starting the “cyber café”. Another VOICA project in progress is a “modern” farm for the production of milk and eggs. We also hope to be able to build a library in conjunction with the computer center. I don’t think that I’ll be bored during my time here.

I will do my best to keep in touch with you via our slow, but existent internet connection during the hours we have electrical current from the big generator (6:00-9:30 p.m.). For now, I can read your e-mail, but can’t respond because pop up are blocked on the convent’s computer, and the computer sees my e-mail response window as a pop up. Sorry! I will respond when I’m able. I do appreciate your e-mails.

I also have a cell phone. The number is supposed to be (from the States): 011-243-081-7477103. I don’t have a voice mailbox, so the phone needs to be on for me to receive messages. For this next week or so I will try to leave my phone on from 6:00 to 9:00 in the evening here, which is 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Colorado time. If you’d like to send a message, you could try then. We’ll see if it works. I think text messages are about 20 cents. I don’t know about calls from the States to Congo/Uganda. From me to you, it costs about 50 cents a minute. I will also give you the convent numbers, just in case you ever need them. Convent cell: 011-243-812006925 Convent fax: 011-871-762838949.

Some of you have asked for the mailing address. The Sisters mail goes to Arua, Uganda, and they pick it up there. Here’s the address:

Patricia Pipkin
c/o Canossian Sisters
P.O. Box 218
Arua, Uganda

They tell me the mail usually gets through eventually

Oh, another practical note: Since the internet connection is slow, please don’t send photo files for now. As much as I would like to see them, photos might take an eternity to download. I also would like to post some pictures here, but for now my words will have to suffice.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Love,

Tricia

Africa at Last

Bon Jour from Aru, Congo!

I hope that you are all well. I arrived in Aru on Saturday after a smooth, but very long trip from Rome via Nairobi and Kampala. I received a warm welcome including singing and drumming. The sisters have been very kind. Aru is very rural, immediately this side of the Congo-Uganda border. It is green and beautiful. The weather has been cool and wet.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to the Ariwara for the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Canossian Community their. They had a grand party after a Mass filled with singing and dancing.

I will start teaching English tomorrow at the girls high school. I will also be helping with the volunteer house and other projects. It is dinner time, so I must go. I try to send more information soon.

Thank you for your prayers.

Tricia

Two-Day Delay

Hi again, everybody!

Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I wanted to let you know that I'll be in Rome for two more days. After leaving for the airport at 4:30 this morning, we returned at 6:30 because our flight was indefinitely delayed and we would have missed our connection in Brussels. We thought it would be better to wait in Rome than in Brussels. The next flight to Kampala is on Friday, same time. Anyway, my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. I get to go to an audience with the Pope this morning.

Tricia

Off to Africa

Our Favorite Ice Cream Place

The Street Market in Trastevere

Sending Off Mass

Sending Off Mass

Goodbye Rome!

Hello Everybody!

I hope that you are all well, looking forward to the Fall, the new school year and other new adventures.

This will be my last posting before I depart for Africa early tomorrow morning. We volunteers have been wrapping up formation in the last couple of weeks and making final preparations for our departures. Last night we had a “sending off” Mass with the Sisters followed by a celebration. We read our prayer of commitment (posted below), lead the music and receive our mission crosses from the Mother General of the Canossians. It was a meaningful way to bring closure to our summer of formation.

On Wednesday, Sr. Salomé and I will take the 6:30 flight from Rome to Brussels, and then fly from Brussels to Kampala, Uganda. We should arrive at 10:00 p.m. and be met by some Canossian Sister there who will host us for the night. The following day, or maybe the day after, we will fly to Arua, Uganda, by light plane where some Sisters from Aru will pick us up to cross the border into Congo by car. Madre Tina the provincial head will not be traveling with Salome and me as she had planned, but will arrive a couple of weeks after we do.

I will do my best to post a blog update soon after my arrival in Congo. There is internet/e-mail access at the mission site albeit intermittent and unreliable. I will also have a cell phone. The plan is to buy an African SIM card in Kampala. Then I can post the number on my blog. Former volunteers have told me that calling from Africa to the States is expensive, calling from the States to Africa is less so, and text messaging is relatively cheap. I’ll have to experiment a little bit when I get there. I will also post a mailing address on my blog after discussing with the Sisters the logistics and reliability of the mailing system.

The Canossians will celebrate fifty years of missionary service in Congo this September 15. I hear we’re in for a big party. Hopefully, I can post pictures.

Thank you all for you accompanying me in this journey of mission, for your encouragement and your prayers.

Hasta Africa,

Tricia

Our Lord God, with great gratitude for your abundant gifts to us, we offer ourselves to You as we go to mission:

We promise to remain in You, through prayer, meditation and constant openness to your loving Presence in our lives.

Prayer of Promise

We promise to allow You to form us through reflection on Scripture, through spiritual direction and through reflecting on experiences in mission with spiritual eyes.

We promise to love one another in our communities, living out our vision for mission together, in simplicity and solidarity with the local people.

We promise to faithfully serve others following the example of St. Magdalene of Canossa and St. Josephine Bakhita using all the gifts of mind, body and spirit that You have given us.

We promise to be your friends by doing what you have commanded us to do.


That we may have the strength, courage, wisdom and faithfulness to fulfill these promises,

St. Magdalene of Canossia, pray for us.
St. Josephine Bakhita, pray for us.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
St. Anthony, pray for us.
St. Therese of the Little Flower, pray for us.
Our Mother at the Foot of the Cross, pray for us.
All Saints in heaven, pray for us.

And we ask all of you here present to pray for us today and throughout our time in mission.

August Update

Harvesting Figs

Our Afternoon at Lake Albano

Mary and Ilaria Making Pesto

Ordering Food at the "Rustic" restaurant
Hello, Everybody!

I hope that you are enjoying these last days of summer. You are often in my thoughts and prayers.

August has brought a somewhat more relaxed formation schedule. The volunteers had a four-day break at the end of July/beginning of August. Mary and I took advantage of the time to go to Loreto and Ancona (on the Adriatic Coast). It was a delightful get away. Loreto, especially impressed me as a peaceful, spirit-filled place. This is where the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary was brought from Nazareth, by angels, as legend has it.

After our break, we restarted formation sessions with just the four VOICA volunteers and Sr. Pat. We have been focusing on spirituality, community living and some of the nitty gritty details of living at the mission sites. Sr. Pat usually leads the sessions, but the volunteers also make presentations to the group on mission-related topics of their own choice. I did one on promoting understanding in multi-lingual settings, and this week I will do another on leading singing in a group. Mary and Lucy have given presentations on first aid and how to stay healthy in mission.

Some VOICA volunteers have spent a few days with us this month as they return from mission, or just come to visit. It is good to talk with them about their experiences, joys and trials.

Last weekend Sr. Pat and the volunteer community took an afternoon trip to Lake Albano just outside Rome. This is where the Pope spends some of his summer. We spent some time at the lakeside and then went out to dinner at a restaurant that serves “rustic” Italian cuisine: fresh bread, smoked ham, salami, cheese, dried tomatoes, artichokes and olives. You order at the counter and then put everything in the middle of the table and dig in.

I’ve been savoring my last month in Italy by doing some especially Italian things. Ilaria has shown me how to properly cook pasta. (She couldn’t bear to see the way I had been mistreating it:-).) She also taught Mary and me how to make fresh pesto from the basil from the Sisters’ garden, pine nuts from the trees on our grounds and parmesan cheese from the cheese seller at the market. We also harvested figs from the trees on our grounds. Fresh figs are delicious! I don’t think I had ever had them before (just dried figs and fig newtons). And, of course, I have been relishing the fresh made gelato while I can.

If all goes as planned, I will be in Africa in ten days. I am eager to go in many ways, curious to know what awaits me and ready to begin my work. Sometimes I am nervous about how I will adjust to the new culture, languages, people and work. God knows. The other three volunteers leave September 3 for Togo and Timor. I will miss them. Please keep us all in your prayers.

Thank you for your presence in my life!

Love,

Tricia

Getty Ready for Congo

Our Day in Assisi

Some of the Sisters at International Night

Sr. Pat and I in St. Peter's Basilica

Sr. Salome and I

Bon jour!

I hope that you are all enjoying the summer. You are often in my thoughts and prayers.

My life in Rome continues to be full. Missionary month ended on Tuesday with a Mass in the catacombs of St. Peter’s basilica in front of the tomb of St. Peter. Last Saturday we celebrated “international night” with singing and dancing from the home countries of many of the Canossian sisters. Mary and I put together a slide show of some beautiful places in the United States and sung and played “America the Beautiful” as we presented it. Sharing the last month with sisters from so many diverse places was a blessing.

Two weeks ago, we four volunteers spent a Sunday in Assisi. What a beautiful place! St. Francis has always inspired me, so visiting his hometown was especially meaningful.

Beginning tomorrow we have a four-day break from formation sessions. Mary and I plan to go to Ancona and Loreto for a couple of days. It will be about a four-hour trip by train to the Adriatic coast northeast of Rome. I’m looking forward to a change of pace and some beautiful scenery.

Today I found out that my plane ticket to Congo has been purchased. I will be traveling with Sister Salomé, the Congolese sister who has been tutoring me in French and Madre Tina, an Italian sister who is the superior of the community in Aru. We should depart August 29, to fly through Brussels to Kampala, Uganda, where we will spend the night with the Canossian community there. The following day we will take a small plane to Arua, Uganda. We will be picked up there to go by car across the border to Aru, Congo.

Salomé has been answering my cultural questions about Congo along with my French questions. She has told me about celebrations of Mass filled with songs in four different languages (Lingala, Ki-Swahili, French and the local tribal language) and much dancing. She has told me that many outsiders are shocked by the material poverty they encounter there, and that the war has left the educational system and infrastructure in disarray. Salomé is eager to see her family whom she hasn’t seen in seven years.

The plan is that I live in the convent with the community of Canossian sisters until December when at least one more volunteer should arrive. The construction of a house for volunteers just across the road from the convent will be started by a short-term VOICA group in August. When construction is finished, the volunteers will move in there. Yesterday, a shipping container was packed at a port in northern Italy to be sent to Congo. It contains an industrial-size oven to begin a bakery, about twenty used computers to start a computer lab/cyber café and the solar panels for the volunteer house, among other things. We hope that it arrives without problems. I’m still awaiting word about the books I sent to Congo in May with your help.

I am excited about my upcoming departure, and I am hopeful that VOICA’s presence in Aru, will be a light to the people there. I am beginning to realize how distant I will be from what is familiar to me, from my own culture, from conveniences, from all of you. I will be living with Italians and Africans and using languages I don’t know well. It should be a great opportunity for learning detachment, openness and simplicity.

Please pray that I be filled with the Holy Spirit as I make my way to mission, for wisdom to prepare well. Keep praying for my facility in learning French, too. Salomé will be on pilgrimage for four weeks in Poland, and the French institute doesn’t have classes available at my level, so I’ll be studying on my own and watching lots of movies.

Peace to all of you!

Tricia

Formation So Far

Angel at St. Mary of the Angels Basilica

Dinner on the terrace with Sr. Pat and Maristella, long-term volunteer to Togo

Sisters waiting for the bus at the end of our street

Me at the Coliseum


My Vantage Point, Mass at St. Peter's

Buon giurno!

I’m settling into life in Rome as I relish all that I’m learning. A typical day begins with Mass at 7:00 a.m. followed by breakfast and sweeping and weeding the garden. About 9:00 or 9:30 we have a lecture or presentation that lasts two or three hours. At one o’clock we have lunch at the convent with the sisters followed by siesta time (when we do language study, update blogs, etc.). Around 4:00 in the afternoon another session begins and may go until dinner time at 7:00. The VOICA volunteers cook their own dinner to eat around 7:30. After dinner we have a group prayer and then we’re free until bedtime. Sundays are free.

“Missionary Month” began last Monday and will continue through July 24. About twenty Canossian Sisters from Italy, East Timor, Congo, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Argentina, Poland, the United States, the Philipines, Brazil, Sao Tomè and Angola are participating along with the VOICA volunteers. Nearly all of us are soon bound for mission.

After an introduction to Missionary Month and an address given by the Mother General of the Canossians, we spent three days “Walking in the Footsteps of the Martyrs”. In the spirit of a pilgrimage, we visited sites in and around Rome as we remembered the early Christians who lived, struggled and died there. These sites included: The Basilica of St. Paul, St. Paul at the Three Fountains, the Catacombs of St. Callisto, the Basilica of St. Prassede, the Basilica of St. Clement, the Coliseum, the Mamertine Prison (where Peter was imprisoned and converted his fellow prisoners and the prison guards) and St. Peter’s Basilica.

The visit to St. Peter’s Basilica was especially memorable because we were able to attend Mass celebrated by the Pope on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. This feast is also the day when new cardinals are commissioned. St. Peter’s was full of people from all over the world. It was a joy to get a sense of unity in the world at least for a moment.

Now we are going to stay “home” for a while. The upcoming topics for formation sessions include: anthropology of mission, Marian anthropology, mission in Scripture, the theology of mission explored in the documents of the Church, paths of evangelization on different continents, new models of mission, Mary and the Canossian charism and personal sharing of mission experience. One thought that struck me from today's session was this: Perhaps the "poor" of the world are the only ones who can show us the way from competition to cooperation, from pride to humility, from death into life.

The Sisters impress me with their kindness, intelligence, openness, education and lightness of heart. Rome impresses me with its antiquity, art, great green parks and as a center of Christianity. I am learning a bit of Italian from listening at Mass and to others conversations. I try to study French in a more formal way. Please pray that I have open ears, a quick memory and an agile tongue as I learn language. Two months seems very short for becoming proficient even just in French.

I am delighted to be here and feel that the Canossian charism and the VOICA program are a good fit for me. I still miss you all, though, and keep you in my thoughts and prayers everyday.

Love,

Tricia